It would
be slightly
inaccurate
to
call Honeytree
one of the
pioneers of
Contemporary
Christian
Music (CCM),
for at the
peak of her
career in
the 1970s
that term
had not yet
been coined.
Honeytree
was one of a
group of
artists who
made what
was called
Jesus
music--the
first music
to match
Christian
lyric themes
to the
folk-rock
and
soft-rock
styles of
the day.
Honeytree
was one of
very few
women active
in
contemporary
Christian
music at
this early
stage, and
she is
regarded as
a CCM
pioneer.
Honeytree
was
born
Nancy Henigbaum
in
Davenport,
Iowa,
on
April
11,
1952.
Henigbaum
means
"honey
tree"
in
German,
and
the
English
term
stuck
with
her
after
Honeytree's
high
school
friends
began
using
it
as a
nickname.
Honeytree's
parents
were
classical
musicians
and
members
of
the
Episcopal
Church,
and
as a
high
school
student
she
considered
a
career
as
an
orchestral
cellist.
But
her
mother,
Mary,
a
folk
music
enthusiast,
taught
her
to
play
the
guitar.
Honeytree
didn't
get
along
with
the
straight
arrows
at
her
high
school,
and
she
became
involved
with
the
hippie
counterculture
of
the
late
1960s.
She
told
Dell
Ford
of
the
Fort
Wayne,
Indiana,
Journal
Gazette
that
by
the
time
she
was
a
senior
in
high
school,
she
was
"a
hippie
and
into
drugs."
In
the
spring
of
1970
Honeytree's
sister,
who
was
studying
at
the
Fort
Wayne
Art
School
in
Indiana,
invited
her
to
come
for
a
visit
over
the
Easter
holiday.
In
Fort
Wayne
she
met
several
members
of
the
Jesus
People
movement,
a
group
of
hippie
converts
to
evangelical
Christianity.
They
introduced
her
to
John
Lloyd,
a
Fort
Wayne
youth
minister
who
operated
a
Christian
folk
coffeehouse
called
the
Adam's
Apple.
As a
result
of
her
holiday
experiences
she
became
a
born-again
Christian.
According
to
Christian
music
historian
Daniel
J.
Mount,
she
briefly
started
using
drugs
once
again
after
her
conversion
but
then
recovered
from
her
addiction.
Taking
a
job
as a
secretary
at
Adam's
Apple,
Honeytree
became
immersed
in
the
growing
overlap
between
rock
and
Christian
music.
"That
was
like
college
to
me,"
she
told
One
Way.
"I
worked
there
for
five
years
right
out
of
high
school.
Couldn't
have
gotten
a
better
education."
Attending
the
group's
Monday
night
Bible
study
sessions,
Honeytree
began
to
write
original
Christian
songs.
When
she
was
called
on
to
lead
a
group
of
singers
in
worship,
she
sometimes
added
one
of
her
own
songs
to
the
evening's
music.
A
minister,
impressed,
borrowed
money
so
that
she
could
record
and
press
her
first
album,
Honeytree,
in
1973.
Word
spread
quickly
about
its
unique
fusion
of
Christian
themes
with
the
folk-rock
trends
of
the
day;
Honeytree's
stylistic
models
were
not
traditional
Christian
musicians
but
female
stars
like
Carole
King
and
especially
Judy
Collins.
Honeytree
was
picked
up
and
reissued
by
the
nationally
distributed
Christian
label
Myrrh.
One
of
its
songs,
the
Brazilian-flavored
"Clean
Before
My
Lord,"
was
a
modest
hit,
and
"Treasures"
became
a
Christian
wedding
favorite.
Honeytree continued to issue new music on her own OakTable Publishing label, frequently in other languages. Honeytree met Mexican missionaries Ruth and Victor Martínez in Fort Wayne in the late 1980s and learned to sing some songs in Spanish for a return visit to Monterey. By 1994 she had released an album in Spanish, Dios ha abierto la puerta (God Has Opened the Door) and was on the way to speaking the language fluently. "The thing I am finding is that Latin American Christians have a tremendous zeal to reach the unreached people ... the Lord is doing something wild here," Honeytree told One Way. By 2005 Honeytree had extended her ministry to the Eastern hemisphere. She performed in predominantly Islamic Pakistan, under heavy security, and learned to sing some songs in the Urdu language. Her 2005 album Call of the Harvest, which featured a reunion with Keaggy, was available in English, Spanish, and Urdu versions. Websites devoted to the history of CCM were beginning to rediscover Honeytree's pioneering music of the 1970s as her reputation spread outward around the globe.
[by
James
M.
Manheim,
posted
on
Musician's
Guide]
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