The contemporary Christian music scene, or praise & worship music, or Christian rock, or whatever one chooses to call it, but essentially pop hymns to God that aren't traditional gospel, really had its beginnings in the 1970s when a handful of artists merged Christian songs with pop and rock to modernize things, a trend that has grown ever since into a kind of parallel pop universe. This interesting set collects 11 tracks from these 1970s praise & worship pioneers, including Erick Nelson's "Picking Up the Pieces,"
Mustard Seed Faith's "Happy in Jesus," and
Daniel Amos' "Shot Gun Angel," among other attempts to merge Saturday night with Sunday morning. ~ Steve Leggett