Larry Norman..Still Alive and Kicking

Aaahhhh, my man, Larry Norman (the “grandfather” of the modern Christian Rock movement) is alive and well after a lengthy and still on going illness (congestive heart failure, please keep him in your prayers). Considered too Christian for the mainstream and too “Rock and Roll” for the church world, he pioneered a genre of music that is still my favorite to this day. My kids love music, Jessica (6), Katie (4), Jason (2) and Sean (1)…but I have yet to turn them on to Larry. We are building a new home, and my home theater system sits in it’s box awaiting the new digs, and Jason just loves CD’s, unfortunately he does not treat them very well. So they are up on a shelf awaiting the new multi-media cabinet we will also get when the big move comes this Spring. I can’t wait for the first day when I can crank Larry up on the new system and jam out with the kids. I think I’ll have to do it when my wife Jenn is away though…she doesn’t like loud music, and there is only one way to listen to “ole Larry”….crank it up!!!

It was the summer of 1977, fresh from a re-commitment of my faith to Christ, a sophomore in high school and trying to walk the Christian walk in a wild and crazy public high school setting. Along came Larry Norman and the all time classic album “In Another Land”. My best friend at the time “Peanut”, hooked me up with that album. It is the type of album where one song flows perfectly to another and for a moment in time I could be transported from the current worries of the day to “Another Land”. With classic songs like, “He’s the Rock that Doesn’t Roll”, “Why Don’t You Look into Jesus….He’s Got the Answer”, “Shot Down”, and “I Wish We All Been Ready” (if you can't get them to play off the site, right click the song and choose "save as target", and save it to your PC and double click the file and your favorite MP3 player should take over from there). Soon I started to explore other albums Larry made, and discovered little gems like “Why Should the Devil Have all the Good Music” and "Sweet, Sweet Song of Salvation”. His best friend at the time and fellow Christian rocker Randy Stonehill recently wrote a song about those days, called “We Were All So Young” (also available as a MP3 download), with special appearances by Larry, Phil Keaggy, Barry McGuire and Noel Paul Stookey. May God Bless Larry and may you live to sing again!

Up and coming entry....the day I got to help Keith Green set up for a concert in Lancaster, PA…

{{{Candleman98}}}