Bethlehem was a Christian country

Christian country music

Christian country music is music that is written to express either personal or a communal belief regarding Christian life, as well as to give a Christian alternative to mainstream secular music...

 rock band in the 1970s, during the Jesus Music

Jesus music

Jesus music, known as gospel beat music in the United Kingdom, is a style of Christian music which originated on the West Coast of the United States in the late 1960s and early 1970s. This musical genre developed in parallel to the Jesus movement...

 era, before the rise of the CCM

Contemporary Christian music

Contemporary Christian music is a genre of modern popular music which is lyrically focused on matters concerned with the Christian faith...

 industry. The group released one self-titled album in 1978 under the Maranatha!

Maranatha! Music

Maranatha! Music began as a non-profit outreach of Calvary Chapel in 1971. The Jesus People of the late 1960s and early 1970s began to write new hymns and worship songs with a folk-rock style. Maranatha! Music was founded at this time in order to publish and promote this new type of Christian...

 label. The group's sound has drawn comparison with general market bands such as Poco

Poco

Poco is an Southern California country rock band originally formed by Richie Furay and Jim Messina following the demise of Buffalo Springfield in 1968. The title of their first album, Pickin' Up the Pieces, is a reference to the break-up of Buffalo Springfield. Highly influential and creative,...

 & The Eagles.

Band members were:
Danny Daniels: acoustic & electric guitars, lead & backing vocals
Dom Franco: Pedal Steel guitar, dobro, vocals
Randy Rigby: lead electric guitar, keyboards, vocals
John Falcone: bass guitar, vocals
Dan McCleery: drums, percussion, vocals

They were connected with the Jesus movement

Jesus movement

The Jesus movement was a movement in Christianity beginning on the West Coast of the United States in the late 1960s and early 1970s and spreading primarily through North America and Europe, before dying out by the early 1980s. It was the major Christian element within the hippie counterculture,...

 revival, particularly that in southern California centered around Calvary Chapel, Costa Mesa, CA

Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa

Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa is a Christian church located near the boundary between the cities of Costa Mesa and Santa Ana in Orange County. It is the original Calvary Chapel, having grown since 1965 from a handful of people led by Chuck Smith to become the "mother church" of over one thousand...

.
It was Recorded during March & April 1978 at North Star Studios, Boulder, Colorado; Buddy King Studio, Huntington Beach, CA; Sound Castle Studio, Hollywood, CA; & Maranatha! Studio, Santa Ana, CA;

Engineered by Peter Gregg, Jonathan Brown & Al Perkins; Mixed by Jonathan Brown & Al Perkins; Mastered by Bob Carbone @ A & M Records;

External links

1. http://musicmoz.org/Bands_and_Artists/B/Bethlehem/Discography/Bethlehem/

2. http://one-way.org/jesusmusic/index.html (choose the group "Bethlehem")

3. Powell, Mark Allan. "Bethlehem" in The Encyclopedia of American Gospel Music google books, p. 35; http://books.google.com/books?id=uqT-CJYcqskC&pg=PA35&lpg=PA35&dq=Bethlehem+(Danny+Daniels)&source=bl&ots=jiwR-PKNK1&sig=V8wtm8_bD01xIbeIZ5DjYOkQEHc&hl=en&ei=WF5yS8QPgvCyA9Xt8aYF&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=5&ved=0CBYQ6AEwBA#v=onepage&q=Bethlehem%20(Danny%20Daniels)&f=true

4. http://www.danny-daniels.com/home.html