Description
Come to the Waters is the debut album by the American vocal quartet/folk group Children of the Day, released on Maranatha! Music in 1971. It was the very first full-length album by a group released on the newly established Maranatha! Music label, only preceded by the release of the multi-artist compilation The Everlastin’ Livin’ Jesus Music Concert. (It was actually the first album to be made for Maranatha Music, but its release was held until The Everlastin’ Livin’ Jesus Music Concert was released.) The album was engineered by Buck Herring, later of 2nd Chapter of Acts fame. Featuring the praise-and-worship classic “For Those Tears I Died”. The album sold 150,000 units, unheard of numbers for a contemporary Christian album back in the day.
After becoming a Christian at age 16, Marsha Carter was instrumental to leading her sister Wendy (14) and friend Peter Jacobs to Christianity. (Marsha actually wrote “For Those Tear I Died” to her sister to lead her to the Lord.) Utilizing Carter’s talents as a songwriter, the three formed a Jesus music group they called Children of the Day. With the addition of friend, singer and upright bass player Russ Stevens to the group, the band became a quartet and recorded their first album, Come to the Waters. Originally they were called “the group” by pastor Chuck Smith because they were the only group in the very early days – 1969. (Before Children of the Day Peter and Russ were in the Pete Jacobs Quartet. They were 16-17 years old and did Dave Brubeck style jazz – no vocals. They won the California State Battle of the Bands for their class. They made an album that, even though the recording was funky showed some remarkable talent.)
We were 20, 19, 19, and 16. We just loved singing together on the way to, from, and at church. We didn’t consider ourselves a group until someone asked us to sing at Melodyland Christian Center. We kind of formalized ourselves and found our name in 1 Thessalonians 5:5. As we were newbies in the recording scene, listing the Holy Spirit as producer was probably accurate. We had very little idea of what we were doing. Buck Herring helped, but he was the engineer. If anyone was producer, it was [group member] Pete Jacobs. He was, and still is, a musical genius. [Excerpt from an interview with Russ Stevens featured at World – wng.org – published April 22, 2021]
Children Of The Day are definitely up there near the top as my favorite American folk-rock group. It’s no wonder the Maranatha folks selected them for the first full-length debut on their fledgling label. Going beyond just the guitar and vocal harmonies that often characterized early Jesus music, this guy/gal foursome (Peter Jacobs, Marsha Carter/Stevens, Wendy Carter, Russ Stevens) successfully weaved in such instruments as piano, harpsichord, woodwinds and strings – and made it all work without sounding syrupy. The song-writing is exceptional, the arrangements unique and the harmonizing immaculate. Never humdrum, with lots of variety, from stirring ballads («Jesus») to up-tempo folk-rock («Children Of The Day», «Jesus Lives») to four-part Bach («All Breathing Life»). The slower songs are intensely moving, including the climactic «The Search», the somber ballad «As A Child» and the joyful opener «New Life». Mostly original material, plus a cover of Love Song’s «Two Hands». And of course there’s Marsha’s «For Those Tears I Died» which has become a classic “golden oldie” of the Jesus movement. A great beginning for a great band. [Ken Scott, The Archivist, 4th edition]
> Apple Music (https://music.apple.com/us/album/come-to-the-waters/705878997)
LP tracklist:
Side One
A1. “New Life” – 4:14
A2. “As A Child” – 6:00
A3. “Children Of The Day” – 2:20
A4. “The Search” – 5:24
Side Two
B1. “Two Hands” – 3:45
B2. “Jesus Lives” – 3:59
B3. “All Breathing Life” – 2:09
B4. “Jesus” – 3:45
B5. “For Those Tears I Died” – 5:10
Note: Re-issued by Light Records in 1976. A Remastered Limited Collector’s Edition was released on CD by Retroactive Records and Watergrave Records in 2008. It was mastered by J Powell of Steinhaus from vinyl (because the original masters no longer exists).
Simple, diverse, sincere, earnest, and wise. It’s all here and more on ‘Come to the Waters’ (originally released 1971) by Children of the Day.
It starts with the pleasant, straightforward «New Life», a welcome-to-the-family song. A surprise follows.
The sound of a flute, followed by some woodwinds, and then harpsichord. The baroque-influenced melody and melancholy lyrics of «As a Child» extend for six minutes. It laments a former childhood openness that has disappeared.
«All Breathing Life» is a cappella, sung in the style of Handel’s Messiah, where parts of words are elongated, and the verses sung in rounds by the four members.
