The Messengers and the Good News: Born Again Private Press Xian Folk Psych 1971

$

250

 Born Again is an outstanding custom obscurity that showcases the talents of two excellent Jesus music groups from Vermont. Side one belongs to The Messengers, five longhaired chaps who time-warped their sound back to the UK psychedelic garage rock/beat scene circa 1966 and 1967. Man, these guys have got spunk! ‘Not Too Early’ opens with quick-paced jangling electric guitar, surging organ, heavy drums and Merseybeat harmonies – first listen I was absolutely convinced they were British (and it still wouldn’t surprise me if one or two of them actually were). All six tracks are strong, especially the powerful ‘The Right Way’ which opens on a two-note ‘For What It’s Worth’ kind of theme, then building to an explosion of ferocious in-your-face hard rock fuzz guitar. Side two features seven selections by the folk duo Good News. While obviously not as heavy as their buddies on the flip side, Wayne Harvey and David Trombley emerge as one of the better examples of the style, exemplifying much of the depth of Simon & Garfunkel’s acoustic work. Cover uses the same image of Christ as Agape’s Gospel Hard Rock. Eet’z a monstah!!!!!! (Ken Scott - Archivist)

Released by the small Vermont-based House label, both groups play Christian rock, but it's one of those rare albums that might appeal to a much broader audience.  So here are what the liner notes have to say about the two groups:

"Early in March 1970, six people began praying to a way and a love big enough to draw the freaks and straights off the streets of Brattleboro, Vermont ("All American" city which the New York Times one stated as having the second highest per capita drug abuse rate in the U.S.) to find a New Way, a new life in Jesus Christ.  Each of the six had little in common: different age, educational background, social orientation everything.  Only one thing united them: each had been "born again" through faith in Jesus Christ and His sinless life and selfless death 2,000 years ago.  Each had recognized his personal separation from God, his need of a savior and director for his life, and the importance of individually receiving Christ's gift of salvation, freedom, joy, and peace.  The prayer worked.  The love was shared.  The gospel hit the streets and inevitably people believed.  from six we grew to sixty ad more and more.  Among the many new believers were those who wanted to present their joy in the Lord through music and expression developed into two groups - The Messengers and Good News.  This record is not designed to turn you on to music.  The music was not written to give you a good feeling.  Eight guys just didn't pick up their instruments to entertain you.  You see there's a ninth personality involved with this record - the Holy Spirit of the Living God.  And if you don't meet Him through it, you've never gotten off at all.  If you know Christ already, worship Him with us in song.  If you have never trusted Him with your life, we pray deeply for you will find Him through this music."

As you'd expect these six guys (keyboardist Robert Buehler, rhythm guitarist Arthur Rizzi, horn player Lloyd Rosvear, bassist Dale Vittum (theliner notes say David), singer/lead guitarist Verne Vittum, and drummer Mark Young) were quite earnest and dedicated to their beliefs which made the overt lyrics a bit heavy-handed ...  the standard themes of rebirth, salvation, etc. pounded out time after time. Overlooking the lyrics the interesting thing here was the group's musical orientation.  Tracks like Bueher's 'Not Too Early', 'One Way', and '' sported a nifty mix of jangle-rock, surprisingly intricate harmony vocals, with more than a touch of Mersybeat influence on display - doubt their Merseybeat credentials then check out the fantastic 'Everywhere You Go'.  At the same time the six songs had kind of a raw and under-produced garage-edge which was well suited to their performances.  As lead guitarist Verne Vittum was quite good (check out his fuzz lead on 'The Right Way') while the rest of the band played with considerable enthusiasm.  In fact the only disappointment was the hokey C&W flavored 'Let Him In'.  Best of the lot was pseudo-classic folk-rocker 'Everywhere You Go' which would have sounded good on FM radio.   

Stylistically the acoustic duo Good News (singer/guitarists Wayne Harvey and David Trombley) were about as far away from The Messengers as you could get.  True, they shared the desire to spread the good word, but from that point on they had radically different musical directions.  Largely written by Harvey and his wife Pam (Trombley wrote two of the songs), these seven acoustic tracks were all quite good in a sensitive singer/songwriter kind of way (imagine Seals and Crofts if they weren't Baha'is).  Exemplified by tracks like 'One Thirteen', 'Disciple Song' (with some nice finger pickin'), 'Holy Joe' (the latter sported a wonderful horn arrangement that may have been by Lloyd Rosevear), and the fragile 'AIn't It Nice' side two was never less than pleasant, though to my ears it didn't come close to The Messengers catalog.

