I am madly in love with classic, cheesy CCM

Oh, how I remember the days of classic CCM (contemporary Christian music). Back in the early ninety's I was a young teenager who had just turned his life over to Christ. Some youth group friends introduced me to the greatness of Michael W. Smith and Steven Curtis Chapman. Hey, back in the day, they weren't old guys...and they sounded pretty darn good. I will readily admit that a majority of Christian music was lame back then. (Come to think of it...I think a majority of Christian music is lame today too.) These guys were awesome. My first Christian cassette tape was Michael W. Smith's Go West Young Man. A classic. I mean, check out this album art. I just oozes coolness:



Anyway, this strange, nostalgic post is inspired by a CD that is about to come out where some current musicians cover some of Michael W. Smith's old stuff. It will be called: Ultimate Music Makeover: The Songs of Michael W. Smith. Like I said, I think a majority of Christian music is still lame, so I don't think I'll like every song on this album. In fact, I think the title is really lame. BUT, if you surf over to the official website, you can listen to clips of each of the songs. And I think it just plain fun to hear some of these old songs that I grew up on redone. Probably my two favorite MWS songs of all time: Rocketown and Secret Ambition are there...and they sound awesome. (This only furthers my conclusion that they guys of David Crowder Band are a bunch of musical geniuses...bordering on the edge of insanity.) I would buy the CD just for those two songs. Oh, and one other thing, you can hear the full version of four of the songs (including Rocketown) over at their myspace page.

Now, don't get me started on the radical sounds that came out of my tape deck when I first popped in DC Talk...