Description
Tell it Like it Is, sub-titled A Folk Musical about God, is a musical composed and directed by the American producer/arranger/composer Ralph Carmichael and producer/arranger/composer Kurt Kaiser, released on Light Records in 1969. The album track “Pass It On” has later been recorded by numerous gospel artists, including Evie.
According to an article entitled Taking Stock of Jesus Rock, featured in Christianity Today on February 26, 1971, “last year alone Carmichael sold 200,000 copies (equivalent to 5,000 forty-voice choirs) of his folk musical, Tell It Like It Is.”
I don’t pretend to know where it’s all going or where it will end. I don’t have to know. It’s not my responsibility to second guess trends, much less create them and propagate them. But I do have a feeling that we have to stay relevant. We’ve been told straight out to do that and Christ Himself set the example. In TELL IT, we have assembled a conglomerate of sounds (rhythmic, chordal, melodic) that kids are accepting at the moment. Who cares about “pure folk forms”? If this album is pointed to in years to come as a pure form of anything we will have goofed pretty badly. All I care about is that lots of “folk” listen to it, and to me that qualifies it as a “folk musical.” Do you want to know what it really is? It’s a desperate effort to communicate. We are saying, “Hey! Look at me … listen to me … I’ve got something I’ve just got to share … somebody shared it with me and I can’t keep it to myself.”
If you want to call it by a name, that’s a little harder. Would you believe “country folk rock”? Now don’t fret about that. Does it really matter what the industry calls it?
I’d like to say a word about the Kurt Kaiser Singers (the Baylor Choir). These kids are not be believed. I thought I had put a lot of myself into this project until I saw and heard this choir. I came away realizing that my contribution was the lesser part. They have so totally committed themselves to this message, this cause, that they really make it happen. It’s not just a recording to them. They’re going to tour with it … make it work with kids all over the country. In their devotion to Christ they have decided to use this thing called TELL IT LIKE IT IS as a vehicle to reach their own kind, and suddenly I feel like a secretary who has just typed up the sermon notes for a very articulate preacher. I had hoped for a fine recording; it turned out to be so much more.
I feel very fortunate (and I know Kurt feels the same) to have had Billy Ray Hearn’s counsel and guidance throughout this project. With his background and experience in this field, he has made a valuable contribution. I’ll say one thing … Mr. Hearn is not a “yes” man. By the time he got through throwing out songs, making us rewrite lyrics and change melodies, I felt like I had written two folk musicals. But he’s okay and if we don another, he’s gonna be right there pitching.
– Ralph Carmichael [Liner notes printed on the back of the LP sleeve]
Contrary to what you might deduce from reading my write-ups, I do happen to enjoy some easy listening pop music every now and then. Good easy listening, that is. Easy listening with an edge. Some of my personal idols in the genre would be Free Design (of course), Sergio Mendes and Burt Bacharach. Ralph Carmichael impresses me as sort of a Christian version the latter. The songs are nowhere near as catchy as Burt’s, but the arrangements can be right up there. Ralph’s obviously a very important figure in contemporary Christian music, and having re-evaluated his music over the years I’ve often come to discover a unique quality to his projects. Tell It Like It Is, “a folk musical about God”, was co-written with Kurt Kaiser and is perhaps Ralph’s most popular work. How many countless groups have covered Carmichael’s «Love Is Surrender», or Kaiser’s «Master Designer», «That’s For Me» and «Pass It On»? Nineteen songs plus some small dialogue bits, all performed by the Kurt Kaiser Singers in a pseudo-flower-power pop/easy listening style, alternating choral and solo vocals. It’s still all a bit too happy for me and if this is “folk” music then so is the theme song from Love American Style. Personally I think the guys achieved hipper results with Natural High, nevertheless Tell It Like It Is remains a key album in the history of CCM. [Ken Scott, The Archivist, 4th edition]
