Mormon music.

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Mormon music gets a bad rap far too often. People criticize it as cheesy, over and under produced, and too derivative. Far too often these criticism become self-fulfilling prophecies, as I know several people who refuse to listen to any sort of LDS music – making it a vicious circle: The music is apparently lame so they won’t listen to it, and thus they never actually hear it. (This isn’t to say there isn’t lame LDS music – but Sturgeon’s Law applies among Mormons as much as it does to other musical markets).

As a guy who has been on a couple of LDS themed albums (Guitar on “Wexford Carol” for Mark Geslison and Geoff Groberg on A Timeless Christmas on Covenant records and some Bouzouki work for Bonnie Jae Egbert for “May We See Him?” on InVoice Record’s Come to Bethlehem album), I often wonder why more people won’t give “LDS music a chance.” Perhaps they are afraid to try, or (more likely) they’ve been burned by too many less than stellar acts and have decided to give up entirely on the genre.

Well, in order to help the genre along, I’m going to list a few artists in the LDS genre that more people should try. My hope is this will spur the comment makers to suggest their own favorite acts.

I should add a few ground rules:
1. The artist should produce content that at least contains some Mormon elements. Randy Bachman is great, but his greatest hits don’t really contain much LDS content.
2. The artists should have, at least one point in their careers, aimed their music at a squarely (if not exclusively) LDS audience. Often, this means they performed a lot in Utah.
3. But, again – whatever works for you. If it can be justified as “Mormon Music” – more power to you.
4. However, I would prefer not to have comments like “Coldplay, while not LDS, has a lot of themes that resonate with Mormon ideas.” That’s a different thread. I’m interested in rehabilitating LDS specific music.

Here are a few:

Ryan Shupe and the Rubber Band

Yes, they have “sold their soul” to Nashville (they deserve it – they should have been there years ago), but their music does not shy away from LDS themes. Their song “Walk the Walk” mentions Noah, Jonah and – Alma the Younger as examples of people who learned to “Walk the Walk” of “the things Jesus taught.” “If I Were a Bird” ends with the narrator going up to heaven and the Lord telling him to go back to Earth and be the man he’s supposed to be.

Beyond that, their music is just plain fun. Every member of the band is a virtuoso (usually on several instruments) and they mix Bluegrass, Jazz, Country and Rock into a unique style.

Mark Geslison and Geoff Groberg.

Okay – yes, I played on one track on their Christmas album (trivia – the fiddle player on that track was Nathan Christensen, co-author of the play Broadcast, which was declared one of three winners for the 2005 Richard Rodgers Award for Musical Theatre. Broadcast also won the 2004 Jonathan Larson award for musical theatre).

Anyway – people often complain hymn CDs often sound the same – too slow, too plodding, all strings and “respectful” (re: minimal) ornamentation and variation. Well, here we get banjos, swinging fiddles, punchy mandolins and a clear bluegrass sensibility. Ever felt like “Lord Dismiss us with Thy Blessing” sounded like “Go Tell Aunt Rhody”? Well, Mark and Geoff noticed that as well, and went for a fast banjo arrangement.

The latest albums have become more slow and more “respectful”, but the bluegrass sensibility remains. If nothing else, the instrumentation creates a unique timbre.

Enoch Train

Of all the “hymn CDs” ever produced by LDS artists, this group produces the most unique ones. Hymn arrangements will switch from Brazillian Jazz to Western Swing to Celtic Fusion to Arabic Rie to Southern Choral – sometimes in the same song!

While their later albums sometimes sound like they are trying too hard to come up with unique arrangements, overall this approach works. The hymns have never sounded fresher and more alive than on an Enoch Train CD.

So – what other LDS artists do y’all like listening to?

54 thoughts on “Mormon music.”

  3. Although the line-up has changed recently, The Trailer Park Troubadours are still fronted by an LDS singer/songwriter. The Troubs are just a fun rock-a-billy band … at least they were. In the past, the lead singer collaborated with a former Troub on a church-y album under the name Bell and Cardiff called “Float,” one of my Sabbath favorites.

  4. Anybody know anything about Jericho Road? My friend has a date with the lead singer, but I’d never heard of ’em. Seems like it was a big deal to some that she has a date with him, though.

