As far back as I can remember, I’ve always loved people and wanted to touch them somehow, to reach into their hearts and bring out their emotions by singing to or talking with them. When I was eight years old, I sang my first solo in church. Afterwards, an older man named John whom I loved dearly came up to me with tears in his eyes and told me how much my singing had touched him. Even at that age, I realized that I had a gift for touching people.

Around that same time, I really felt called by God and wanted to become a pastor. I thought that I needed some kind of sign from God that that was indeed what He wanted me to do, and though I prayed mightily it never happened (c’mon, Moses got a burning bush). I had no one around me at the time to tell me that sometimes you just have to step out in faith and see if it’s right for you, and soon after that (or so it seemed), I was off to college.

Ah, the late sixties, where I squandered much of my youth and God-given talents on partying, becoming a hippie and dropping out of school after my third year to become a R&R star (you’ve all heard of me, right?). Oh, and instead of “love the Lord”, my mantra became “love the one you’re with”. Without realizing it, I was losing my faith and accepting a more “worldly” view of Jesus that negated the very reason that He came for—the Cross. All we had to do, I used to argue, was live according to His principals and teachings—the fact of our need for His crucifixion—became lost in the “all paths lead to one truth” philosophy that many bought into in the seventies.

I became a full-time musician, got married, and had two children. When they were about four and seven years old, I thought that we should at least go to a church and allow them to decide for themselves about Jesus. Well, I was the one who was taken first. God brought me back; and, reading the scriptures through newly opened eyes I realized that the “the cross” is everything that we needed, that I wanted with all of my heart to be “crucified in Christ”, to no longer live, and to let Him live in me, that I had no life apart from Him—I was stunned, ashamed, astounded, amazed—it all came rushing in on me at once and blew me away!

I wish that I could say that I’ve walked the straight and narrow path of obedience since that time—I have not lost my faith—but I have fallen and God has picked me up again and again. I was divorced and am married now to a woman who I know will be my wife for the rest of whatever time God has for me here. God has forgiven me, and I believe that I am now walking more sincerely in His Way than ever before.

God has given me so much—my hope is that you hear and feel that in the music that He has given me, just as I believe that all the musicians who played and sang on this CD were touched by the heart of it.

“Thank you, Lord, for your overflowing grace, your abundant mercy and the blessings that you have bestowed upon me—I am unworthy, and it is beyond anything that I could have hoped for…..”

Billy McAllister