Jesus is Just All Right

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Posted on: May 12, 2024

JESUS IS JUST ALL RIGHT:
Unjustly Obscure God-Rock in the Early Seventies

by Rich Horton

Overland Stage (EPIC Records, 1972)

NOTE: This is an article of mine originally published in Dave Liljengren’s East Portland Blog in May 2024.

Starting in the late Sixties and into the early Seventies, Jesus was all over the airwaves. The Byrds had recorded the infectious “Jesus Is Just Alright” for their “Ballad of Easy Rider” album, “Spirit in the Sky” and “Put Your Hand in the Hand of the Man” were riding the top of the charts, and “Jesus Christ: Superstar” and “Godspell” were drawing in musical theater audiences.

It was cool to invoke Jesus, or, at least a hippie version of Jesus.

Meanwhile, the budding Jesus Movement – a phenomenon that was theoretically comprised of erstwhile hippies and Peace Movement activists – was spawning its own bands, giving birth to the genre-specific label “Jesus Rock;” i.e., rock music that was prominently about “finding the Lord,” virtually to the exclusion of all other topics, which meant that early ‘70s Jesus Rock was often simplistic, amounting to nothing more than sloganeering.

Despite the limitations of the genre, a few Jesus Rockers – artists like Larry Norman, Phil Keaggy, Bruce Cockburn, and Daniel Amos – did expand the genre by breaking through the confines and creating music that was musically adventurous, thought-provoking, lyrically and poetically dexterous, and didn’t merely parrot religious slogans and the name “Jesus” in every other verse or chorus. Some of those artists rightly became known outside the box of Jesus Rock and gained more widespread legitimacy.

Mystifyingly, though, among all the Jesus Rock groups of the time, one of its very best bands, Overland Stage, was virtually unknown outside its home stomping grounds of Fargo, North Dakota. And it wasn’t just the wider, secular world that was unaware of them, the Christian rock community in general was ignorant of them, as well. In fact, I heard about this excellent band only because a couple of my college friends from North Dakota raved about them all the time. I subsequently bought their debut album on a visit to Fargo in 1973 and ended up playing the heck out of it.

And here’s what you should know about this superb band:

Overland Stage had all the musical chops and songwriting expertise of any big hippie-rock band you want to name from the Rock Festival Era of the early Seventies. Supporting solidly written songs, Overland Stage featured a big rock sound that sometimes wandered into jazzy territory. The band’s musical identity was highlighted by tough but catchy guitar riffs, muscular Hammond organ chords, jazzy flute interjections, an appealing lead singer, and solid harmony singing. Talent-wise, they were far more accomplished than all but 3-4 of the best Jesus Rock bands of the early Seventies and on a par with virtually any band of the time.

To the point: Overland Stage was a perfect early Seventies band, no matter the genre. Their skill and musicianship could be compared to Argent or, perhaps, to a hookier Santana. And though they were identified as a Christian band, the majority of their songs weren’t overtly religious or preachy. Subject-wise, they mostly fit with the other peace-and-love and utopian songs of the day. Fab FM radio fare.

And what should have been the best endorsement for Overland Stage is that unlike most of their Jesus Rock brethren who were releasing their records themselves or were signed to small indie labels, Overland Stage was signed to a major record label, Epic Records, a Columbia Records subsidiary that had a broad national and international distribution network.

Unfortunately, whether due to budget limitations or to a lack of faith in the band, Epic Records failed to promote Overland Stage as much as the excellence of their eponymously-named album deserved, and Overland Stage never got much exposure outside of North Dakota – which, admittedly, seems like a hard place to launch a career from, right? And though the band appeared to be popular in the Upper Plains, at some point things petered out for them, and they were ultimately dropped by Epic with no second album to their name.

Despite the band’s obscurity and the limited distribution of their LP, “Overland Stage” is one of only a handful of Jesus Rock albums and artists that I continued to play long after the Jesus Rock fad died out, and ages ago I wore out my vinyl copy. Unfortunately, try as I might – and I searched for years – I could find no evidence that it was ever reissued, despite the fact that the CD Age was a boon for even the most obscure records from the ‘60s and ‘70s.

However, one day in a Google search, I stumbled on the name of the drummer from Overland Stage, David Hanson. David still lives in Fargo and operates a recording studio there. I wrote him an email, telling him of my great love for the “Overland Stage” album and asking whether it had ever been reissued. David wrote back to thank me for my continued interest in Overland Stage and to say that, unfortunately, their album had never been reissued. In an unexpected surprised, however, a few days later I got another email from David. He’d created MP3 files of the album’s songs using a vinyl album in “good-to-very good” condition as the source, and he invited me to download the MP3’s.

Fifteen years later, I’m still listening to those Overland Stage tracks and find them as rewarding and stimulating as I did back in the ‘70s, and I’m pleased to find that the band has created a YouTube channel in the past few years. And I still think this should have been a hit single back in the day:

UPDATE: I have recently learned that Overland Stage has their own Facebook page and have been recording new tracks. Welcome back, gentlemen! Here’s to overcoming obscurity!