There’s good stuff in the ’90s and ’00s, but it seems like there was a magic there in the ’80s that was like lightening in a bottle. You go back and listen to your albums from then, others from the same time by Larnelle Harris, Twila Paris, Sandi Patty - they just really hold up. HERALD-MAIL: Looking back, it feels like the ’80s were an unusually golden era for your brand of inspirational music. … I think that was a Phil McHugh lyric and boy, the moment I heard it I loved it. Those were two separate things and I’m trying to think of how we combined them, how exactly that happened. HERALD-MAIL: When that came to you, was “Why Do We Live Without Jesus” already in it?
I think one of the last ones was a song called “Come and See.” Someone asked for “Hidden Valleys.” (thinks) Someone asked for “Chasing of the Wind.” Someone else recently asked for “Safely Home.” He didn’t know that one. GREEN: You know, I’m trying to think, ‘cause there are several they’ll ask for and Dick just has no idea what it is. What’s the deepest album cut anybody’s ever asked for? HERALD-MAIL: When you were here in 2015, some of the songs that were requested during the concert were pretty obscure. He’s pretty much my employed keyboard player, musical director, support guy everywhere I go.
GREEN: Yeah, he’s been with me 10-and-a-half years. HERALD-MAIL: Is (CCM songwriter/pianist) Dick Tunney still traveling with you? Green had recently returned from Ecuador where he performed two all-Spanish concerts in Guayanquil and Quito, when he took time to speak to The Herald-Mail by phone on May 12, from his home in Franklin, Tenn. Green returns to Independent Bible Church in Martinsburg, W.Va., Friday, May 26, for another benefit concert for the Eastern Panhandle Chapter of Child Evangelism Fellowship following his 2015 concert at the same church. Smith and Jars of Clay whom people mention first.īut in the evangelical world, far more influential - especially in terms of songs heard in church - have been inspirational artists like Steve Green who’s cultivated an exceedingly rich discography with trademark hits such as “He Holds the Keys,” “People Need the Lord,” “God and God Alone,” “Find Us Faithful” and, of course, that staple of the wedding ceremony “Household of Faith.” He’s without question among the truly elite legends in that vein. When folks write and talk about the history of Contemporary Christian Music (CCM), often it’s the early groundbreakers like Larry Norman or the later more pop-oriented artists that had mainstream crossover success such as Amy Grant, Michael W.