Taste the Victory," "God Bless the USA," and "American Pie" are some of the favorites. "For us it's not about selling the most CDs, it's about the message of the music and the way people get it," said David.
They've been playing together for nearly four decades, when Michael called them in the early '80s to do some demos. "I felt it was important to have us to be part of the album," said Michael. They are on tour in Europe, and the brothers hope to bring their latest album, _The Long Road,_ to the U.S.
The brothers attribute their longevity and success to their ability to bring new fans into their fan base. "We love to stay together as a family, keep growing as the generations change," said David. "I never want to be in a position of becoming bigger than the music, I never want to be bigger than Jesus," said Michael.
**RARE PEARLS/A HORIZONTAL LIFE**
Cris Williamson
**S** ometimes all it takes is a spark, an incident or person who can inspire us to change. This happened to the band that would come to be known as Rare Pearls, in the form of a song that resonated with two members of the band—Cris Williamson and Jon "Slim" Williams. It was a song about the love for life they felt they had found. And when Cris and Jon heard this song, they both felt this is what we should be doing with our lives. They set out to find other artists to team up with, and that first show happened in 1986.
The band that started off as Rare Pearls was actually a group called Wally and the Soul Searchers. When Cris and Jon became members, the rest of the band agreed to change the name to Rare Pearls so Cris's kids wouldn't think they were making fun of the band they had heard of. Their original name was a joke, as the two had met in the school lunchroom when Cris had come in as a substitute to teach kids how to box. Jon was doing it just to make Cris look good. It's actually a tale Cris is more than happy to share. "The first day I showed up at the school, I was trying to figure out where the cafeteria was so I could buy lunch," said Cris. "The kids were saying, 'Man, you've got your hands full, man.' I had this big afro and blue shirt with a yellow tie that I got at the thrift store, and I thought, 'They're right, I've got my hands full, but it is worth it.' " Cris's kids were on his side. "In my high school days, I was a small-town guy from Arkansas who had never been south of Little Rock and nobody here knew where Little Rock was. They said, 'Hey, why do you want to be in that backwater?' I said, 'I come from backwater, too.' "
Even though Cris was known for playing in bands, he started off as a preacher in Memphis. He started his preaching career at the Mount Pleasant Baptist Church when he was sixteen, right after his mother's funeral. "That was the first time I got the Holy Spirit," he said. "I preached for five months, it was very much like the old-time blues singers. I had this little little church in north Memphis. I had to walk ten miles in order to get there. I walked to the church, then walked back. I would get my own bike, go to town and bring home milk and bread and cheese and eggs." Eventually he made a life for himself on the West Coast. "I met my wife at church, actually saw her on the pulpit," he said. "I don't know if you've heard this story, but I met my first wife as a result of preaching, but she became my minister." Cris began the band because he thought he was starting a new ministry. "I wanted to come up with a group of people that would be like a traveling church," said Cris.
Then in the '80s, he was preaching at a small church in North Hollywood. "You couldn't have a band or anything, I wanted to play the same songs. Somewhere along the line, I saw a young kid come in and sing and play. He could have been no older than nineteen, maybe eighteen years old. He just came out of nowhere, a skinny guy with the whitest T-shirt on, and I asked him, 'Can you play?' " The kid was actually seventeen, he'd grown up in North Hollywood, but he had been singing in other bands and church groups since he was eleven. He started playing with the guy, and that's when they hit on the name Rare Pearls.
Cris moved from being an evangelist, to playing in a rock band, to being in a Christian rock band. His first band was in Los Angeles, in the seventies. Cris was playing with Lonesome Joe and the Cats. He left the band after the recording of _In His Name_ in 1973, then went on to form Fire in the Family, which recorded _Stand Up_ for the Temptations of Faith label, which went to #22 on the pop charts in 1976. Cris had just been released from prison after serving time for stealing from a music store and got clean, then left that label. He had been married for six years, so he didn't see any other way but to get out of the music business. "I was a little bit of a rebel," said Cris. "I think I've always been a rebel. And I think I was always very angry."
"Music was always my escape, so I didn't think I was so rebellious," said Cris. "In fact, I felt really blessed, because I felt like if the world had just been normal, I would have been normal. As I look back on it, it wasn't the rebelliousness; it was the frustration that I would feel. I would have loved to have been married and a father and a family man."
For the next couple of years, Cris's focus was on his religious ministry and his wife and children. He was invited to preach at another church in Los Angeles, but Cris was so happy with his family that he turned down the opportunity, much to the disappointment of his pastor, a very powerful minister. "After our first child was born, God told me to have that music again," said Cris. "It wasn't time to be that angry, rebellious young guy again, it was time to preach. I took a hiatus, so he gave me that opportunity. I preached for nine months to that church, he moved on and got killed in a freak accident."
Cris put his newfound ministry on hold when a friend approached him with an idea to start a new record company. They named the label Gotee, meaning to "open doors," "to give opportunities to people." Cris would run the label, and it would become his life. It wasn't a huge leap. He'd been preaching with and for youth groups, and had been traveling with ministries and youth conferences for years. "Every song you hear on this record is my life," said Cris.
When Cris met Jon Williams, he had a vision that music would be used for evangelism and the building of the church. It was at one of the Rare Pearls shows that Cris met Jon, who was also in a Christian band at the time. They ended up playing some shows together, and Cris saw he had a musical gem in the younger brother, who sang like a professional. "This kid has got the best voice I've ever heard," said Cris.
Jon agreed to join Rare Pearls as lead singer and guitarist. Cris told him, "I don't care how long it takes, we're gonna make it to where you are considered one of the best."
The first thing Cris did was get Jon a guitar. They went to a guitar dealer and bought a $3,000 guitar that hadn't been played in ten years. They went to a pawnshop, they picked up a secondhand piano, and that's what Jon would play. "We knew nothing about guitars, but I was teaching him how to play," said Cris. "And he'd try, but he was like, 'Hey, we can't do it.' And I was like, 'God will do it.' He would just say, 'Man, this is hard. . . .' I'd give him tips and pointers and he would do it. He was just like that." Cris and Jon would just say, "God is going to take care of it."
_Rare Pearls'_ first album _Gone With the Faith,_ from 1980, was never released. "It got thrown out because we took too long to record it," said Cris. A couple of years later, they re-recorded it in a different style and produced it. "That's when I began to change things, because the original was very bluesy. But these young guys were into pop music and this pop music business. That's what we were trying to get into."
Their first record didn't sound anything like anything at all, but once they knew it wasn't working, they started laying the foundations for the songs to change, and they went back to the drawing board. "I think our original songs were a little too aggressive to be that pop," said Cris. He did everything he could to make
