A revolution has hit the international music world and it's one few pundits would have predicted. Country music is breaking all sales records. Tony Cummings looks at the new country explosion, the music's origins and how America's CCM industry, after decades of neglect, is rediscovering ITS country roots.



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Although she believes that if the body is encouraged then they'll minister to the lost, Susie isn't content to just stay in the church and sing to the choir. She says she wants to be out on the streets to encourage people there. And she does bellow it out on the song "I Don't Love You Like I Used To (I Love You More)", a duet with Paul Overstreet, whose producing, writing and vocal expertise brings out the true country flavour of her album's message which focuses on family values. "In the hard times your love should grow stronger - you're dedicated to your marriage not just to love each other in the good times."

Based in Atoka, Oklahoma, with her husband and three children, Susie says she's committed not only to her family but also to sharing God's word. "Everywhere we do, we share the gospel, even the places that you're not allowed to share, we share our testimony. That's just part of our lives."

BRUCE CARROLL
Bruce is possibly the figure in the growth of country gospel. He has recorded a stream of ever increasingly popular albums for Word, has won six Dove Awards and two Grammys. Bruce was born in Smerna, Georgia.

"I always loved music, ever since I was a young boy," said Bruce. "My older brother was playing and singing since the time he was nine or 10 years old. I thought it was neat, the way he could get up and pick up a guitar and sing and have people like him, because when he was done everybody would get up and clap and pat him on the back and tell him what a great job he did. I thought, 'Boy, that's really neat, how you could pick up a guitar and sing a song and have people love you,' so... Of course I wanted to be like my older brother and I asked my dad to give me a guitar. I worked hard at it and by the time I was 15 I was playing professionally. I'd say everybody in my family is musical, everybody does something, they either sing or play the piano or play the guitar. I've had musical roots ever since I was a little whipper snapper."

Through his teens and early 20s Bruce found he could make a living through his music. "I was playing clubs and bars and coffee houses all over the country and I was opening for some famous people, but I was empty, I was strung out on drugs and alcohol and I was searching for something that was going to make me happy. I thought that music was going to make me happy but it wasn't. I was miserable and got to the point where I had to get out of the music business or die. I had lost a lot; of friends through drugs and alcohol abuse and I didn't want to end up that way. Not that the music I was singing was bad, it's just that the lifestyle I was living was bad and I didn't have any other way out and I didn't have a religious experience at that time, it was just God's grace and his mercy showing me that I needed to get out of the music business or perish, so I sold all of my equipment and I found out about Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous and I got sober. I didn't play music for five years because I was trying to get happy, I was trying to fill this void that was inside me and anybody who doesn't know Jesus has a void that they can't fill, because they can't fellowship with God. God created us for fellowship with himself and no man comes to the Father but through the Son Jesus, and I didn't know him so I was empty. In 1979, ironically through my older brothers (he got saved in 78) I got saved. From 1979 until this moment I have wanted to do nothing else but sing for Jesus."

Bruce believes that the new wave of country gospel is bringing a much-needed gritty reality to music that can sometimes be shallow and even triumphalistic. "When I was first exposed to contemporary Christian music, I was surprised that I didn't hear any lyrics that pertained to how bad things are in the world today. I always heard the clichés about how everything was going to be okay. But my life was a screwed up mess; it took a long time to get it that way and it takes a long time to get it back on track. Nobody seemed to be talking about those realities. But as I've walked with God and lived this Christian life for the fast 12 or 13 years, that's the way life seems to me and so that's the way I'm gonna write about it. Life's tough, but you gotta walk on.

"That's why country is so popular right now, because people want to be related to, they want to know that somebody up there knows how they feel. So when they hear a song that says, 'When it comes to love, you don't count the cost,' they go, 'Wow, man, is that ever true...' These are songs that are based in reality."

ANDY LANDIS
Andy's husband is Steve Buckingham, one of the top producers in country music while Andy herself has co-written with award-winning songwriters like Allan Shamblin and Will Jennings. Andy's debut album 'Stranger' for Sparrow has gotten rave reviews. Britain's Country Music People magazine enthused, "If you thought that the fusion of country and gospel began and ended with Wendy Bagwell and the Happy Goodmans you had better pass on this. But if you're willing to hear an excellent, slightly left of centre country album with rock inputs and exemplary picking that just happens to have a positive message, this might be for you."

Contributing to her Christian music debut was an impressive list of musicians that includes Dolly Parton, Ricky Skaggs, Sweethearts Of The Rodeo, The Fairfield Four, Twila Paris and Phillips, Craig And Dean. The album was produced by Steve Buckingham. As impressive as Andy Landis' debut album is musically, her lyrics reflect a depth that is indicative of a woman who has tasted the bitterness and pain this world can bring, but recognises the hope and the healing that lies in Jesus Christ. "Stranger In A Strange Land" speaks of three different strangers, the last being Jesus...all struggling to be understood and all struggling to be loved. "Who loves the least of these/The servant all alone/Who loves the least of these/The stranger far from home."

With each song and each lyric, Andy reveals something of herself, as well as her outlook on issues such as love, loneliness, divorce and rape. One of Andy's favourite songs is "She Stays", in which a woman is struggling to keep her commitment in a marriage that has simply lost its spark. "In this day and age/She could walk away/No one would blame her/But she stays."

In her interview in CCM magazine Andy was at pains not to come across as someone who has it all together. "I intend, in my last breath, to learn something else about the Lord. I don't ever want to be hungry and thirsty. I want to know everything about the Lord I can. And I'm hoping that a few people (who hear my music) really are willing to say, That happened to me...help!' or That happened to my sister' or 'I've had those questions too."

MICHAEL JAMES
As Michael James Murphy, Michael recorded some smooth but anonymous MOR/pop gospel for Benson Records. It wasn't particularly successful and in truth it didn't deserve to be. Michael felt he had to 'fit in' with the pop scene. But at heart, he was just a "cowboy kid". In 1985 when his wife Laura had a miscarriage in the sixth month of her pregnancy, Michael got a "wake up call."

"I was on my face before God," he said, I realised I had been living to try to please man. So I really repented and said, 'Lord, Iwant to be a man of God. I want to love my wife Laura as your word has commanded me and my little girl Brittany...I want to be a blessing to her life. That's the number one calling in my life. And in my music, I am going to be who I am. I'm gonna buy my jeans and boots and put 'em back on.' I want whatever comes off the stage to be real and honest. I think it was Francis of Assisi who said, 'Be witnesses in all that you do and, if necessary, use words.' I kinda like that."

Rediscovering his musical roots, Michael began the long haul to secure a record contract in a CCM industry which was still highly resistant to country. Then with the mainstream country boom well underway Michael was signed to Reunion Records, home of Michael W Smith and Kathy Troccoli. Since then he's recorded two successful albums 'Closer To The Fire' and 'Shoulder To The Wind'. The emphasis on both is on family values, to let your children and your wife and the people around you see the character of Christ in your life.