Book Reviews
Review of From Mountains High
by Paul Inwood for Worship magazine, Vol. 94, April 2020
Ken Canedo established himself as the chronicler of recent American Roman Catholic liturgical music history in 2009 when he published Keep the Fire Burning, recounting the revolutionary period of the 1960s when "folk music" joined itself to the more traditional idioms then in use. In this second volume he continues the story, providing in-depth details of the process by which the new styles of music integrated themselves into Catholic parish life across the USA.
The descriptor "Contemporary Catholic Music" needs interpreting. This book is almost exclusively about music in the "folk style," where the major accompaniment instrument envisaged is guitar. Having detailed the stories of such imprints as FEL Publications and the first folk-style composers in his first volume, Canedo now documents in considerable detail the history of NALR (North American Liturgy Resources), the early days of the St. Louis Jesuits, the monks of Weston Priory, John Michael Talbot, and others...
CLICK HERE to read the whole review as a PDF.
Review of From Mountains High
by Chris Ángel for The Hymn, Volume 70, No. 2, Spring 2019
From Mountains High is a sequel to Canedo’s previous book, Keep the Fire Burning (reviewed in the Spring 2010 issue of The Hymn). Fire focused on the emergence of folk music in Roman Catholic liturgy in the United States in the wake of reforms inspired by the Second Vatican Council. In Mountains, Canedo, a liturgical composer with Oregon Catholic Press, writes of what happened as folk music fell out of favor. He focuses on the rise and fall of North American Liturgy Resources (publisher of the Glory & Praise hymnals) and on the emergence of the St. Louis Jesuits. While Fire discusses music that’s largely no longer in use, many pieces discussed in Mountains continue to be used in Catholic liturgies as well as in many other Christian traditions.
Mountains is not just a series of summaries and anecdotes; Canedo provides context for the music by exploring other major influences of pop culture, music, and Catholic piety. For example, he summarizes the self-esteem movement, the importance of born-again president Jimmy Carter, and the Marriage Encounter movement… Another important inclusion is a chapter on development of Spanish-language liturgical music during the era.
CLICK HERE to read the whole review as a PDF.
Review of Keep the Fire Burning and From Mountains High
by Maureen Tauriello for The Call online magazine, July 12, 2019
I had the pleasure of meeting and speaking at length with Ken and he told me that the field was too large to cover in just one book. He wisely split the story in two. Book one, is more about the folk years 1960-1970s approximately. The story of the folk legacy goes on past 1970 and that is where he picks up in the second book From Mountains High.
In this book, we can read about the transition from folk to contemporary Catholic music and how it was accomplished. In this volume we hear from Dan Schutte, The St. Louis Jesuits, The Monks of Weston Priory, Bob Hurd, Tom Kendzia, Gregory Norbet, Marty Haugen, David Haas and more. These names are perhaps more familiar to modern Catholics as we will find many of their works in the present hymnals. Through Ken’s extensive research we come to know the history of our contemporary worship music. To Ken’s credit, he doesn’t sugar coat the story and admits to the failures as well as successes.
CLICK HERE to read the whole review as a PDF.
Review of Keep the Fire Burning and From Mountains High
by Rev. Gerard Lessard, OP for The Christian Review, July 7, 2019
Ken Canedo, a composer whose songs are sung in Catholic churches around the country, has written two wonderful short histories of American liturgical music in recent years. The first volume is Keep the Fire Burning: The Folk Mass Revolution (Pastoral Press; Portland, Oregon, 2009) and the second is From Mountains High: Contemporary Catholic Music 1970-1985 (2018). The whole story fascinates me because I lived through it all from the beginning. I started playing guitar at “folk Masses” as early as 1968. Psalm 96 tells us to “Sing to the Lord a new song,” and that is what we did.
The change to the vernacular and the participation of the laity combined with popular currents in folk music. This music of the poor sometimes represented activism for social justice, providing anthems for laborers. The earliest music for folk Masses attempted to imitate the styles of the Kingston Trio, Peter, Paul & Mary, Bob Dylan and Joan Baez, but was generally too simplistic. Still, young Catholics like myself were excited to be passionately involved in worship for the first time in our lives!
CLICK HERE to read the whole review as a PDF.
