#288 SPREADIN' LIKE WILDFIRE by The Archers (1981)

SPREADIN' LIKE WILDFIRE by The Archers (1981)
MCA Songbird - MCR 5016

Producer: Dony McGuire


File Under: CCM

Time Capsule-Worthy Track:

Spreadin' Like Wildfire

The Archers were a vocal band with tight sibling harmony, photogenic good looks, and connections to a network of some of the best studio musicians in the country. As a result, they rose to prominence out of the Jesus Music milieu in California in the early 70s. They gave Christian teenagers some acceptable, sonically-excellent pop music to call their own, without giving parents any extra grey hair. But as the 70s came to a close, the CCM landscape was rapidly changing. I had a chance recently to ask Steve Archer what the climate was like for The Archers as the Seventies gave way to the Eighties.

"It was an exciting transition," he said. "In the early to mid-Seventies, we played a lot in churches, schools, coffee houses and Jesus Festivals, that sort of thing. But within a pretty short period of time, from 1978 to 1982 we were blessed to perform at the White House, on the Grammy Awards two years in a row, on the Jerry Lewis Telethon and the Mike Douglas Show! Our audience had expanded and we found ourselves doing large auditorium events like the Astrodome in Houston, McCormick Place in Chicago, the Shrine Auditorium, and Madison Square Garden. So it was a very exciting time."

The group was extremely telegenic, so the "small screen" was a natural fit for them in the early Eighties. "Yeah, since the early days of Christian TV and, really, throughout the 1980s, we were blessed to be on all the networks," Steve recalls. "We even had our own show on TBN for a while."

Recalling the memory of one of their greatest influences, Steve smiled and said, "Andrae Crouch used to say 'take the message everywhere,' so we tried to do just that by following in his large footsteps!"


Their Dad was an Assembly of God pastor in the San Joaquin Valley of northern California. It was only natural that Tim, Steve, and older brother Gary started singing in church at a very early age. 

[Trust me - as a musically-inclined Assembly of God pastor's son myself, and with two similarly musical brothers, I know a little bit about that particular slice of church culture.] 

Tim & Steve as "Teen Talent" finalists

Word soon spread that "those Archer boys can sing" and the trio received invitations to do their thing at other Bay Area churches. So much so that a name was needed. They settled on "The Archer Brothers" for obvious reasons and spent their summers touring. 

The Archer Brothers became trendsetters as they started employing electric instruments in their concerts, something that was quite controversial at the time. 

[I have personal war stories and battle scars along that front as well, but I'll spare you.] 

In 1966, the boys entered a talent competition sponsored by their denomination; it was called "Teen Talent" and was kind of a big deal to kids who grew up in Assembly of God churches. They won second place nationally, and they were on their way. 

[This is yet another area where the Archer Brothers and the Bachmann Brothers have a shared experience. Except that the farthest we went was second place in the Southeast Regionals.] 

After the Teen Talent experience, Tim and Steve started playing guitar and began to evolve toward an even more "contemporary" folk/rock sound. In the late 60s, brother Gary dropped out of the group, making room for guitarist Billy Masters and, eventually, vocalist Nancye Short. The Archer Brothers became The Archers. Kelly Willard was also part of the band for a short while.

Early days

The group was helped along by associations with influential men like Pat Boone, Andrae Crouch and Ralph Carmichael. They came to develop a sound of their own and gained great exposure by playing the iconic Explo 72 festival in Dallas. Before long, songs like It Won't Be Long, Little Flowers, Jesus is the Answer and Keep Singing That Love Song experienced great success and made The Archers famous. In time, Masters and Short were replaced by a teenage Janice Archer, making the group truly a family affair. 

Steve, Janice & Tim performing at the White House in the late 70s

International tours and a White House visit followed, and the first Archers album with Janice on board (Fresh Surrender) would offer up seven back-to-back hits. After another critically acclaimed record (Stand Up!) and a live album, the group won a Grammy Award for their contribution to a musical titled The Lord's Prayer by Reba Rambo and Dony McGuire.

It turns out The Archers' next album would be produced by Dony McGuire, a guy who was, at the time, still a fixture in the Southern Gospel world...and not exactly someone who had mass appeal to the CCM audience. I asked Steve how that relationship began.

"Well, we were blessed to meet Reba early on, when she was traveling with Andrae Crouch," Steve remembers, "and we just fell in love with her. The Archers' very first drummer, Freddy Satterfield, moved to Nashville and joined a Gospel group called The Downings (and later The Oak Ridge Boys), and that's how we first became aware of Dony McGuire. Then, for 2 years in a row, we sort of went back to our roots and performed at the National Quartet Convention and really deepened our relationship with Reba. Of course, we were very familiar with Southern Gospel because our oldest brother Gary was in a couple of quartets, and as kids, we saw The Statesmen & The Blackwood Brothers whenever they came through northern California. So in 1980, we got a call from Dony & Reba to record a song on their project, The Lord's Prayer. It was a wonderful project and it ended up taking all of us - Andrae, B.J. Thomas, Cynthia Clawson, Walter and Tramaine Hawkins, all of us - all the way to the Grammys! We'd had such a wonderful experience working with Dony & Reba that we asked them to produce and write with us for our next album which was going to be on the MCA Songbird label, which, of course, turned out to be the Spreadin' Like Wildfire album." 

Recent photos of Tim Archer with Dony and Reba

When asked about the recording process for Spreadin' Like Wildfire, Steve has fond memories. "It was a wonderful experience and many of the session players on that record were from the amazing Koininia band! What can I say, except that it was an incredibly blessed time for us. We really enjoyed making the album with Dony & Reba. They're excellent writers, and Dony did a great job producing."

