Caedmon's Call

Caedmon's Call, a Contemporary Christian band that fuses traditional folk stylings with world music and alternative rock influences, is comprised of Cliff Young (lead vocals and rhythm guitar), Danielle Young (vocals; married to Cliff, formerly Danielle Glenn), Garett Buell (percussion), Jeff Miller (bass guitar), Todd Bragg (drums), Josh Moore (keys, accordion, harmonica), and Andrew Osenga (guitars, vocals).

Musical Evolution

Over the years, Caedmon's Call have enveloped and adapted many different musical stylings, the most obvious being their folk and alternative rock roots. On their first mainstream, self-titled release, the band utilized stylings that ranged from straight-up folk-rock ("Lead of Love", "Coming Home"), rock ("Not the Land"), folk ("This World", "Bus Driver"), and simple acoustic guitar ballads ("Centre Aisle"). The album itself featured a highly-produced sound with a less warm ambiance than would be found on later albums.

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Their second album, 40 Acres, made after the dissolution of Warner Alliance, focused on a more settled folk-rock sound and a much warmer ambiance. Songs such as the Derek Webb-penned "Thankful", for instance, took advantage of those folk-rock stylings, relying heavily on percussion.

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Long Line of Leavers, their third wide-release album, became something of a milestone for the band, including a wider range of instrumentation and stylings. "The Only One" featured a brass accompanyment, something Caedmon's Call had never before experimented with, whereas "The Ballad of San Fransisco" was perhaps the most folkish song ever included on a Caedmon's Call album (although that is debatable). "Prove Me Wrong" was a simple guitar-driven pop song, while "What You Want" stands in the tradition of "Not the Land" as upbeat rock-and-roll.

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The albums In the Company of Angels: A Call to Worship and Back Home came during an interim phase in which Aaron Tate and Derek Webb were mostly inactive as writers for the band, only contributing lyrics for the song "Beautiful Mystery" on Back Home and leaving a myriad of other songwriters (including Webb's wife, independent artist Sandra McCracken) to provide material for the band. These albums, while still largely driven by the acoustic guitar, were characterized by simpler lyrics and melodies than the band's past material, and more of an adult contemporary feel that did not sit well with some longtime fans.

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In 2004, Share the Well proved to be a notable artistic leap for the band. Caedmon's Call decided to incorporate world music influences into the album during mission trips with Compassion International to India, Ecuador, and Brazil. The Indian influnce was most prominent on this album, with several Dalit musicians providing instruments and vocals. In addition to Randall Goodgame, Josh Moore and Andrew Osenga emerged as the new primary songwriters for the band.

Related Topics:
2004 - World music - Compassion International - India - Ecuador - Brazil - Dalit

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For most of the band's tenure, lead vocals were split somewhat evenly between Cliff Young and Derek Webb. Cliff would usually sing lead on the Aaron Tate songs (he does not usually write his own songs for the group), and Derek would sing lead on the songs that he wrote, which were often more personal in nature. Danielle typically sings lead on two to four songs per album; "Piece of Glass" is the only song that she has written for the band. Once Derek Webb ceased writing songs for the band in the years leading up to his departure, Cliff emerged as the primary vocalist for the band, a role which he retains today, though Danielle has been able to sing lead more frequently as a result of this. The band's newest vocalist, Andrew Osenga, has only sung lead twice, on the song "Bombay Rain" and the hidden track "I Miss You", both of which he wrote for Share the Well.

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