  5. Thanks for this post, I love bluegrass and had no idea there were any Mormons making it.

    The only Mormon music artists I know of are Low, but I don’t think they meet all your criteria.

  6. Stephanie Smith has a really great sound. I like Ryan Shupe and the Rubber Band – they remind me of Lone Star and Rascal Flatts, except mormon. But not obviously so.

    And I don’t care if it’s cheesy and everyone makes fun of me – I love Kenneth Cope. I loved his stuff as a struggling teenager and so a lot of his songs are sentimental favorites as far as church music goes. Some of his stuff is quite good. Some isn’t. And some really hits the cheese-o-meter, but in my book he’s the original LDS music guy, and so he gets a pass.

  7. Sue –

    that’s sort of how I feel about Michale McLean. Some of his songs, I absolutely love (in fact, one of my favorite songs of all time is written by him). However, the vast majority of his catalouge is not that good. Overall, I think the main thing McLean needed was a good, solid producer who could tell him: “No, that song’s no good. Toss it.” Unfortunately, McLean produced way too much of his own stuff.

    But when he’s good, he’s very good.

  8. Peter Breinholt and Ryan Shupe are the going kings of LDS pop. I think Colors from USU makes use of mission languages although I don’t believe anything that they do is explicitly LDS.

  9. The indie band Low makes my favorite Mormon music. The frontman/singer/songwriter, Alan Sparhawk, and his wife, drummer/singer Mimi Parker, are the core of the band and they unequivocally identify themselves as Mormons. They don’t really fit your criterion #2. Their primary audience has never been Mormons. And they don’t seem to fit the active, church-going Mormon mold. But I personally am proud to embrace them as fellow Mormons.

    Their explicity Mormon-themed songs are few and far between (I count maybe 8, not including their Christmas songs), but their faith and spirituality permeate quite a lot of their other songs. Sparhawk says that their music isn’t really about religion, but a lot of it is about “the big questions” that everyone grapples with–where did we come from? why are we here? where are we going?–and the way he approaches these questions is very much informed by his religious beliefs.

    If you’re not a Mormon, I don’t think their overtly Mormon songs would even register as such, but to a Mormon they’re unmistakable. They have a song called “The Lamb” that draws a parallel between the deaths of Joseph Smith and Jesus Christ. There’s a song called “Missouri” that makes reference to Adam and Eve (though I don’t know what the song actually means). They have a Christmas album with some standards like “Little Drummer Boy” and “Silent Night” along with a few nice originals.

    Low isn’t for everyone. Their music usually doesn’t sound very “nice.” And it’s not particularly uplifting. But I don’t know that Mormon art necessarily needs to be nice or uplifting.

  11. Ever felt like “Lord Dismiss us with Thy Blessing” sounded like “Go Tell Aunt Rhody”?

    They sound the same because they are same. They’re both based on the traditional melody titled ‘Greenville.’

  16. I haven’t listened to a ton of Low, but I would say that the band’s Christmas album is uplifting.

  18. We’ve been listening to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir sing “Peace Like a River” which is a nice tape. The older I get, the quieter I like my music.

  19. I second the Low recommendation, but it’s not for everybody. They’re kind of an acquired taste, I think. Very slow and deliberate.

    My favorite is the album “Secret Name”, which I think has the most overt LDS themes / references on it, including the aforementioned “Missouri”.

    “Two-Step” is my favorite on the record. When I saw them perform this song in SF a few years ago, It was really cool to see so many people from all walks of life – punks, indie kids, transsexuals, mods… all listening reverently to this band sing a song about the beauty of the temple… made me smile.

  20. Hey, I think it was Peter Brienholt that had a song called “Do Likewise My Friend,” Written by Webb, and a song, “The Measure of A Man.” These songs were on consecutive best of EFY albums but I could never find an album with both of these songs. He sounds like a mix between Sting and Billy Joel in this music and I just loved it. Too bad he didn’t have the marketing or maybe he didn’t have a whole album.

    Does anyone know?

  22. I do like to listen to and have some Peter Brienholt, and Ryan Shupe and the Rubberband CD’s. Other LDS artists that are good also are, Sharlene Wells Hawkes, and I like a few songs by Julie De Azevedo. But everything else is way to cheesy for me, so I have started to listen to the local contemporary christian and alternative christian radio stations.

