First Love: A Historic Gathering of Jesus Music Pioneers

Evolving out of the tumult of the Vietnam protest era of the late 1960s and early ‘70s, the “Jesus Movement” found born-again Christian rock and folk musicians singing about their newfound faith in a style initially known as “Jesus Music” (which later became contemporary Christian). The excellently-produced First Love: A Historic Gathering of Jesus Music Pioneers features 16 of these early artists, who met at a Southern California mountain retreat to share their music and conversion stories. Combining archival footage and stills of the musicians—including Randy Matthews, Annie Herring, The Second Chapter of Acts, Love Song, and Barry McGuire (“Eve of Destruction”)—to lend historical and social context, the program features 30 performances as well as interviews with the artists themselves, who talk about the free-love and drug culture they abandoned. Filling a unique niche focusing on early Christian folk rock, the double-disc First Love also includes two bonus audio CDs. Highly recommended. Aud: C, P. (L. Stevens)