Song: Rise Again
Scripture: Matthew 28:1-10
"He is not here: for He is risen, as He said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay. And go quickly, and tell His disciples that He is risen from the dead."
One would be hard pressed to write a book of stories behind worship songs -- mostly contemporary songs -- and leave out the story behind Rise Again, written by one of the pioneers of the contemporary genre of Christian music. Information about his early life can be found in another story.
His notoriety and fame as a contemporary Christian musician was augmented by the fact that he traveled with David Wilkerson, made famous by his book, The Cross and the Switchblade. It was while with Wilkerson that Dallas formed the band he called Dallas Holm and Praise. Shortly after forming the band he began to write songs for them to sing, and his first effort was the subject of this story.
In an interview several years ago, I asked Dallas to give me the story behind the writing of Rise Again,” a song that still holds music charting records. When he wrote the song contemporary Christian music was not yet clearly on the horizon. This, in his own words, is his story:
“After we had decided to to form the band, I realized that I would need to write some new material. I knew that the music should be different from the things I was used to writing. So I got out my pen and paper and thought, ‘I need to get busy and write some songs.’ I often had a disciplined approach to songwriting and have written some of my better songs in that frame of mind. But this particular day I couldn’t come up with a single idea. I drew an absolute zero.”
“I began to pray, which I should have done in the first place, and in the course of my praying I remember saying, ‘Lord, if You were singing, what would You sing?’ That thought really stuck in my mind. I didn’t know if I had ever heard a song from a first-person point of view. As hokey as it may sound, I had this mental image of the Lord, dressed as we often picture Him in our minds, standing on a street corner with a guitar, singing. It was as if you could translate Jesus into modern times, with singing as His form of communication. What would He sing?
“As soon as I focused in on that approach to my task, I began to write as if I were taking dictation. I wrote the music and the words in about ten minutes -- no changes. I titled it Rise Again.”
“As I finished I looked at the song and realized that this didn’t come out of my head. I have often said that God wrote the song, and I just delivered the message. That describes the way I feel about that experience.”
“Dallas Holm and Praise had only been together six weeks when we recorded a ‘live’ album in the Lindell High School auditorium in Lindell, Texas, (the home of Paul Baloche, author of Open the Eyes of My Heart and Above All.) It seated about 350 people. We had a mobile unit to come in from Nashville to do the recording, and we spent a whopping $5,000.”
“Rise Again ended up as ‘cut four’ on ‘side two,’ the worst place, and generally referred to as the graveyard of songs. We basically did everything wrong: (1) live albums were not selling; (2) we put the song in the wrong place; and (3) we rushed into the project. We had only been together for a few short weeks. Nevertheless, somewhere, someone on radio played Rise Again, and word spread. ‘Dallas Holm and Praise...Live!’ went on to be one of the first three albums to receive a Recording Industry Association of America gold-certified record.”
“To me it was a great lesson. If God puts His finger on something, and if He anoints it, it doesn’t make any difference if all of the right marketing plans and promotional schemes are used. We didn’t know anything about that stuff. Having Christ say, ‘Go ahead and drive the nails in my hands...’ impacted the listener. It stayed on the Singing News Magazine charts for four years. As far as we know that has never happened before or since.”
Dallas has now written approximately 300 songs with 250 of them recorded or published. He has recorded 33 albums and CDs. He and other motorcycle riders take their bike into prisons, talking with inmates about them, thus allowing a tremendous opportunity to witness for Christ.
Reflection:
It is Christ’s triumph over the tomb that allowed Him to keep His divine promise to those around Him when he declared, “I will rise again!”
Author: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
Written: 12/01/2007
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Category: Behind the Songs
Comments: 2
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I love "Rise Again" and it means so much to me and my family. We have a Mom and Dad in heaven along with a granddaughter who we thought we died to soon but it was all in God's plan. Don's know if we have ever Dallas Holm live or not but we do go to Gaither Con certs and just went to the Praisefest in Seiverville, TN and they are both great. Rebekah K. Jones
I tell you this.... you have not lived until you have had the experience of singing "Rise Again" while a good sign language translator was beside you showing the sign for "rise"!!!!
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