  23. Beanie –

    I’ve tried listening to the local Christian Pop station here in Austin – and my problem with it is that every song is on the exact same thing: Praise the Lord, he saved me!

    At least with LDS pop, I get some thematic variation.

  24. I was about to make some snide comment about cheesy Mormon music, but then I realized that I was typing while there was a couple ice dancing to selections from “Phantom of the Opera” on an internationally televised broadcast being displayed on my tv, and that the problem is not unique to LDS culture.

    I know it doesn’t count, but I like BTO. One of the missionaries I worked with grew up in the same ward with one of their sons, and he said they would go over to their house and jam. Sounds like fun.

  25. I have never given up my SoCal white girl heritage, and continue to appreciate boy bands and bubblegum pop. Thus:

    Eclipse
    Aaron Edison

    I also like:
    259
    Reprise
    Alex Boye

    This is a great site for exploring different LDS artists.

    I also like the guy who did “Primarily for Grownups,” though I don’t remember his name and I lost the CD years ago. And Enoch Train, but that was already mentioned (as was Mark Hansen, whose work I also enjoy.)

  26. I don’t know if it’s true. but I heard that most of The Aquabats were LDS. anyone know if this is verifiable?

  27. Bryce, I liked that ice dancing routine. Maybe I just have a higher tolerance for cheese. The Les Mis one was even better.

    Ivan, I really like one of the Christian stations- K LOVE. They’re played all over the country, so maybe you can find them where you live? I used to think “oh, they’re all about the same thing” but then I realized that it was self-fulfilling prophecy. I didn’t pay attention to what they were saying until they said something about that, and then it’d catch my attention just long enough for me to complain about it. Also, I noticed that when they sing “praise” or “worship” songs, they’re not all about “praise Jesus because he saved me.” There are all kinds of reasons to praise God, and most of them get some air-time. Anyway, I love Christian Contemporary music. On average, it’s far better than LDS music, if only because there’s more of an audience and more artists, so the record labels are more selective.

  28. The Aquabats are entirely LDS. Their music is great fun too…if your kids want some cool music to listen to and you don’t want to worry about them going to their concerts etc Aquabats is perfect. I just bought their newest CD for my 12 year old sister. Good ska (their new album has no horns however much more punk), good sense of humor, no vulgarity. They are awesome. BUT, they are NOT an ‘lds’ band by any strech…they are a punk/ska band and don’t really fit in this thread 🙂

  29. Ariel –

    I should add I do like a lot of Christian Contemporary music. I was more complaining about the local station (THE RIVER) than about CCM in general. Heck, despite having a low tolerance for heavy metal, I have a soft spot for Christian Metal group Petra (although the only album of theirs I own is their acoustic one).

    Brett Raymond did the Primarily for Grown-ups album. That one is very, very fun. However, Primary songs are generally not hymns and so lend themselves to pop arrangements more easily. That’s why Enoch Train impresses me so much.

  30. I got kicked off of T&S for complaining about lyrics written by Orrin Hatch. Mormon music is just too sensitive to talk about.

  31. Greg Simpson is a LDS “rocker” seminary teacher. A couple of his songs were featured in God’s Army.

    Julia Davis Allen is an “unknown” (www.juliadavisallen.com) but boy can she sing.

    As can Cherie Call.

  33. Ivan,

    If you don’t care for the local stations, you could always listen on-line…I really like Air 1. I do believe that you can listen to K Love on-line also. But I don’t listen to these on-line, or local radio stations on Sundays…they seem to be Praise The Lord, preachy, So I can understand if the local station where you live is always like that. Also someone sent me this:

    http://www.myspace.com/davebulloch

  34. I second Greg Simpson and third Cherie Call. She is one of my favorite LDS artists. I’ve also become pretty partial to Kirby Heyborne. I’d like him even more if I knew what half his lyrics meant. 🙂

  35. Cherie Call is great. She deserves a lot more exposure. But I’m partial to folk based acoustic music.

    Greg Simpson is good too, though I’m not as impressed by him. I enjoy some of his songs, and consider him one of the better LDS artists, but he won’t make my top ten (or even twenty) list. But that’s a personal taste thing, rather than any sort of judgement on his music.

