Some of you may have just realized that we lost to Jesus Music pioneers recently.  Kevin Thomson from Sweet Comfort Band and Dana Key from DeGarmo & Key.  Recent blogs will fill in the story but on Episode #143…we remember.

When I started FULL CIRCLE JESUS MUSIC, I didn’t think about the fact that I’d need to do tribute shows and eulogies…I guess we all tend to think we’ll live forever on this earth.  But now some of the early Jesus music fathers have transitioned into a new venue where we’ll never die. It’s not rehearsal time anymore…they’re striking up the band and having a wonderful time in the presence of the King.

We play the songs and remember these legends in this episode.  Thanks to the generous help of Russell Baum, Jeff Cain and Steven Weyrich…we hope you’ll be blessed.  Let us know your comments…write info@fullcirclejesusmusic.com.

Open the playlist button above and click.

This weekend we upload a special Tribute to Kevin Thomson from the Sweet Comfort Band and Dana Key from DeGarmo and Key.

Please join us for the memories of these two pioneers of early Jesus music who recently transitioned into the presence of Jesus and His Father!!

“Knowledge is power,” he used to say. “ The one who knows is in control.”

I smile now because he never told the band where the gig was! “how much further is this gig?” we would ask and he’d always say “about four more miles”. It became one of the standard “Kevin-isms” we would quote for years when we didn’t have a clue.

The one who knows is in control. Kevin followed Jesus Christ. His favorite SCB tune, of course, was the one with the longest bass solo in it! “Get Ready” was a staple in the band’s set through six albums and eleven years. We closed the show with it even to the last concert. The song is a proclamation of the return of Christ and perhaps the mission statement of Sweet Comfort Band. Get Ready!

If our choice of food is any indication of whom we are, “Kev” was an all meat burrito with extra sauce and a big gulp. But mostly he was an evangelist above all. When I met him in 1972, he was doing a home bible study. I was a nominal student at Southern California College in Costa Mesa, and a clean cut run away from the east coast. He had an “afro” back then, and when coming to see me, stood out on the Christian campus like a hippie at the museum. The Jesus movement had caught fire in Southern California by then. I was singing solo at the circus tent they called Calvary Chapel. Monday night was a big bible study night there, maybe 3000 people, who could also hear the new Jesus music bands, Love Song, Children of the Day, Bill Sprouse, and Country Faith.

Bryan Duncan remembering Kevin Thomson, Bass player and founder of the Sweet Comfort Band, who died on May 30th 2010.

A lot of talking about changes and transition as of late…so Episode #142…a mixture of your requests as well as songs about CHANGE.

Go to the Playlist button and click to listen to Episode #142.

You’ll be hearing from some of those artists who were there from the beginning like Love Song, Mustard Seed Faith and Chuck Girard. Also those who came later on, like the Sweet Comfort Band, Fireworks, and Wayne Watson.

Our special “Ruminator” friend, Rodney Boyd helped make this show possible.  You can too…drop me a line and I’ll tell you how.

Randy Thomas of Sweet Comfort Band just said that he is starting to feel like all his “homies” are headed Home.  Randy had just lost his dear friend Kevin Thomson, one of the founders of the Sweet Comfort Band, who when home to Jesus on May 30.

Then over the weekend…Christian artist and pastor, Dana Key (DeGarmo & Key) passed away and joined him due to complications from a blood clot. He was only 56.

Maybe Bob Farrell of Farrell and Farrell said it best when he wrote in his blog…

my good friend and brother in Christ dana key died yesterday.

i have so many good memories of dana – he and eddie degarmo and i worked togetther a lot in the 80’s – writing songs for Farrell & Farrell and DeGarmo and Key, recording, touring – and just hanging

dana played some of the guitars on our Choices and Jump To Conclusions albums, as well as singing background vocals with jayne and i on both albums

i remember vividly recording bgv’s on People in a Box – dana and i were in the studio, eddie in the control room – right next to the mic dana had set a small portable black and white TV up on a stool – so he wouldn’t miss seeing Memphis State in the basketball finals (the same TV we quite spontaneously used to record the Monty Hall opener to that song)

i remember writing for the first time at eddie’s white frame house in germantown – that day we wrote Get Right or Get Left and Let the Whole World Sing – a pretty good day and a fair omen of more to come

i remember touring throughout Europe – and many wry comments and commentaries from my friend with the sharp intellect and active sense of humor

i remember his incisive and sometimes blistering message to the body of Christ in their concerts – and his heartfelt invitation to the unbeliever in their midst: whosoever will may come

i remember him writing constantly while riding on the bus – on legal pads and notebooks (before PC’s) – thoughts, lyrics, song and sermon ideas

i remember more than once his encouraging words for jayne and i – whether it was about family issues or tour buses

i remember especially writing the lyrics with him and eddie to a song i have always loved that jayne sang on our Superpower album:

Where the Lord is there will be peace
He will bring love and all tears will cease
We will rise up as on eagle’s wings
When we find the way to love

For we see but a poor reflection
But one day we shall see face to face
When we find the way to love

i remember watching D&K perform so many times – and always had a heavenly vision when i heard their rendition of the classic Are You Ready?

Are you ready to sit by His throne
Are you ready not to be alone
Someone’s comin’ to take you home
And if you’re ready He will carry you home

Songwriter, believer, poet, author, philosopher, preacher, pastor, brother….friend
Yesterday. Someone came to carry dana home. I will miss him.
And….I look forward to seeing him again someday.

bob farrell
June 7, 2010