Review of From Mountains High
by Tim McManus for Pastoral Music, November 2018, page 34
It’s refreshing for those of us in music ministry to know our roots and have a touchstone where we can return and reorient our ministry. Ken Canedo is one historian who chronicles our liturgical music path. From Mountains High resumes the narrative from Canedo’s previous book, Keep the Fire Burning.
Canedo wisely places this era of contemporary Catholic music in the context of the larger secular culture of the 1960s, ‘70s, and ‘80s. The author reflects on American historical events such as the Vietnam War protests and Civil Rights struggles. In addition, he looks at the sweeping Vatican II reforms, the Charismatic Renewal and the Cursillo movement. Folk music and folk-rock music became a popular genre to bring expression to these current events.
While reading this book, one realizes how much publishers, composers, and parish musicians are interdependent upon each other to serve the assemblies where we minister. This book is a worthy read for all those involved with music ministry in the Church regardless of preferred genre.
CLICK HERE to read the whole review as a PDF.
Review of From Mountains High
by Susan Bailey for Catholic Mom (Spring 2018)
The Folk Mass revolution was organic, breaking like a tidal wave over the Church. The demand for music was constant and urgent; young Catholics became excited over hearing and singing the Word of God in a familiar musical language. Much experimentation took place for good and for naught; eventually the necessary infrastructure was created to bring the music more in line with the liturgical needs of the people. From Mountains High traces that evolution of contemporary Catholic music primarily through the workings of its movers and shakers – those who wrote and performed the music, and those who published it…
I highly recommend From Mountains High (as well as Keep the Fire Burning) to all liturgical musicians, both contemporary and traditional. Ken Canedo has done an important work in documenting the history and background of the Folk Mass and contemporary Catholic music so that we as liturgical musicians can know where our heritage came from and where it is going.
CLICK HERE to read whole review on CatholicMom.com website.
Review of From Mountains High
by Ed Langlois for Catholic Sentinel (June 15, 2018)
The Catholic folk music revolution of the 1960s broke new ground in Catholic worship and should be recognized for bringing life to faith and faith to life, says composer and author Ken Canedo.
But in his new book, From Mountains High, published by Portland-based Pastoral Press, Canedo shows that the next generation of Catholic songwriters brought knowledge of Scripture and liturgical sensibility to contemporary worship music, creating a more lasting legacy.
CLICK HERE to read whole review on the Catholic Sentinel website.
Review of Keep the Fire Burning
by Michele Johns for The Hymn, journal of the Hymn Society (Spring 2010)
"Ken Canedo details the history of the folk Mass movement from the 1960s to the present day. If you work in a Protestant church, you will be enlightened by the thread of events leading from America's turbulent 60s to the current Protestant Contemporary Christian Music scene. If you are from the Catholic perspective, you will hopefully be proud to discover how Catholic clergy and musicians brought their music through faith, sweat, tears, and prayers to an era of synthesis of style that makes very good sense."
Click here to read whole review as a PDF..
Review of Keep the Fire Burning
by Michael Fitz-Patrick for Liturgy News (Australia) (March 2010)
"While this book traces the development of the Folk Mass and its music, it does much more than that! It is an important contribution to the history of liturgical reform in the 1960s. The Folk Mass is deeply symbolic. This music contains the collective yearnings, hopes and desires of the people of God as they re-imagined the Church through Catholic liturgy. I wonder what they would say to us today? The book comes back to the eternal question: What is liturgical music and what is its function on the liturgy?"
Click here to read whole review as a PDF.
Review of Keep the Fire Burning
by Jeffrey Tucker for New Liturgical Movement (September 20, 2009)
"For years I've search for the missing link to explain what became of Catholic liturgy by the time I came to know it. One finds old Missals in bookstores or attends the Extraordinary Form or looks back at old instructional books in music or catechesis and it is overwhelming to consider the lost knowledge, the immense chasm that separates what was from what is today. But with Ken Canedo's wonderful book, I feel as if I've found the missing link. This is the only book I know of that looks in depth at the Catholic music of the 1960s to provide an excellent empirical account of the rise of the folk music movement in the Church, a movement that was about much more than music actually. . ."
Click here to read whole review as a PDF.