Earthen Vessel

Earthen Vessel was one of the quintessential "Jesus Rock" bands in the Midwest for an 18-month period during 1970-1971. The "Jesus Movement," a sort of counter-cultural church youth group, was rapidly growing in California in 1970. Native Californian Dave Caudill had been working for Campus Crusade for Christ at its San Bernadino headquarters in summer 1970 and he was exposed to the Movement, at which he witnessed numerous Christian folk and rock groups. When he returned to Michigan State University that fall for his sophomore year, he began performing solo for a Nazarene youth group at a church where Leon Morton was working. At the time, Morton, a former tenor in a gospel quartet, and his partner in the newly formed Balton Enterprises, Inc., Walter Ballard, were putting together a Christian rock group in Lansing, MI. They had already secured the skills of Juilliard-trained Eddie Johnson on drums; bassist John Sprunger, who had played trumpet on a Buckingham's album and bass for the northern Illinois band Commonwealth; and vocalist Sharon Keel and vocalist/keyboardist Ken Fitch, both from a Nazarene college in Illinois. Morton invited Caudill to join the band, and with his addition on guitar, the Rare Ones (quickly changed to Earthen Vessel, a biblical reference) were born. Morton and Ballard managed the band and its warm-up act, folksinger Lillie Crozier. Earthen Vessel began practicing in the fall of 1970, writing original songs and playing at the Catacombs, a Christian coffeehouse in Lansing operated by Balton Enterprises. The band wanted to be both an evangelistic ministry and a high-powered, high-volume, full-on acid rock band, minus, of course, the acid and other psychedelic drugs. (In fact, Earthen Vessel often performed at anti-drug rallies at area high schools...