By Erik Rabasca
Tuesday, February 8, 2022
Search for “best concept albums” and you’ll find it filled with familiar classic rock bands including Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side of the Moon” and “The Wall”, The Beatles’ “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band”, Bowie’s “Ziggy Stardust”, The Who’s “Tommy” and so on. There other genres tackling concepts and characters like Willie Nelson’s “Red Headed Stranger”, Jay Z’s “American Gangster” or Bon Iver’s “For Emma, Forever Ago.” There’s myth and glory associated with all of these albums. Some hold up over time. Others define an era of music and still others are defined by the era they were recorded.
One timeless buried treasure deserving of being on these best-of lists comes from the Denton, Texas band Lift To Experience, whose 2001 album, “The Texas Jerusalem Crossroads”, sounds like spiritual warfare on an endless stretch of north Texas land as hurricanes and tornadoes surround you on the horizon. Josh T. Pearson, the band’s main songwriter, along with Josh “Bear” Browning on bass and Andy “The Boy” Young, tells “the story of three Texas boys minding their own bidness when the Angel of the Lord appeared unto them…” to be the rockinest welcoming of the second coming to the promised land of Texas as the world falls apart elsewhere. The story could probably only be created by the son of a preacher-turned-cult member who was estranged from his family.
But don’t confuse this for Christian rock, as the boys are “drinkin’ their Lone Star beer and smokin’ their Winston cigarettes.” This is epic rock music with a nod to shoegaze but something entirely more organic. It’s found art without the fawning art scene. It’s raw and gritty like dust in your throat on a barren pilgrimage for spiritual survival. The lead track “Just As Was Told” foreshadows the entire 90+ minute album of ebbs and flows over its nearly seven minutes. There are hymns and deep pauses, waves of sound, ascension and reflections that seem more relevant today than they did over twenty years ago.
The band was dissatisfied with the original mix and broke up soon after the release. At the 15 year anniversary, they were able to remix the album “to make something beautiful enough that God would hear,” according to Pearson in an Uncut Magazine 2017 interview. They played one show to support this and then quietly dissolved again, leaving us with the sole album to revisit.
Erik Rabasca is the founder of the band Light Warriors and the record label, Highest Frequency Records. Follow @erikrabasca on Instagram for more on his shows and projects.
