Just Vinyl

I've spent a lot of time in the studio over the last week or so, recording programmes for my new show which will air this Autumn on CrossRhythms radio (see dates below!) The show is called Just Vinyl, and it features classic Contemporary Christian Music (CCM) tracks, drawn largely from the 1970s and 1980s. I'm playing exclusively vinyl because it has a particular quality and although there are a few clicks and pops every now and then, I think this just adds to the beauty of the medium.

Many of the artists I'm featuring are giants of the genre, pioneers of CCM when it was in its infancy, when very few of the musicians were full-time.

Today, Christian music is big business - there are radio stations, record labels and management/touring companies dedicated fully to promoting it. Back in the day, very little of this existed, and those who were involved in pioneering CCM had to forge their own pathways. It was not easy to finance ventures into Christian music - most musicians, like myself, were 'part-time heroes', spending weekends and evenings playing, while holding down day jobs to keep our families fed and housed.

In the UK a very few, like folk band Parchment and new wave outfit After The Fire, enjoyed some success in the mainstream charts, and we always had Cliff Richard with his periodically released CCM albums. Over in the US, several mainstream artists such as Barry McGuire, Bob Dylan, Philip Bailey (Earth Wind and Fire) and Leon Patillo (Santana) also began to release Christian albums. As more bands and artists emerged and production and recording techniques improved, so CCM became a more mainstream genre and now stands in its own right, with annual awards such as the Dove Awards played out during prime time TV.

The classic tracks I choose to play on Just Vinyl are eclectic, representing just about every musical style and influence that exists. In between I offer my recollections of backstage antics, personal reflections of encounters with the artists, and a general history of CCM, to connect the playlist into a coherent narrative. Although at present, the show is only being broadcast on a very local basis, we hope it will eventually be syndicated across networks. And of course, it is also available for you to listen to online at this link.

NB: The first programme is on air on Sunday 23 September at 1400 BST and is repeated on Wednesday 26 September at 2000 BST. Shows will be broadcast throughout October and November at the same times. So please join me for Just Vinyl on CrossRhythms community radio!

Show schedule (all times are BST/GMT): 
Programme 1: Sun 23 Sept at 1400 and Wed 26 Sept at 2000
Programme 2: Sun 30 Sept at 1400 and Wed 3 Oct at 2000
Programme 3: Sun 7 Oct at 1400 and Wed 10 Oct at 2000
Programme 4: Sun 14 Oct at 1400 and Wed 17 Oct at 2000
Programme 5: Sun 21 Oct at 1400 and Wed 21 Oct at 2000
Programme 6: Sun 28 Oct at 1400 and Wed 31 Oct at 2000
Programme 7: Sun 4 Nov at 1400 and Wed 7 Nov at 2000
Programme 8: Sun 11 Nov at 1400 and Wed 14 Nov at 2000

Photo credit: Steve Wheeler


Just Vinyl by Steve Wheeler was written in Plymouth, England and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.