Those Koinonia players Steve refers to were bassist Abraham Laboriel, percussionist Alex Acuna, and guitarist Hadley Hockensmith. In addition to those incredible players, the album also benefited from the talents of drummer Larry London, keyboardists Dan Cutrona and Dony McGuire, Bill Kenner on mandolin, and saxophonist Dennis Solee. Add to that list the Sheldon Kurland Strings and a full horn section that included the likes of Buddy Skipper and Roger Bissell. Thus continued what had by then become an annual tradition for The Archers - that is, recording albums that sparkled sonically due to top-shelf production values and a roster of excellent session players. 

"The musicians were stellar," Steve Archer agreed. "Abraham, Shane, Alex, Hadley - all of those guys were amazing. Great strings and horns, too!"

The memorable title track was a funky, upbeat number that reveals quite a bit about the state of our country and her openness toward the things of God in the early 80s, as compared to today. It's a song that describes a spirit of revival. 

There's a new wind rushing down
From the mountain of the Lord
And it's time for righteous men to heed the call
Every spark becomes a flame
By the power of His name
And before His feet, the golden idols fall

Spreadin' like wildfire
The love of Jesus
It's catching on
Growing stronger
Every day
Spreadin' like wildfire
He has freed us
And by His mighty ransom, we are saved

Sadly, it's hard to imagine that song being recorded today. In 1981 Ronald Reagan had just been elected due, in part, to evangelical Christians and Jerry Falwell's Moral Majority. CCM was going strong and growing, and Christian media (both radio and television) was in its infancy and also growing. It was a time when Christians were actively engaged - not only morally and politically, but also as friends, neighbors, employers, employees...visible and indispensable members of their communities. Today, with declining church attendance and more people eschewing any formal connection to organized Christianity in America, there's a climate that has emboldened critics of the Church and has encouraged actual persecution of believers right here in the United States. Who knows, maybe we're on the front end (even as I write this) of a new era in the United States, and perhaps one day soon we can again sing with confidence of the love of Jesus spreading like a wildfire...catching on and growing stronger among us every day. The fires of personal, spiritual revival are going to have to burn bright again among His people in order for that to be the case.

Another strong song on this album was Back In Your Arms. This R&B-influenced ballad features the group's trademark vocal harmonies. "Back In Your Arms was written by my brother Tim," said Steve Archer, "and was also recorded by T.G. Sheppard, a well-known country artist." 
  
"I love the songs on this album," Steve says. "Runnin' Too Long absolutely jams, Nothing Can Separate Us has such a confirming message, and I Never Knew Love has some great chords which led to some beautiful sibling harmony! We sang Everyday on a live Grammy telecast, and Barbara Mandrel also performed it on her TV show. There were some great, heartfelt messages in those songs. Those were blessed times."

By the way, at the time of this writing, there's a YouTube video of The Archers performing Runnin' Too Long on a television show. Two more Koinonia members - drummer Bill Maxwell and pianist Harlan Rogers - were part of the band for that particular TV taping.

The power ballad Care was co-written by Steve Archer and keyboardist Dan Cutrona. "The musical influence on Care was from listening to a lot of Gino Vanelli," Steve admits, smiling. The song features a stirring performance by Steve and some absolutely gorgeous chords on the electric piano.

The funky Merry-Go-Round exhibited a healthy dose of R&B swagger. Written by Steve Archer, it confronts the emptiness of a life devoted to the daily rat race.

Do you feel that your life is like a merry-go-round
Always goin' round and up and down
Do you spend all your time workin' for a new thrill
Just to find that you're all caught up on a spinning wheel

Just like a merry-go-round
Get your feet on the ground

Spinnin', spinnin', spinnin

Spinnin' around and around

Hear what He's tryin' to say
He's calling you to a straight and narrow way

Never Say Goodbye was another great showcase for the group's sibling harmonies. Co-written by Bruce Hibbard and the Archers' own Tony Sena, it closes the album with an encouragement that the Lord never leaves nor forsakes us.

Though I've never seen Your face
I know You're always there
Caring for me
Lifting every sorrow that I bear
Every day the journey
Brings me closer to Your side
And forever in Your presence, I'll abide

I know we'll never have to say goodbye
I know You're always there in every way
And though the journey takes me far and wide
I know we'll never say goodbye

The end result of Spreadin' Like Wildfire was a Grammy nomination and a return trip to perform on the Grammy telecast. The group would have a couple more albums left in them before going their separate ways for good (musically speaking) in 1994. Steve Archer enjoyed a successful solo career, and the siblings have reunited now and then for special appearances. Steve continues to travel and sing in churches and auditoriums large and small, all across the country. You can keep up with the group and download a lot of their music at Tim Archer's website.

I first met Steve Archer in 2014 when he ministered at the church where my family and I attended. It was an absolute pleasure getting to know him just a little bit over the course of that weekend. Of course, the internet has also made the world a much smaller place, as I'm sure you'll agree. Through social media interactions, I've discovered that Tim and Steve Archer are both down-to-earth, humble men who are as friendly and personable as they are talented. 

The Archers will always be remembered as a polished group of professionals who performed and recorded stellar albums of MOR, pop, funk and blue-eyed soul that always pointed the listener to a deeper walk with Jesus. 

The fact that they're such nice people makes the music all the more enjoyable. 

I would go so far as to say that if more of Christ's followers conducted themselves the way The Archers do, there'd be a better chance of Jesus' love catchin' on and growing stronger every day... 

It might even start spreadin' like wildfire again.