Chagall Guevara - Chagall Guevara (1991)

Steve Taylor is one of the lasting impressions I still have from my Christian-rock-only era (after I’d discovered music, but before I learned that it doesn’t have to be about Jesus)

Taylor was a whip smart songwriter and observer of human nature. He seems to have found himself–as clever people with authority problems often do–at odds with the conventional Christian Right that was the dominant force in commercial Christian music. Whether it was that tension or his discomfort with the CCM world being more industry than ministry, he chafed at its edges.

Chagall Guevara was a bid by Taylor and some like-minded musicians to do a more conventional sort of rock and break out of the CCM ghetto. I could speculate that the problem was due to being a recognizable fish only in their own extremely small pond, but for whatever reason it didn’t work out and this is their only record.

It’s really too bad because I love this one.

The band is tight, and makes some conventional but very well-executed 90s pop / alt rock (the other band members are Nashville session guys in addition to being in various CCM outfits, which probably lends itself to conventional but well-executed). Taylor’s lyrics are, as always, top notch examinations of faith, conviction, and getting on in the modern world.

Tracks I Liked

Murder In The Big House - Modern life is rubbish but, like, eschatologically

Escher’s World - an XTC-style take on moral relativism

Monkey Grinder - one of those “best songs nobody seems to know about.” We all occasionally feel like we’re dancing to someone else’s hurdy gurdy