  36. Cherie Call has a great voice. I think some of her lyrics are awful, though; she could use an editor.

    Part of the problem with being an LDS artist must be the lack of peer critique. I think many of the best Mormon musicians in all genres suffer from the too-good-for-their-own-good syndrome. Once you become the best in a relatively small field, everyone buys whatever you do and there’s little of the critical feedback that helps artists (and scholars and well, everyone!) keep growing.

  37. The LDS artists that I have enjoyed the most are RSRB, Shane Jackman, Alan Lynes, and Cary Judd. Many LDS artist are just too “christian” sounding. I personally do not like music that is overtly Christian.
    And by the way, Randy Bachman and his son Tal are no longer associated with the LDS church, and consequently, should not be included in the list of LDS musicians.

  38. I’m a long-time fan of Afterglow and, more recently, of Hilary Weeks: I believe Hilary’s song, “He Came For Me” is one of the most beautiful, evocative vocal images of the story from 3 Nephi in all of music. Just my opinion as someone new to the group.

  39. Call me conservative. I’ll stick with the music of Leroy Robertson and Robert Cundick. Crawford Gates and Lowell Durham Sr. had some nice stuff too.

  40. Good picks, Hans. I think this thread is addressing mormon “pop” music more than anything else. I haven’t heard a lot of it, but judging from what I have heard I’d say that we actually have better instrumentalists in the church than we do song writers. A few that come to mind are: Michael Dowdle, Rich Dixon, Tom Hopkins, Ed West. I’ve named only guitarists, but certainly there are others such as Ray Smith (director of BYU’s “Synthesis”) who can smoke on any woodwind. The guy’s amazing.

  41. A few comments:

    Afterglow – I really don’t want to go there. Suffice it to say, I see them as part of the problem – if any single group encapsulated everything I see wrong with LDS pop music, they are it. Sorry to all those who like them.

    Instrumental music – Lex De Azevedo has a few instrumental albums of lite Jazz I really like. Otherwise, everyone on Jack’s list is worth checking out. BYU’s Jazz program produces some world-class music.

    “Conservative” Music – Crawford Gates is very good, if you’re into that genre. I am (a bit), but I’m more of a folk music junkie.

  43. Sorry if this is a bit of a threadjack, but it seems this thread may have run aground anyway.

    I just couldn’t believe the Tal and Randy Bachman thing, so I had to find out for myself.

    Randy Bachman still affiliates himself with the Church per his website.

    Tal’s a different story though. It sounds like the DNA controversy sank his faith. That and he had no clue that the Church wasn’t as restrictive as he made it out to be:

    “We’ve [Bachman and his wife] been so strait-laced always that there’s a whole range of human experiences we’ve never had contact with, let alone walked through!” he marvels, regarding the various restrictions of the Mormon faith. “We’ve never gone dancing. We’ve never gone to a karaoke bar and made fools of ourselves.”

    I must’ve missed the “No dancing and no karaoke” instructions that he heard. Pity, too, because I’ve been making a fool of myself on various dancefloors (the hip, “clubby” kind) and doing karaoke way too much.

    Not that either of their standing wrt/Church matters to me. I don’t like Tal Bachman’s music, and I still crank “Takin’ Care of Business” and “American Woman” when it comes on the radio.

  44. It is weird as there are always dances around for Mormons. Maybe he meant clubbing rather than just dancing? Although lots of Mormons do that too. But it definitely isn’t a good environment given the large amounts of drugs and alcohol at such places.

  45. Ex-mormon or faintly connected to Mormondom musicians are an odd lot, sometimes.

    For example Jewel (who I don’t think was ever baptized, but her parents were members of the church when she was a child – i knew her family cause they lived in my hometown of Homer, Alaska – heck, I worked at the local McDonalds with one of her brothers) anyway – Jewel once told Rolling Stone that Mormons aren’t allowed to spoon with their spouses for more than 15 minutes and that the frequency of sex is strictly regulated by the church or something like that.

