Music Hallel Trinity Album Early Songs Purim Songs Audio Archaeology
ABOVE: Trinity band members John Rutledge, Lewis Clarke and Ewell Clarke.
The Band ‘Trinity’
The band Trinity formed while I was at Baylor University in about 1971. There was a “Jesus Movement” spreading through campuses around the country. I heard Ewell Clarke playing his bass in his dorm room down the hall from mine. We started jamming and became friends. When his brother Lew arrived after an exchange student year in France, he added his 12-string to our jams. We started attending a small prayer group, then joined a little Pentecostal church that met in a big rambling house in Waco where we ended up living together for a semester or two.
Using a four-track reel-to-reel tape recorder, we created an album of the songs we’d been writing. Then friends in Austin – Byron Tate and Mark Browne – added in keyboards and drums. The album was pressed in Houston in 1972. We started playing gigs around Waco, and that summer toured coffee houses and music festivals across Texas and other far-flung places, with my high school friend Alan Dean sitting in on drums.
Here’s a page full of photos of the group from those days. (I apologize in advance for the zits and my homemade haircut)
Here are the audio tracks from our album, “Jesus When the Sun Goes Down” by Trinity, 1972:
1. When Jesus Comes Again – 3:41 –
– Music and Lyrics by John Rutledge
2. Here So Serene – 3:34 –
– Music and Lyrics by Lew Clarke
3. The Quiet Dude – 2:08 –
– Music and Lyrics by Ewell Clarke
4. Eli – 3:15 –
– Music and Lyrics by John Rutledge
5. Song of the Sea – 2:40 –
– Music and Lyrics by Lew Clarke
6. Harvester’s Song – 2:58 –
– Music and Lyrics by John Rutledge
7. Come to Me – 2:24 –
– Music and Lyrics by John Rutledge
8. The Fisherman – 3:55 –
– Music and Lyrics by Lew Clarke
9. Automobile Song – 3:12 –
– Music and Lyrics by Roy Acuff, Traditional
10. Children of Darkness – 3:13 –
– Music and Lyrics by John Rutledge
11. Comin’ Home – 3:03 –
– Music and Lyrics by Ewell Clarke
12. Get Into Jesus – 4:02 –
– Music and Lyrics by John Rutledge
13. The Lord’s Prayer – 2:16 –
– Traditional
Or you can listen to the album straight through here:
