Description
Mass for Young Americans, sub-titled And Psalms and Refrains, is the debut album by the American singer, songwriter, and liturgical musician Ray Repp (September 17, 1942 – April 26, 2020), released on F.E.L. in 1966.
Ray Repp was a Roman Catholic singer/songwriter and liturgical musician credited with introducing folk music into Catholic masses. With his Mass for Young Americans he spearheaded the concept of the folk group-led “guitar Mass” (a.k.a. folk mass). After that early collection, he recorded 11 collections which have been translated into 28 languages, and won ASCAP’s “Award for Special Contributions to the Field of Music” six times. Repp’s music has been recorded by those outside the Catholic Church.
Well known Contemporary Christian musicians like punk outfit Undercover and rocker Phil Keaggy have later covered various of Repp’s songs. (“I Am The Resurrection” was covered on Undercover’s 1983-album God Rules!, and “Shouts of Joy” was covered on Phil Keaggy’s 1993-album Crimson and Blue.)
I suppose in one sense Ray Repp could be considered the guy who started it all. Although there were a handful of LPs before this one, it was Mass For Young Americans whose songs basically kick-started the Catholic folk mass. Not that it’s all that great an album to listen to mostly it’s just a handful of ordinary men gathered around a guitar, with occasional solo vocals from Repp. The album is more important for the songs it contains, especially the ones in the Psalms and Refrains section: «Clap Your Hands», «Here We Are», «Hear, O Lord», «Forevermore», «Of My Hands», «Shout From The Highest Mountain», «Come Away», etc. Actually the closing solo ballad «I’m Not Afraid» is pretty decent. All Repp originals save for the popular James Thiem title «Sons Of God». Interesting discussion on the back cover about folk music in the liturgy causing a “furor”. The singers on Mass were students at Kenrick Seminary in St. Louis. [Ken Scott, The Archivist, 4th Edition]
Ray Repp, the liturgical musician who spearheaded the concept of the folk group-led “guitar Mass” with his “Mass for Young Americans,” died April 26 in Palm Springs, California, of complications from cancer. He was 77.
Repp’s first songs, issued in the years following the Second Vatican Council, were staples in thousands of parishes for decades afterward. Some of his best-known songs, more than a half-century after they were penned, include «Allelu!», «Peace, My Friends», «I Am the Resurrection» and «Hear, O Lord». His song «Wake Up My People» was sung during a demonstration chronicled by author Jonathan Harr in his 1995 book “A Civil Action,” later made into a movie starring John Travolta.
Born in 1942 in St. Louis, Repp was a seminarian when he wrote “Mass for Young Americans.” Recorded in 1965, it set the tone for a new form of liturgical expression for a church that had just started celebrating Mass in the vernacular less than a year earlier. His works reportedly sold millions of copies and were translated in 28 languages. His composition «Into Your Hands» is popular at Spanish Masses as «Entre Tus Manos».
Repp, who left the seminary prior to ordination, said later that demand for his music paradoxically increased after dozens of bishops across the United States banned the use of guitars at Mass. Ten years after “Mass for Young Americans,” there were about three dozen composers working in the contemporary liturgical idiom; by 2006, estimated Jesuit Father John Foley – one of the “St. Louis Jesuits” – at the time, about 175 were actively writing music for the church in that genre. [Excerpt from an obituary written by Mark Pattison, Catholic News Service, April 28, 2020]
LP tracklist:
Side One
Mass for Young Americans
A1. “Prayer For Mercy” (Kyrie) – 0:55
A2. “Hymn Of Praise” (Gloria) – 1:36
A3. “Angelic Song” (Sanctus) – 0:50
A4. “Our Father” – 1:04
A5. “Song Of The Lamb Of God” (Agnus Dei) – 0:48
Psalms and Refrains
A6. “Sons Of God” – 3:42
A7. “Here We Are” – 2:31
A8. “And I Will Follow (Ps 23)” – 2:15
A9. “Forevermore (Ps 117)” – 3:28
Side Two
B1. “Clap Your Hands (Ps 47)” – 3:26
B2. “Hear, O Lord” – 3:30
B3. “Come Away” – 2:27
B4. “Of My Hands” – 3:14
B5. “Shout Form The Highest Mountain” – 3:02
B6. “I’m Not Afraid” – 3:15
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