New Folk Jesus Music
New Folk, Country Faith. Impact Records R3254, 1973. Banjo, fiddle, and stand-up bass, what more could you want? A member of the Christian band Harvest plays on this album as well. I haven’t found anything about New Folk online except this at the Exhaustive Christian Music Discography.
New Folk (USA – Alabama)
1973 Country Faith {Impact}
New Folk (???)
1966 Uprising {Impact}
1967 On Campus {Impact}
1968 Born Yesterday {Custom}
1970 Are You Ready {M/M}
1973 NewFolk {Impact}
There were a few other places that listed them, but no on has any information about the band. Even the amazingly comprehensive Encyclopedia of Contemporary Christian Music
UPDATE: Ancient Star Song has the music: http://www.theancientstar-song.com/2011/07/new-folk-1/
10 Responses “New Folk Jesus Music”
I always liked this hippie Jesus music from that era. It’s actually really cool. I can remember as a kid being taken to some services where artists like that performed.
I just got the Born Yesterday LP and thought it was an sort of exploitation record, but it seems they made a few more, so it must be a real band. Anyway, that lp has 2 nice psychedelic tracks with great fuzz!
Wow Peter, I just saw that album on eBay for $125! I’d love to hear it, I’m a big fan of fuzzy sounds.
I was in “The New Folk” in 1969, and we toured the Eastern U.S. and Canada from October ’69 – May ’70. We changed our name mid-year to “Armageddon,” since we changed a lot of our music to pop, rock, and contemporary Christian. “The New Folk” was the first Christian touring band, and began in the mid-60′s. It was sponsored by Campus Crusade for Christ, Int’l, based at the time at Arrowhead Springs, above San Bernardino, CA. Most of our concerts were on college campuses all over the U.S. You can find me now on Facebook — Laurie Steen Killingsworth, and my ministry website is http://www.passionatehearts.org.
http://musicmoz.org/Bands_and_Artists/A/Armageddon_Experience/
This is the album that we put out in 1970. Our musical director and producer was the now Emmy Award winner … Michael O’Martian. The previous albums were under the name of “The New Folk.” This was the first album produced under the name of “Armageddon,” and was titled “Armageddon Experience.”
Wow, Laurie, very good to hear from you! If you would like to share more history and memories we would love to hear them. I could even do a post on them if you like. You can email me at mrpontiac at yahoo dot com.
Yes, of course, Robert! Actually a radio station in Pennsylvania contacted me for an interview about a year ago about the beginnings of what is now a huge industry of contemporary Christian music. At that time, we were just laying down the tracks for the railroad boom that was yet to come … completely unknown to us.
There weren’t songs available to draw from, so we mostly either wrote or arranged them ourselves. Michael O’Martian was a musical prodigy, yet we had no idea what his future would one day unveil after he went on to Hollywood, then from there on to Nashville. John Thompson was our lead guitar, and was only 19 at the time. He later became a Dove Award winner for “El Shaddai.” God blessed us greatly.
We were also testing the waters as to what Christians would accept. We three girls in the band had one outfit that came just above the knee, yet we were excoriated in some circles for being mini-skirted go-go girls. We would swing to the rhythms, and that was met with derision for being worldly. When we changed our name to “Armageddon” mid-year, we developed the first half of the show to be entirely secular to warm up and draw in the unbelievers. You can bet that brought us a lot of bashing in some circles. We were danged if we did, and danged if we didn’t. Not much has changed throughout the generations, huh?!
However, we were reaching out to college kids primarily, and they loved us … and most importantly, scores of people found Christ at every concert. I often come across people who came to know the Lord through contemporary Christian music, in one form or another, back in the day. Thankfully God is our ultimate judge, and even though we were far from perfect, we gave it the old college try.
Bottom line … we serve an awesome God!!!
Thanks for that background!
Laurie,
Can you get me an .mp3 of “Armageddon Experience?” I followed you at the time and had the albums, but my collection got lost during my years in Germany. I sent you an email at the passionatehearts.org address.
Why did they change from “Armageddon” back to “new Folk” for the 1973 album?