Kurt Kaiser and Ralph Carmichael were friends and collaborators for many years. Their work together resulted in creating three groundbreaking recordings that changed the course of Christian music, giving kids (and others) a way to express themselves and their attitudes about God through contemporary music. The first project was 1969’s “Tell It Like It Is – A Folk Musical About God.” The music and dialogue hit on themes that were relevant to kids, and done in their language and their style of music. Ralph and Kurt each wrote half the tunes, bringing it together as a thoughtful and coherent production – and creating a new style of Christian music form, the folk musical. It went viral, opening up the church doors to young people across the United States and beyond. This was followed in 1972 with “Natural High – A Folk Musical About God’s Son.” The format was similar, with Kurt and Ralph once more each bringing half of the music to the project. Again, the music and message was something that was relatable for the youth of the day. Their next collaboration was 1973’s “I’m Here, God’s Here, Now We Can Start.” The subtitle identified it as “A one-hour musical experience in the presence of God.” The first two of these projects were about understanding and knowing God and His Son Jesus Christ. This third one was about experiencing God. The previous musicals used youth choirs with little or no solos in the productions. “I’m Here” also used a choir, but utilized several well-known soloists as well – Carol Carmichael, Andrae Crouch, Danniebelle Hall, Sue Raney, Billi Thedford and Jerry Whitman. Cliff Barrows served as the narrator. And, once again, both Ralph and Kurt shared the composing duties as well as the conducting.
LP tracklist:
Side One
A1. “Tell It Like Is”
A2. “Brother, Let Me Take Your Hand”
A3. “Check Him Out”
A4. “What’s God Like?”
A5. “Master Designer”
A6. “I Believe God Is Real”
A7. “Do As I Say”
A8. “Rosy Tinted Glasses”
A9. “Our Turn At Bat”
A10. “The Good Old Days”
A11. “When It’s Gone”
A12. “Consider Now The Lily”
Side Two
B1. “Limericks”
B2. “Conform”
B3. “A New Mind”
B4. “That’s For Me”
B5. “A New Mind – Reprise”
B6. “That’s The Way It Is”
B7. “Love Is Surrender”
B8. “He’s There Waiting”
B9. “Pass It On”
B10. “Tell It Like Is – Reprise”
Note: Light Records also released a 9-track album entitled Organ Solos from Tell It Like It Is played by Clare Fischer.
A full-page advertisement for Light Records’ Folk Musicals was featured in the October 14, 1972 issue of Billboard Magazine. The ad included albums like Tell It Like It Is: A Folk Musical About God (Light Records 1969), Natural High (Light Records 1971), New Vibrations: A Quest in Folk Rock (Light Records 1971), Requiem for a Nobody (Light Records 1971), and Come Together: A Musical Experience in Love (Light Records 1972).
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’ (Light Records 1969) and Natural High (Light Records 1971), and became their marketing director. This led to his doing the same thing for Jimmy Owens’ musical, Come Together (Light Records 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.
Pianist and producer/arranger/composer Kurt Frederic Kaiser (December 17, 1934 – November 12, 2018) was born in Chicago. He received his musical education from the American Conservatory of Music and Northwestern University (B.M., 1958; M.M., 1959). Kaiser joined Word, Inc., in 1959 as director of artists and repertoire (A&R), and later became vice president and director of music for Word. He has arranged and produced albums for many artists. Kaiser maintained his relationship with Word, Inc. until 1989.
Kurt Kaiser has received many honors, including a Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) for his contributions to the Christian music industry (1992); an honorary Doctor of Sacred Music degree from Trinity College in Illinois; and an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from Baylor University. In 1993 his album ‘Psalms, Hymns, and Spiritual Songs’ was recognized with a Dove Award. In 2001 he was inducted into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame and was placed in the Hall of Honor by the Christian Booksellers Association. The Faithfulness in Service Award was presented to him in 2003. In 2011 he received the Hines Sims Award, named for the editor of the Baptist Hymnal (1956), one of the most successful hymnals in the history of the denomination.
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