My Weird Story of Discovering Christian Music
I was helping out this one fellow I met on the Internet with the very early website for Warner Brother's records. One way he paid me was by sending me a bunch of demo CD's, all of which had little notches cut into the cases. Included were some Christian CDs from people I had never heard of before in my life. But being the adventurous and curious person I was, I at least read through the cases to see what they were. One was "Tribute: The Songs of Andrae Crouch" and one was "My Utmost for His Highest". I noticed that there was actually one artist who performed on both albums, a lady by the name of Twila Paris. So I listened to both albums and I was surprised how good the music actually was on both of them. Listening to Twila's two tracks really got to me too; when she sang it really felt like she meant every word she sang ("I Don't Know Why Jesus Loved Me", "Where He Leads Me"). So I was starting to think maybe this Christian music stuff might be worthwhile. I had always been an active church member since college, but it had not changed my music I listened to at home. I had heard the Amy Grant and Michael W. Smith songs that made it to pop radio, but as a Christian I did not feel a need to try to listen to more "Christian music". The next odd coincidence that occured was that for my birthday that year, my peculiar brother-in-law sent me a cassette of Christian music completely out of the blue. I was guessing it was a "pass along" gift he had received himself. It was another compilation of groups I had never heard of before, but one of the tracks was a cover of this song called "The Warrior is a Child" sung by some fellow I still do not remember. I thought the person did not do the song justice since it sounded like a good song. I checked the label of the tape and to my surprise I found out who that mysterious song was written by none other than Twila Paris! Out of justice to Twila I decided I had to hear a version of the song sung by her, so I found a beaten up old 1991 copy of Benson records' "The Early Works" in our local library. I listened to the whole CD and I was amazed how much that music moved me. 
Fast forward a month or two. I believe I was waiting for a friend to show up to go to a Chinese buffet close to campus so I was looking through a local used record store (Vintage Vinyl on Delmar!) just to see what I could find for very little money. Nestled within the usual junk you find in those used music bins I found an album that piqued my curiosity. It was "Where I Stand" by Twila Paris (was she stalking me?). For little more than my buffet lunch would cost, it could be mine. So I saved Twila's CD from a life with discarded Tiffany and New Kids on the Block CD's. Hence my first purchased Christian CD was a $5 used deal from the U-City Vintage Vinyl. 
I listened to the CD and I was now totally hooked. I realized this was really well written, contemporary music, but it was more than just the songs you would hear on mainstream pop radio. She sang about Christ, what Christ meant to her, and what Christ can do for us all. I know some mainstream artists we listened to like U2 or Mariah Carey mentioned their faith in music, but she was not trying to hide or "sugar coat" her faith. She was witnessing and openly expressing her faith through her music. And it was good music with a strong message. So that is how I started listening to Twila's music. Of course that led to listening to other artists. Starting from Twila you can guess how I started listening to Steven Curtis Chapman (can you say "Faithful Friend"?), and it just continued on from there... Back to CCM Lyrics page |