Randy Matthews
is a Christian
singer-songwriter, guitarist, and
pioneer of
Jesus music.
Born into a family with at least five
ordained ministers, including his
father, Monty, who was a founding member
of the
Jordanaires.
Monty founded a quartet of high school
students in Lamar, Mo. to give Randy a
chance to develop musically. Randy sang
lead; Noel Scott, baritone; Spike (Carl)
Bickel, tenor: and Dan Fields, bass.
The Zionaires performed regionally
and sang in competitions with
professional quartets.
Later, in college,
Randy briefly 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. He
founded a center in Cincinnati for
promoting social activities among
Christians and providing shelter and
hope to the downtrodden. He took what he
called, "gospel rock," and made it his
lifework, starting with his
ground-breaking 1971 album
Wish We'd All Been
Ready
the first rock-based album recorded on
Word Records,
which up until that point had only
produced religious musical recordings.
Like most good
albums, "Wish We'd All Been Ready" ends
up as a conversation between musicians
who agree on the message. Randy himself
simply says: "It was the Lord's album
and I knew he'd do it his way."
Randy inherited the deep "amen" at the
end of his songs from his father, Monty
Matthews, who began his career as the
baritone voice of The Foggy River Boys,
a gospel group based in Cassville,
Missouri. When Randy was just a young
boy, the family moved to Nashville where
Monty helped to organize the Jordanaires,
Elvis' first backup group. When they
returned to Missouri, the elder Matthews
became a cast member on ABC-TV's
Ozark Jubilee
and Randy became the lead singer of an
acid rock band.
Randy Matthews is
currently working as a "pirate" called
Red Beard Rules
Website
at the Trade Winds Resort in St.
Petersburg Beach, Florida and has
released an album of original "pirate
songs."
[ from the Wikipedia entry for
Randy Matthews]
