Tony Cummings charts the history of pop rockers BLESSID UNION OF SOULS and spoke to their frontman Eliot Sloan

Blessid Union Of Souls

The band Blessid Union O Souls from Morrow, Ohio have, despite their name, been largely ignored by Christian radio even though their first single "I Believe" is something of a spiritual song classic, being a Top 10 hit in the US and even making the British Top 30. Maybe the release of the band's latest album 'Close To The Edge' will rectify Christian radio's extraordinary reluctance to embrace Blessid Union as one of their own. Or maybe, like U2, these skilled pop rockers will have to continue to make spiritually challenging, life-affirming music for the mainstream masses and not worry about the subcultural myopia of CCM radio. The African American lead singer of Blessid Union Of Souls, Eliot Sloan, agreed with me that the band's music has long expressed messages of Christian faith. He commented, "Our music has always contained elements of faith and hope and truth, especially with the first album. It really wasn't anything intentional, we were just writing what came naturally to us, what was in our hearts and on our minds and I can only assume that's what U2 has done as far as creating music that they feel the world needs to hear, some of the beliefs that they have, we share some of the same beliefs, incorporate that into our music. That's probably one thing that we do have in common with U2."

Eliot spoke about his major Christian influence while growing up. "My grandmother was always trying to keep me in the church and keep me in line. Not taking anything away from my mother and father at all, but I just remember that specifically about my grandmother who was constantly telling me that the kids growing up around the neighbourhood they wouldn't get into so much trouble if they were in the church, if they just had their minds focussed on God. It took me a long time to realise what she was talking about and as I get older I see what she means. I would say there's the path of being on the street and being in trouble or whatever and there's the path of trying to be more spiritual and growing up in a faith-based home. As I've gotten older I see exactly what she means. I believe too that a lot of the things that happen with our youth - the gangs, the violence, the trouble and crime that goes on, if they had their minds focussed elsewhere, if they were into church, if they had a sense of God, and morality, and standards, a lot of those things wouldn't happen. I understand what she was talking about after all this time."

Blessid Union of Souls formed in 1990 in Morrow, Ohio with guitarist Jeff Pence, vocalist Eliot Sloan, keyboardist C.P. Roth (who had been in Ozzy Osbourne's touring band) and drummer Eddie Hedges. Sloan and Hedges had previously played together in a band in the 1980s called The Movies. About this time, Sloan and Pence later played together in a band called Slamm. The band was heavily influenced by the cowpunk scene that was burgeoning around the time they formed. They spent several years honing their craft in Newport News; their song "Oh Virginia" tells the story of their "second home." The band's name came from when Eliot Sloan had the name Blessed Union Of Souls in his head, but didn't know what to do with it. In about 1990 he heard someone talking about "a union of souls blessed by God." He told the rest of the band members, who liked the name. It was Jeff Pence's idea to misspell "Blessed" as "Blessid" to ensure correct pronunciation. In 1992, the band sent a demo to EMI Records who immediately offered them a contract and spread the word about them.

They began writing more songs in about 1993 for their debut album, 'Home'. It took over two years to complete, but before it was released, DJs in the Cincinnati area began playing "I Believe", which would become the album's most popular single. "I Believe" didn't actually namecheck Jesus but it is still a song which resonated with both Christians and non-Christians." ("Walk blindly to the light and reach out for his hand/Don't ask any questions and don't try to understand/Open up your mind and then open up your heart/And you will see that you and me aren't very far apart/'Cause I believe that love is the answer/I believe that love will find the way.")

Said Eliot, "'I Believe' was of course the breakthrough hit for the band. It didn't get embraced by Christian radio but I don't think the record label even pursued that. Funnily enough, a couple of years ago the band Building 429 covered 'I Believe' and had a big radio hit with it. To me that proves that the music, actually it works there, obviously. The first line of the song is 'Walk blindly to the light and reach out for his hand.' I'm obviously talking about God, I'm obviously talking about Jesus Christ and when people ask me where that song came from I always tell them that God dropped that song into my lap and it wasn't something that I came up with because I'm such a special songwriter. God put that melody and that lyric in my heart, he gave it to me. And the fact that Building 429 recorded that and it did so strongly in that market it just reaffirmed that that song was perfect for Christian radio."

