Sonseed – First Fruit – 1981

This band/album are one of the strangest stories in Christian music. Sonseed were a Christian band formed in 1978 at the Church of Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Brooklyn, New York. Yes this was a catholic band. They came together to play songs at the 75th anniversary of the church. Several members from that day continued on and in 1981 recorded and self released this album. Okay nothing strange there but in 2009 someone uploaded to YouTube an appearance the band had made on a local religious television show. The song they uploaded was “Jesus Is A Friend Of Mine” which is a real catchy ska track and the YouTube video took off with millions of views. The Arena Rock Recording Company soon put out an EP featuring 5 tracks from the album. They subsequently re-released the entire album in 2023. There was apparently some argument as to whether the album even existed in 2009 but indeed it did and here it is today. There are countless articles all over the internet about the band and if you’re interested it makes some great reading. As for the album it mainly has a great 70’s sound and I loved it instantly upon listening to it. It even has a really good cover of “Sail On” by the Imperials. I assume it never really got any attention in the industry as the band were catholic which is too bad, people would have loved it.

Tracklist
1 – Born Of The Flesh – 2:27
2 – Another Kind Of Love Song – 3:15
3 – Jesus Is A Friend Of Mine – 2:43
4 – The Gospel Ship – 3:01
5 – Sonseed – 2:52
6 – The Opened Door – 2:58
7 – Sail On – 2:12
8 – Oh Happy Day – 3:37
9 – Gettin’ Back – 2:36
10 – And The Father Will Dance – 2:48
11 – Say Yes – 2:21

Credits
Acoustic Guitar – Frank Esposito
Backing Vocals – Anne Lessing, Jimmy Archer, Joe Ciccone, Melody M. Sorrentino
Design – Angela Marie Franco
Design [Logo] – Joe Ciccone
Drums – Nicky Sciarra
Engineer – Audie Lebensfeld, Joe Marciano
Lead Vocals – Steve Musso
Percussion – Tommy Zawacki
Producer – Patricia Costagliola
Twelve-String Guitar – Karen Archer

Companies, etc.
Recorded At – Systems Two