Just For You CCSS 1971
The Bridge is one of my favorite American folkrock groups. This North Carolina band developed a unique, joyful, exuberant, electric sound with emphasis on melody, harmonies, percussion, heavy bass, and organ, combined with worshipful lyrics. This is some of the nicest homegrown stuff I've ever heard. Although their premier release Just For You features little original material, they provide a fresh approach to songs written by Love Song, The Way, Ron Salsbury, Mylon LeFevre, and others. rarely get too excited about "cover" albums - the renditions usually pale next to the originals - but this one's an exception. KS

Hallelujah CCSS 1972
Though Just For You is quite good, Hallelujah is exceptional. The electric definitely gets plugged in on this one - call it Children of The Day meats Wilson McKinley, joining the former's knack for melody and fragile heartfelt harmonies with the latter's high-energy percussive excitement. Hallelujah also displays the band's excellence at songwriting as all the material is self- composed. The title cut's my fave here a fun percussion- oriented piece full of maracas, woodblocks, cowbells, pumping bass, and a chorus of 'Hallelujah!"s (verse one) followed by "Jesus!" (verse two). 'Nothin's Been The Same' has a nice psychy organ intro. 'Living My Life For Jesus', 'He'll Be There', and 'Lifting My Voice' are all decent acoustic ballads that set high standards for the genre. The album is one of the tops for capturing the zeal and excitement of the Jesus movement. My favorite line: "Jesus! He's the vibration that can get you in tune". KS

Unto The Lord PRP 1973
Unto The Lord is an equal triumph. It's significantly tamer than Hallelujah (less on the fuzz electric leads), but excels in achieving quality quiet melodic soft rock sounds with nice flute accompaniment. Taped this one for Bob Felberg who listened to it on the beach and reportedly floated away (last spotted somewhere over the Atlantic). 'Tell Everyone' opens the lp with a breezy uptempo summery sound augmented by jazzy electric piano. The Keaggy/Sandquist ballad 'Eternally Grateful' is the album's sole non-original composition. Banjo and kazoo come out for 'Drink That Living Water'. 'Only he Beginning' brings back the rock edge of the Hallelujah lp. All these are custom pressings, very difficult to locate, and feature excellent watercolor sleeve art. Other bands have rocked harder, but few have touched my heart as much as The Bridge. A fourth release, the double-lp He Has Done Great Things For Us, reached for a more polished adult contemporary sound. KS

He Hath Done Great Things For Us Sword 1977