JFH News: Kevin Max Announces New Larry Norman Covers Album

Kevin Max Announces New Larry Norman Covers Album

NEWS SOURCE: Kevin Max
June 26, 2019

Larry Norman was often considered the "father of Christian rock" music, and it comes as no surprise that the artist had such a profound affect on the artist around him. Acclaimed singer/songwriter Kevin Max announced today his plans to record his own version of one of Larry Norman's albums, in its entirety. Kevin also launched a crowdfunding project for this endeavor, at https://www.generosityrocks.com/kevin-max.

Kevin's full announcement is below:

Kevin Max here…. it’s been a couple minutes since I’ve done a crowd fund project….. the last one I did was AWOL and it was so wonderful to see the support both personally and musically from all of you.This time around I am wanting to go full throttle with this. Unlike AWOL, ‘REVISITING THIS PLANET” is a covers project… but it is covering the whole album ‘Only Visiting This Planet’ by my friend and musical pioneer Larry Norman.

Larry became my friend in the nineties, during the pinnacle of dcTalk’s career. We covered his song ‘Wish We’d All Been Ready’ in many of our concerts and he visited us on the road often. However, Larry and I personally really connected. Beyond dcTalk, we would hang out and get into wonderfully mind bending conversations in Nashville when he came through town. One of my favorite memories was introducing him to my producer friend Adrian Belew. Adrian, Larry and I went to the Palm restaurant in Nashville and told stories for hours over a steak dinner. During that meet up I convinced my friend Larry to sing on my first solo album ‘Stereotype Be.’ He sang backgrounds on the song ‘On and On’ but refused to take credit for it. Much like the many trips we took to Tower Records, where he would buy my vinyl records and not allow me to pay. Larry became more than a musical mentor to me, he became a real friend.

For years I wanted to make this album….. its been in the back of my mind to create as early as Stereotype Be….The timing has never been right though…. until recently. I was talking to a friend online named Mike Norman, who just happened to be Larry’s son. We talked back and forth for awhile and I asked him to come to a show I was doing in Portland Oregon last year. He showed up with his beautiful wife Tiffany, and we had an amazing time reflecting and sharing conversation after the show. I told Mike that I had wanted to cover the whole album ‘Only Visiting This Planet’ for years and I was waiting on God to let me know the appropriate time to do it. He encouraged me to get it started and told me that his father would be very pleased and excited for me to do it. To get Larry’s son’s blessing was all I needed, and here we are off to the races!!!

Mike Norman and I have become great friends over the past year and he introduced me to one of his dad’s best friends Allen Flemming. Allen is working on a biography about Larry, titled ‘Rebel Poet.’ Allen will also be very much a part of ‘REVISITING THIS PLANET’ by adding narrative from the book to the musical selections. Along with Mike Norman and Allen Flemming, we are excited to also get Larry’s wife and Mike’s mother Sarah, involved in the project as well. So to say that the Norman family is backing and supporting this project is quite the understatement. ;)))

This album will not just be a Kevin Max project, it is a musical art piece meant to remind people of the power of Larry’s words and heart. Larry always had a heart for the misfit and the person struggling on the fringes, he wanted the one’s who needed hope the most to hear this music. This album conveys so many thoughts within the kingdom that are just as potent today as they were back in the Seventies. I am excited to give people another chance to dig deep into these songs. To say that ‘Only Visiting This Planet’ was a pioneering, seminal record of its time is an understatement. There were so many doors that the album opened that it cannot be fathomed.

We all know that Paul McCartney, Bob Dylan, Frank Black of The Pixies, Bono, etc… all revered Larry and his music. So, to cover this, it is not taken lightly….. I will put on Museum-quality gloves of temperance and ultimate respect when re-doing these songs. In an effort to evoke the feel of the original album, I am bringing on board my time honored musical friend John Mark Painter to produce. With John at the musical helm we are looking at bringing back many of the original players from the album to make musical cameos. As far as guest appearances on the album, we are considering a chosen handpicked few… with Mike Norman and Allen making decisions with me. Already we have a few in mind and will probably bring on more than a few by the time this is full realized.

This August we start recording the first sides…..

August 16, Mike Norman and Allen fly into Nashville and join me at my house to talk about the full project as well as guesting on two tracks that I will have accomplished by that time. We are starting with the songs ‘The Great American Novel’ and ‘Why Should The Devil Have All The Good Music.’….. the latter song will feature Daniel Smith from the Danielson Family.

Please go to the crowd fund page and help us create the album by donating what you can to this dream project of mine.

A donation of 50 dollars will get you behind the scenes content as well as the digital download of the album. We will be uploading the first two songs by the fall of this year.

Thank you so much for helping me create what I think will be the album of my career.

Peace and love to all. KM