By Joe Winter
Catholic Herald correspondent

Country rockers use their talents to glorify God

HUDSON -- A former country rocker who is a parishioner at St. Patrick's Parish is now lending his talents to playing music at Mass, along with a band of other local business people.

Mark Meyer started out with a group called Stampede, which was in its heyday in western Wisconsin and even the Twin Cities from 1990 to 1994. It covered country rock classics at prominent bar venues and some of the bigger city and village festivals around the region. Meyer then started a band called Colt .45, which he performed with for the next few years.

"I was not playing after that time," Meyer said, adding that he had been off from performing country rock since 1997. "I got the itch to go again," he said, "but not in bars anymore."

The sound of his latest band, "The Word," is much more contemporary than most church music, much like you would find on Christian radio stations with that kind of format, Meyer said.

The main difference between his current band and the previous ones is that when playing honky-tonk venues, there was a need to get people dancing up a storm. With most such bands, some of this typically is accomplished through between-songs banter by the frontman, banter that wouldn't play well in church, and fans come to expect this.

"Now I try to glorify God," Meyer said, although he acknowledged that is done with "some pep." It's more about God's gift of free will than Lynyrd Skynyrd's anthem "Free Bird," a country rock staple that audience members invariably cheer for at length until it is played.

The church group has gotten lots of positive feedback and has developed a following, Meyer said. This includes people who say they saw them play earlier or heard a song on the compact disc, and now were glad to see the band perform again.

It's also nice to be able, now, to play just for fun and be laid back, and not have the need to make money off the music, Meyer said. He added that many of the members of the band have young children, some of whom are active in things such as soccer leagues, and this changes the way they view playing a large number of gigs.

The idea for The Word was hatched by John Knutson of the RPG printing company. "After talking to Cindy Brown, who is the promotional products manager at RPG, a couple of times about the idea, we ultimately enlisted some friends to form a church group that would play Christian music for Saturday and Sunday Masses and other occasions," said Knutson, who became the drummer.

Brown, one of the singers, said her more than 20 years experience directing the St. Patrick youth choir comes in handy working with this group.

They also at that point gathered the help of Meyer, the local guitarist and vocalist. Rounding out The Word are keyboard playing and vocals by Pam (Guldan) Burke and bass by Tim Caruso.

The group was officially formed in summer, 2001. It's name comes from an original song on the group's first CD written by Meyer called, "Say the Word."

Having played at church for two years, and at events like The American Cancer Society's Relay For Life and the Spirit in the Park event of Christian Music, the group started to branch out and write its own songs.

The compilation of their first twelve original songs is recorded on their CD, "Humble Beginnings." The effort was given impetus when Brown's name was drawn at the Spirit in the Park event by Rich Leone of FS-Productions, a Christian-based recording studio in Lake Elmo, Minn., for a free day of recording at its Fuzzy Slippers Studio.

"It was a pretty funny deal. We were all there at the Spirit event at the band shell in Lakefront Park and they were drawing names for door prizes between the acts that were performing," Knutson said. "As a couple of us were talking, they had just given away several coupons for free pizzas that sounded really good at the time."

Then they heard the name of their bandmate spoken over the loudspeaker and began to tease her. "You won pizza. You gotta share," they chided her, then found she had won something bigger and better.

Caruso, who wasn't present and was told later, initially thought they had been selected as the best in a "Battle of the Bands" contest, Knutson recalls. Although it was just a door prize, Brown was excited at the opportunity. It pushed the various members to get into the studio to do what they'd talked about for some time, recording original songs.

Brown does most of the management tasks with the group, Meyer writes most of the songs and is an experienced frontman and Burke's voice and keyboards are dynamic and powerful, using her double major in vocal and instrumental music, Knutson said.

Bassist Caruso also owns, and is in charge of, all the band's music equipment and leads the use of lights and sound systems. Knutson readily admits that in an appropriate setting, he has the stage presence that is the least serious in the group, although by no means that of a sticks-flying rock 'n' roll drummer.

His business ownership allows him to provide marketing and promotional materials, including CD graphics.

Editor's note: The CD, "Humble Beginnings," is available for $10 including tax. For more information or to order, call Brown at 715-749-4019 (cbrown@rpgsolutions.com) or Knutson at RPG at 715-386-7302, Ext. 400 (jknutson@rpgsolutions.com).

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