Beyond the Blue

The Christian Astronauts

I'll try not to hype this up too much, but it's far and away my favorite Christian oddball record. The Fremont, Ohio-based Christian Astronauts created their own homespun space travel performance featuring a cast of their own family members, a space explorer dummy named Jerry, and a cardboard robot named Loose Nut who, I guess, was programmed to communicate in a Southern drawl. The production chronicles their adventures in space in search of their Lord Jesus and his heavenly resting place. The introductory Count Down and Blast Off bits, featuring one of the very few outer space gospel songs I know of, is unlike anything I've heard. Between the no-fi "mouth sound rockets" and Sister Shoup's atonal vocals, this is a trip like no other. MP3 above is a large download, but believe me, it's worth it.

I can't help but be reminded of similar musical "escapes" by black artists like Sun Ra, Parliament/Funkadelic, and Newcleus. Blasting off to space in search of a better place without Earthly concerns of pain or prejudice is kind of a heavy thought, isn't it? You can read a lot into this record or just take it at face value as a wacky and imaginative amateur kids LP. Either way it's a wowzer.

I managed to track down the good captain and obtain permission to reissue this album on CD. Please check out my record label companionrecords.com for more info.

Click here for large scan of back cover or here for scans of the labels and scroll down for MUST SEE group photo scanned from the back cover.