Over the past few months I've begun to recognize styles of Christian artists to the point that I can finally make some comparisons there. What brought me to that realization happened while I was listening to the band, Peace of Mind. I knew I'd heard a similar sound before. "Ah-ha," I thought, "they sound a lot like KJ-52." I'm not into rap by any means, but I really surprised myself while I was reading the printed material from the album. There, featured on vocals, was KJ-52. A day or two later, a rapper came on the radio and I said, "That sounds a lot like T-Bone." The DJ came on and verified my suspicion, and my daughter gave me a raised-eyebrow look and said something like, "Dad, YOU can identify rappers after just a couple words?" She was nearly shocked. She knows I claim to not like rap.
The week before, I had another comparison light come on. While driving out to one of our bookmobile stops (Wellington, Mo.) my boss was listening to a tape on her Walkman. The sound that escaped the headphones appealed to me and I asked if she could put it in the bookmobile's tape player. She did, and it was strange to me how similar Creed's vocals were to Third Day's. Then, a few days later, I overheard people in my local Christian bookstore discussing Third Day's sound.
When a guy said Third Day was a hard alternative band, I had to express my differing opinion. I made the claim that Third Day was more a Southern rock band. He countered with, "They sound just like Creed." I agreed that the vocals did, but musically, they were more like Lynyrd Skynyrd or .38 Special. (Actually, they're closest to Allman Brothers for sound --soft rock with a country twang.) He gave an expression of ponderment, then said, "Yeah, I guess they could." Third Day's Mac Powell sounds nearly identical to Creed's Scott Stapp. An interesting thought came to mind: Does a vocalist define a band? Van Halen and Black Sabbath became different bands when David Lee Roth and Ozzy Ozbourne left them. Is Peace of Mind just another KJ-52 by another name? --I guess I'm getting off track (I tend to do that, don't I?).