A Jewish rhythm animates the energetic «Children of the Day». The combination of male and female harmonies, a folk style with no electric guitar, mainly acoustic instruments, electric bass and occasional drums (courtesy of John Mehler – Love Song, Richie Furay Band), with thoughtful, pointed lyrics, made Children of the Day a premier group.
It is unashamedly about a relationship with God through Jesus. We live in a different era. This kind of directness now might be considered preachy, but this does not sound forced. It’s a natural overflow from hearts that are full. It’s the desire to share treasure meant for everyone.
Records like this can remind Christians of their first devotion when God’s presence seems so near. It’s easy to let that slip because of cares and desires. Listening can actually rekindle lost aspirations.
Thanks to my mother, who played early Jesus music records on a stereo that went through our whole house, I had a soundtrack for my early experience just before and then after coming to Christ. Before I ever heard Larry Norman, Randy Stonehill, Phil Keaggy and 2nd Chapter of Acts, my mom was playing The Way, The Joy Album, Let it Shine by Suncast, Love Song, The Praise Album, Come Together by Jimmy and Carol Owens, and others. The soft rock and simple lyrics were memorable, calling me. I never forgot some of those songs.
No doubt my mom had heard, «For Those Tears I Died», the closing track on this record. It became one of the most popular songs of the period. It’s a genuine, moving come-to-Jesus moment, composed by group member, Marsha Stevens, who was only 16 when she wrote it. Mark Allan Powell calls it “an absolute masterpiece … it expresses adolescent piety better than any other Christian song ever written.”
New listeners may not feel a sense of nostalgia, but they can appreciate the sincerity and the primitive excellence.
Another classic invitation, «Two Hands», written by Chuck Girard (Love Song), is elegantly covered here.
The song that follows, «Jesus Lives», features background vocals that echo the female lead, all leading to an exuberant chorus that becomes euphoric when they begin to sing, “because of his love.” At that point, just when you think their voices can’t soar any higher, they do. Paradoxically, it’s a joyous song about Christ’s suffering and dying. It celebrates what that makes possible.
We have Born Twice Records to thank for reproducing this classic. As they detail in the liner notes, the masters were long gone, so they purchased a sealed vinyl copy and converted it to digital. Most people won’t be able to tell but those who pay attention to such things will notice. It sounds fine, and if you are into vinyl, you can find this album where used records are sold.
Born Twice Records has produced other classic Christian albums from the 60s, 70s, and occasionally the 80s. You can get the recordings at their website (see the address on the “Label” line). [Michael Dalton, The Phantom Tollbooth, 20 September 2017]
The ‘Come To The Waters’ album was made because people kept asking for recordings of our stuff. We didn’t quite know what to do and had no money, so we went to Chuck Smith and borrowed about 900 dollars to make the album.
We recorded the album at Abbey Sound, Ltd. in Hollywood. Buck Herring (husband of Annie Herring – Second Chapter of Acts) was our engineer. This led to a long-term relationship with the whole 2nd Chapter group. This was before they were recording and when we visited them, Matthew Ward’s voice still hadn’t changed. This is really old history.
I do recall coming into the studio one day and being told that we couldn’t use the piano that day. Larry Norman had been in the prior day and broken it with his sometimes histrionic recording.
The process of doing a recording and mastering it was not totally new to Peter and myself since we had been in a jazz group that had made an album a few years prior. However, the process of getting it manufactured was new to us.
We went to the United Artists manufacturing plant and ordered our first run (I think it was 1000). Needless to say, we needed to go back a number of times and finally established credit with UA.
We used a friend to do the cover art and interestingly, the hands above the water on the front cover were the artists. What we didn’t realize until after the covers had been printed, was that the hands had a broken finger that showed if you look carefully. “He was bruised for our transgressions . . . ”
For the first release, we shared the Maranatha label with Maranatha Music as a partnership. That went on for about 5 or 6 years until we signed with Light Records and sold all the albums to them. Older copies of the albums are labeled with the HS777/? numbers. CTTW was HS777/2 since it was held up for release by Chuck until the Everlasting Jesus Music Concert could be released (HS777/1). It was actually ready before that, making CTTW the first Maranatha Album completed.
The last time I checked, CTTW had sold over 150,000 albums. Small stuff for these times, but quite respectable then.
[Russ Stevens, Dec 1999, one-way.org]
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