The 'Home' album, featuring as it did "I Believe" and two other US Top 20 hits, "Oh Virginia" and "Let Me Be The One" (the latter featured in the soap opera All My Children), was a major hit eventually being certified platinum. The band toured relentlessly, even hitting the UK. Remembered Eliot, "We did a tour with Mike And The Mechanics in April-May of '96 and we had a great time. We went to a lot of cities in England. It was a wonderful time. We talk about that all the time."

In 1996 the US office of EMI Records ran into all kinds of difficulties. The band re-signed to Capitol Records, adding bassist Tony Clark to their numbers. Their second album, the self-titled project released in 1997, produced two more Top 20 hits, "I Wanna Be There" and "Light In Your Eyes", while their third, 'Walking Off The Buzz' (1999) produced a major turntable hit with the catchy "Hey Leonardo (She Likes Me For Me)".

The band seemed to run out of steam somewhat and although a compilation 'Play Ball' was released in 2003, followed in 2005 by the 'Perception' set, things were getting confusing for the fans. Eliot Sloan, Tony Clark, Bryan Billhimer and Shaun Schaefer continued to gig as Blessid Union Of Souls but another group, lead by Jeff Pence, also claimed the name. Finally in September of last year the band's long awaited studio album 'Close To The Edge' was released on Torque Records. Some fans were disappointed that eight of the 12 tracks were taken from the previous 'Perception' project but as far as the Cross Rhythms reviewer was concerned, it's a gem, commenting how it showed "a veteran team who have crafted their art to make radio-friendly pop rock while avoiding most of the clichés of the genre. A thoroughly recommended comeback project."

Eliot is very aware that living a Christian life surrounded by the temptations of the rock scene is far from easy. "There really is a lot of temptation out there in the secular world and it can definitely lead somebody down the wrong path if they're not careful. On an individual basis, a person just really has to remember who they are, where they came from and what their beliefs are and what they really feel is right and what is wrong. You can still have a deep, deep belief in God and convey that message to others in the midst of temptation. Jesus Christ was constantly tempted and he obviously stayed on the right path. He opened the door to let us know that it is possible because it's not a question of IF you're going to get tempted or not, it's a question of when. If you choose to believe in Christ, you're going to go through some similar things: persecution, temptations, but there's a great, great phenomenal, magnificent reward that goes along with that."

The current line up of Blessid Union Of Souls share Eliot's Christian convictions. He said, "It's things that we talk about a lot when we're travelling, in the car or whatever. I'm on the road right now and I'm with my bass player. We're in the car listening to a couple of different sermons that came on the radio as we were driving. We talk about that a lot. The current state of the world and how it's been the past 10, 15 years since we've joined the band and started playing music out on the road together. God has been our constant conversation and his sovereignty about what's been going on in the world. That's what we grew up believing and the other two guys in the band, that's what they grew up believing. A couple of the guys had some serious roads to go through in their lives and it's just their belief in God that brought them through it. I like that a lot. It's nothing that was forced on them, it's something that they believe on their own and we talk about it all the time. We really ARE a blessed union of souls."

One of the most powerful songs on 'Close To The Edge' is "Back From The Dead". Eliot spoke about the song, "The inspiration behind that is actually my bass player, Tony. The song is about recovery. Tony has struggled with addiction off and on throughout his life and I remember he and I sitting in a hotel room a couple of years ago and just talking late into the night about his addictions with alcohol and the history of that that runs through his family. And he got counselling, he started getting back in the church, he plays bass guitar for his church and the idea just hit me. Anybody who's struggling from anything can come back from the dead, can recover from whatever it is that's holding them down and that's why I wanted to put that as the first song on the record because to me it kind of sets the tone for the rest of the record I believe. I think it's a strong line, the very first line of the song is 'Close to the edge' and that's the name of the record. But one of the even more important lines of that song is where I say 'I beg for mercy but instead I get grace.' That's pretty much the underlying theme of that song. God is merciful and God is gracious."