Monday Music - John Schlitt / A Greater Cause

The first time I met John Schlitt was in 1976. He was the lead vocalist for band out of Chicago named "Head East." They were on tour promoting their first album Flat As A Pancake and had stopped by to spend a little time on the air with us at WAAL in Binghamton, NY. Why Binghamton?

Well, as it turned out, "The Whale" was one of the first two stations to play the "hit" single from that LP, "Never Been Any Reason," which remains a staple on Classic Rock stations to this very day. When the album eventually reached the million seller mark, we were awarded with a Gold Record for our efforts in helping that happen. Okay, enough for the back story.

Time passed, and over the next 5 years, Head East sort of came and went. In 1980, John abruptly left the band, and I never paid much attention to Head East after that point.  Then, about a month ago, I was asked to interview John for the premier issue of Live2Play Worship, an iPad publication put out by the Live2Play Network. You can download a copy for your iPad if you click here.

John had quite a story to tell, a testimony that includes some extremely high highs and almost bottomless lows (click here for the entire Skype interview) but rather than try to "nutshell it" I've posted one part of the skype  interview here, the rest can be found at the at the Live2Play site. (Hint: After Head East, and a major change in the direction of his life, John was again singing lead—this time for one of the most controversial and longest lasting Christian rock bands of all time)


So that brings us right up to today.

John's latest release is "A Greater Cause" (funded in part through donations at kickstarter.com)  and his voice is as strong as ever. The songwriting is encouraging and insightful. The production is edgy and dynamic and the 11 tracks run the course from sweet and melodic to "I may be 62, but I can still rock, so look out!."

Here's the video for one of the featured tracks "Faith And Freedom" - you can listen to (and purchase) "A Greater Cause" at http://schlittshop.com/.