  46. Weird. Although Jewel’s kind of a weird person in some ways. (But hey, most popular musicians are)

    The ones I’ve been kind of impressed with are folks like the singer for The Killers who aren’t exactly devout but clearly still have a testimony and want to do better in their practices. I’ve never heard him say anything bad about the Church and only a lot that’s positive. There are a few other Mormons like that as well (although band names escape me right now)

    Contrast this with the many Hollywood actors who are Mormon who often seem to go out of their way to badmouth the Church and typically say how uptight we are about sex. I’ve never seen the equivalent of the perhaps failing but still believing Mormon in Hollywood.

  47. Clark, I wanted to take this discussion down this road, but the topic didn’t go there, plus I didn’t want to seem preachy/gossipy. But …

    I’ve read a few interviews with Brandon Flowers of the Killers, and he says that he is trying to stay active, and wants to kick the smoking/drinking.

    Another example is James Valentine, guitarist for Maroon 5. I was in his ward when he was a deacon, and felt bemused to realize I’d been listening to his music and loved it before realizing who he was.

    Both of these artists haven’t openly denied their faith. OTH, both have exhibited public behavior that is in direct opposition to our beliefs. I have to admit that I struggle to reconcile this, and still keep separate the artist (which I can judge) from his spiritual life (which I cannot).

  48. You see, as I said, I can at least respect these people. Yes they are struggling. Yeah, it probably wouldn’t be that hard to stop partying. But at least they still have their testimonies and I have faith that most of them will find their way back. It’s the people who turn their back on their testimonies that I find troubling.

    I don’t recall the figure but I seem to recall a survey of Mormons from a few years back that showed a surprising number had spent time inactive. This was of active members. I see it around here in Provo a lot.

  49. #43 — That’s interesting. Randy and his family lived in a sister-ward to the one I’m in now up until shortly before I moved here, and Tally used to come to youth dances here after they moved to White Rock. I never really talked to Tally, but I did get to meet his uncle some years back when he came down to speak at a fireside. That was right before “She’s So High” came out, fwiw.

    As to the topic, I love Hillary Weeks voice (favorite cut would be “Nearer, My God, to Thee” for those amazing harmonies with that beautiful voice), Katie Thompson also has an amazing voice, and I like Barry Hanson’s stuff as well. My first week in the ward I now live was the week that Barry did his mission homecoming (he lived in the same ward as the Bachmans, iirc) and he sung “I Heard Him Come” and it was really cool. I had no idea he was a big name in Mormon Music until I was looking over a play-list at K-ZION.

    I would love to hear some of the more Gospel-inspired stuff I’ve heard about from Gladys Knight, but I haven’t yet. I hope, one day, to put together a Mormon Southern Gospel Choir. I have a couple of folks lined up to join in when the time comes, but I don’t yet have nearly the background to do it. I look forward to the Church incorporating more of the musical styles of more of the membership of the World Church than we’ve seen thus far, rather than just continuing to ship out the same stuff we’ve been singing to the world and expecting them to conform.

  50. So, I have never been to this site before and came across it in the process of conducting research. I am doing a project that consists of documenting through interviews and research the last twenty-five years of Mormon Music. If anyone has good leads, or specific topics I should delve into let me know. Thanks.

  51. I think LDS music is really making greate strides in new directions lately. I am referring in particular to different styles of music. I personally dig a more urban style of music and totally love the molenibrothers.com They have some LDS hip hop and R&B flava. I am also down with Alex Boye- very smooth.

  53. I have been on a wonderful spiritaul journey. I have explored a series of steps to develop maturity. A while ago i found that it seemed that the mormon church was on the path at one of those steps.

    Developing a Basic Christ Foundation i discovered some simple gold standards… well just barely. I am learning to develop real standards by judging one’s self and tryin gto search for one’s just deserts.

    In the 6th year of my journey i began to judge one’sself… it has been quite interesting. In the seventh year i anticipate finiding one’s just deserts… it is a spiritaul step. The real just deserts look like they begin in reality after the 17th year.

    I shared some letters and hope after getting some of the mess of juding one’s self off to find a temple to visit…

    David Wrigt
    aka Dizzy from the pursuit of knowledge

    Blessings… one’s brothers seemed to have had some interesting times following the steps… i keep trying

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