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The sheep take time to speak ...
Geoff Moore & The Distance
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GM&D hanging by 'Threads'By Frank "Buzz" Trexler They’ve gone the distance, or at least they will have by summer’s end. Geoff Moore & The Distance has run a race that lasted about 12 years, netting national acclaim from music industry peers, as well as fans. But the band’s May 16 concert at Wallace Memorial Baptist Church in Knoxville is part of the group’s final journey: ForeFront Records recently announced that GM&D’s last performance will be sometime in late August. Numerous Grammy nominations, a Dove, countless No. 1 singles and five hit albums have marked the journey. But the roadwork has been tough along the way. A case in point: The "Threads" tour with Out of Eden and Small Town Poets began last fall and traverses 100 cities. Such tours have taken the band on tens of thousands of miles, and have left little time for other endeavors. "We’ve had 23 shows in 25 days, and we’re in the second week of that," Moore said in a static-laden cellular phone interview prior to a show in Zanesville, Ohio. "I happened to just get ... a sinus infection. It’s kind of knocked me out of doing anything except the shows." The 37-year-old Moore talked about the impending break-up of a group whose closeness may have been summed up in a 1992 song loved by many of the band’s early fans, "A Friend Like U," the title cut from the group’s first Grammy-nominated album: "The Lone Ranger and Tonto/Laurel and Hardy/Batman and Robin/It was Snoopy and Charlie/Friends through thick and thin/Friends to the very end/I think you will agree/That's how it is for you and me ..." "It’s hard for me to find the right kind of words to describe it," Moore said. "I think the best thing I can say is that I’m gonna take a period of time to do some solo work. ... Room for opportunities "There’s just a lot of opportunities and things and stuff I’ve had, with music and ministry and outreach and stuff. But the involvement with the band, as great as it’s been, it represents a pretty large organization and it kind of dictates what I do." What Moore does is wide-ranging. Just since signing with ForeFront in 1990, Moore has recorded five studio albums with The Distance (four of them earning consecutive Grammy nominations) and one "Greatest Hits" package. The band won a Dove Award for Best Long-Form video, "Roadwork," and produced another long-form video, "Life Together." But his work does not stop with the band. Moore has co-written songs, including the 1993 Dove Award Song of the Year with Steven Curtis Chapman, "The Great Adventure," and the recent No. 1 hit "Threads," which he penned with dc Talk’s Toby McKeehan. Then, there’s his life in the eye of a camera. "In the last couple of years, I’ve done several video and TV things," Moore said, including a current special running in concert markets, "The Threads Tour Special." In the past year alone, Moore has been hard at work on other video projects – the Southern Baptist Vacation Bible School curriculum, The Christ for Native Youth event curriculum, and the Creation vs. Evolution documentary, "No Accident ... No Apologies," which was released through Standard Publishing. He also continues to work with Compassion International and filmed his most recent visit to Ecuador. "I’ve enjoyed it a lot and at the same time it’s kind of been a talking heads thing," Moore says of the video projects. "I haven’t had much of the opportunity to have a lot of creative input into it and I’d like to explore that some more. "I’m very intrigued by sitting in front of the camera and going into these people’s homes," he said. ‘Dream a little ...’ In Geoff Moore’s mind, the time for such work is now. "It feels like a pretty good time to take advantage and sit around and dream a little bit," he said. "I’ll probably come up to the Smokies and sit around and dream for a while and then go at it." Moore, who lives in Franklin with his wife and two boys and attends Christ Community Church, feels right at home in the Smokies. GM&D has played a number of youth conferences in the Gatlinburg-Pigeon Forge area. "I’ve played there four or five times in the past year, with different denominations or organizations. In fact, I’m coming back this summer. "I’ve written lots of songs in the Smokies, too," he said. "There’s a few places in the country where I really feel at peace and feel like I can really be creative, and one of them is the Smokies." What will The Distance do after August? "A variety of different things," Moore expects. "They are looking at options, obviously doing other things in music, but also all kinds of other stuff." Moore said the band hopes that "within a couple of months" it will be able to update fans on future plans. Blasts from classic past On the chart-busting "Threads" album, listeners from another era can find Pete Townshend’s "I’m Free." How did the classic from the rock opera "Tommy" find its way to a contemporary Christian band? Eddie DeGarmo, formerly of the CCM duo DeGarmo and Key and currently ForeFront executive vice president, told Moore to take a good look at the lyrics. "I like the song," said Moore, who admits to having been something of a Townshend and Who fan. "I thought it would be fun to do and expose people who hadn’t heard it to a neat song. "I thought it would be a great bridge builder to people who weren’t familiar with Christian music, but might be familiar with this song." But despite The Who’s rebellious persona, there is a spiritual significance to this song. "I just thought it all fit in with this idea that Christianity is where you find true freedom," Moore explains. "Regardless of even what your physical condition is, spiritually we’re free – even if we’re in prison. That’s something we tried to communicate in the video as well." It’s been said that the music video, which can be seen on the contemporary Christian video channel, ZMusic (InterMedia cable channel 37), accomplishes "what many Christian rock videos have traditionally failed to achieve: capturing the energy of the music visually." But then, as Geoff Moore is well aware, it takes spiritual as well as physical energy to go the distance. Buzz's take on Geoff Moore & The Distance's music The Rev. Frank "Buzz" Trexler is managing editor at The Daily Times and pastor of Green Meadow United Methodist Church, www.themeadow.org. You can e-mail him at PastorBuzz@nxs.net. |
