American group Truth disband after three decades

AMERICAN vocal and instrumental group Truth, whose personnel down the years produced all the members of 4Him, Steve Green, Russ Lee, Natalie Grant, Dick and Mel Tunney and Avalons Jody McBrayer and Jana Long, are to fold. Roger Breland, founder and director of Truth, has announced the group, which began in 1971, will call it a day. He told The CCM Update, "For the past year my family and I have been praying about our future. We believe this final chapter will complete the vision that God launched 30 years ago."

In the past three decades, Truth has recorded 60 albums and performed more than 9,000 concerts, averaging more than 300 shows a year. The group travelled more than three million miles across 25 nations, sometimes performing multiple concerts in one day during the early years, Breland told The CCM Update. "When I first started, there was not really anything to compare us to," Breland said. "In the early 1970s, to take a group with drums and a guitar into the church was unheard of. The response from young people was great. I just wanted to use our music as a tool to share the Gospel."

The last few years have been difficult for artists who travel within the church circuit, Breland said. "The whole music scene has moved to arenas, so we see the trends turning, and it's a new generation. It's tough to find people these days who have a missionary spirit and who are willing to make as little money as we do because there are teenagers signing record contracts for a million dollars." More than 400 people have passed through Truth's ranks over the years, with more than 100 now serving as pastors, youth ministers, music directors or recording artists.
THE MAINSTREAM pop group featuring, among others, David & Carrie Grant and Eils, United Colours Of Sound, who were featured in an hour long TV documentary back in July 2000, are currently working with new record producers. The group hope to have their long delayed launch release by the end of the year.