Randy Matthews
Encyclopedia
Randy Matthews is a Christian singer-songwriter, guitarist, and pioneer of Jesus music
Jesus music
Jesus music, known as gospel beat music in the United Kingdom, is a style of Christian music which originated on the West Coast of the United States in the late 1960s and early 1970s. This musical genre developed in parallel to the Jesus movement...

. He was born into a family with at least five ordained ministers, including his father, Monty, a founding member of the Jordanaires. When Randy was in high school in Lamar, Mo., he sang in a quartet called The Zionaires, which was also founded by his father. This quartet performed regionally and sang in quartet competitions. Other members of the group included Noel Scott, baritone; Spike (Carl) Bickel, tenor; and Dan Fields, bass.

Randy briefly attended Ozark Bible College in Joplin, Mo. During this time he joined Noel Scott and Charlene Munger in the developing movement of Christian folk music. This experience helped Matthews to choose a less traditional path to ministry. After leaving college, he founded a coffee house ministry in Cincinnati with the purpose of promoting social activities among Christians and providing a safe haven for street people.

In 1971 Randy was signed as the first contemporary Christian artist to record for Word Records
Word Records
Word Records is a Christian record label based in Nashville, Tennessee. It is a division of Word Entertainment , which, itself is co-owned by Warner Music Group and Curb Records...

, a gospel label which had, up to that point, released spoken word recordings and albums of traditional gospel music. His first album was Wish We'd All Been Ready. With the release of his second album, All I Am Is What You See, Word launched a new label called Myrrh Records
Myrrh Records
Myrrh Records, also known as Myrrh Worship, is a Christian music record label. According to Encyclopedia of American Gospel Music, the label was instrumental in developing a popular following for Contemporary Christian music as the label that first published music by Barry McGuire, 2nd Chapter of...

, created specifically to tap into the musical interests of the burgeoning Jesus movement
Jesus movement
The Jesus movement was a movement in Christianity beginning on the West Coast of the United States in the late 1960s and early 1970s and spreading primarily through North America and Europe, before dying out by the early 1980s. It was the major Christian element within the hippie counterculture,...

.

Randy's music and concert style has always pushed the envelope. In 1974, Randy was invited to perform at The Jesus Festival, a Woodstock type event in which attenders camped out and listened to Christian music and Bible teaching for three days. When Matthews' band took the stage, the promoters and many in the crowd were shocked at their rock and roll presentation; up to this point most contemporary Christian music was more influenced by folk than rock. Matthews' band was unplugged by the promoters and chased off the stage by the concert-goers. Randy referenced this experience on his fourth album, 1975's Eyes to the Sky, with a song called Pennsylvania song: "you pulled the plug and drained my soul, but I know I left a ring around the tub of tradition, I saw some dance and sing" and again in his ninth solo album, titled Plugged In.

Randy Matthews is currently working under the stage name Red Beard, performing frequently at the Trade Winds Resort in St. Petersburg Beach, Florida and the Palm Island Resort. He recently released an album of pirate songs and tall tales called Red Beard Pirate King.

Discography

  • Wish We'd All Been Ready (1971)
  • All I Am Is What You See... (1972)
  • Son of Dust (1973)
  • Eyes to the Sky (1975)
  • Now Do You Understand (1975) - double live album
  • Matthews, Taylor & Johnson (1976)
  • The Best of Randy Matthews (1976)
  • Live in Australia (1978)
  • Randy Matthews (1980)
  • Plugged In (1981)
  • Streets of Mercy (1987)
  • The Edge of Flight (1990)
  • Red Beard Pirate King (2008)

External links

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