Description
Save a Soul is an album by the American folk-rock/gospel combo Larry Hubbell and the Mission Band, released on Myrrh Records in July 1972, a division of Word. The album was recorded by Charlie Tallent with label head Billy Ray Hearn producing. Arranged and conducted by Bergen White.
Word Records would launch their first contemporary label, Myrrh Records, late 1971 to provide a platform for the new “Jesus Rock” that was beginning to break through in the US. Save a Soul was the new label’s first effort (catalog number MST-6500-LP), followed by albums by Vonda Van Dyke (Day By Day, catalog number MST-6501-LP) and Randy Matthews (All I Am Is What You See…, catalog number MST-6502-LP).
According to the catalog number this would be the debut release for the Myrrh label. It’s that familiar early Myrrh blend of rock, gospel, pop and country also found on same-era releases by Gene Cotton, Ray Hildebrand, and Randy Matthews. The more rock-edged tracks have notable fuzz guitar and even a touch of Mylon LeFevre. Female bgvs and pop string arrangements give a definite period feel. Six songs written by Hubbell, four by Wayne White. Back cover says he played piano as a side man for a country-western singer. [Ken Scott, The Archivist, 4th edition]
LP tracklist:
Side One
A1. “Save A Soul” – 2:38
A2. “Sunshine In My Soul” – 2:22
A3. “What Makes Me Love You (Like I Do)” – 3:06
A4. “Jesus Thing To Do” – 2:28
A5. “Jesus Is Coming” – 2:38
Side Two
B1. “Take A Look Around You” – 2:50
B2. “Make Yourself Happy” – 2:43
B3. “House Upon The Sand” – 3:00
B4. “Straighten Up And Fly Right” – 2:30
B5. “Come Spring” – 3:52
In the second half of the 1960s Ralph Carmichael founded Light Records, and Billy Ray Hearn started working with him. He helped Carmichael and Kurt Kaiser develop the concepts for their youth musicals Tell It Like It Is (1969) and Natural High (1971), and became their marketing director. This led to his doing the same thing for Jimmy Owens’ musical, Come Together (1972), as he became known as the “contemporary guy.” Over the next 4 years Hearn worked overtime helping to shift the musical direction of Word Records and the Evangelical church, and after producing a number of musicals for children and youth he began the Myrrh label, in 1972. He had tapes that were sent in from many of the new Christian music artists that weren’t signed to a record label yet, like the 2nd Chapter of Acts, Phil Keaggy and Randy Matthews, to name some. They saw where Hearn was going and wanted him to take them with him. The Myrrh label introduced Word’s audience to an entirely new kind of Christian music, called Jesus music. Many of the people who played it came out of the “peace, flower child and hippie movements” that were the counter culture of the 1960’s.
Reviews
There are no reviews yet.