"Born Again" track listing:
(side 1)

1.) Not Too Early   (Bob Buhler) - 2:28

2.) One Way  (Mark Young) - 2:13

3.) Everywhere You Go   (Pam Harvey) - 2:10

4.) The Right Way    (Mark Young) - 4:44

5.) Let Him In   (Phil Prever) - 3:40

6.) The Other Side   (Verne Vittum) - 2:23

(side 2)
1.) There Comes a Time   (Pam Harvey  - Wayne Harvey) - 2:18

2.) Lonely People   (Pam Harvey  - Wayne Harvey) - 3:05

3.) Holy Joe   (Pam Harvey  - Wayne Harvey) - 4:23

4.) One Thirteen   (Pam Harvey  - Wayne Harvey) - 3:00

5.) Disciple Song   (David Trombley) - 4:06

6.) Ain't It Nice   (David Trombley) - 1:31

7.) Here Today Gone Tomorrow   (David Trombley) - 3:39

Bit of trivia, Buehler became an ecumenical pastor working in Southern Maryland

He was also kind enough to take a couple of minutes to send me some additional information on the group:

"Let's see.... If I recall correctly, here's how the authorship worked.

"Not Too Early" was written by me.  I woke up with the words running through my head to a forgettable tune, went over to Verne's house that day and ran it by him.  He said, well, the tune's no good but we can fix that, and came up with the arrangement on the spot.  (I learned to play the keyboard on the fly with this and some other songs).

I believe both "One Way and "The Right Way" were written by our drummer, Mark. 

"Everywhere You Go" — Lyrics by Pam Harvey.  Vocals on this track were by Good News (Wayne Harvey and Dave Trombley) whose songs, also mostly all written by Pam, appear on the other side of the album.  Our group just provided the instrumentals for this one.

I'm embarrassed to say I can't recall who wrote "The Other Side".... I think it was Verne Vittum, our lead guitarist and vocalist on most of the tracks.

The remaining track, "Let Him In", was a fun piece written by our friend Phil Prever.  He had imagined it rendered with a more Creedence-like driving beat, but we sort of morphed it into this hillbilly-ish romp. 

On the Good News side, all the numbers were written by Pam Harvey, music by her husband Wayne, except for the last two: "Ain't it Nice" and "Here Today Gone Tomorrow," both by my high school classmate Dave Trombley.  For my money, "Ain't it Nice" is, well, the nicest piece of music on the whole album.

We recorded this entire corpus, such as it is, in a single afternoon session; about four hours of actual studio time.

I have had rare contact over the years with some of the others. Our drummer, who was sixteen when this album was cut, did not survive to see his twentienth birthday.  So far as I know, the Harveys are still in Vermont or nearby New Hampshire.  Verne built a house in Hinsdale, N.H., married and settled down there; I visited him there a time or two, but the last was over ten years ago. I presume it was he who re-issued the album, as the copyrights were all assigned to him. I've unfortunately not had contact with anyone else.  I'm now pastor of a rural church in southern Maryland, and don't have nearly so much hair."

Robert Buehler

February 2008

"Hey, Scott, after several months I have one more correction on the Messengers/Good News material. 

I told you erroneously that the last two songs on the Good News side were written by Dave Trombley; have since been reminded that he actually also was the author of "The Disciple Song"... so that should be the last three songs on that side. 

Also Verne Vittum has confirmed to me today that he and Pam Harvey co-wrote "The Other Side" while driving back from a Bible study some miles away. Verne was driving, they worked on it together and now and then she would ask him to turn on the dome light so she could write some more down.  I now recollect seeing the handwritten lyrics in her handwriting at  his house the next day, as we (mostly he) were working out the music.  I was always particularly proud of the way I backed up the words ""shuddered at the sound" on the keyboard, in the first stanza."

Robert Buehler

July 2009

Rosevear apparently still lives in Vermont and remains active in music.  I found a reference to him playing with Joel Kay & His New York Neophonic Orchestra and his name is associated with a website devoted to Vermont Horns (I'm not making that up).  

Verne Vittum's son Paul  formed the small New Hampshire-based Red Carpet Ring (RCR) label (home of such mega-sellers as Fablefactory, The Micro-ondes, and Princeton Reverbs Colonial).