Robbie Seay Band- Give Yourself Away
Sing a song of hope
So…does anybody here like Creed?
The late nineties and early 2000s were a golden age for “post-grunge bands that had the Christian radio seal of approval”. Think of bands like Three Doors Down, The Calling, Red, Lifehouse, Five for Fighting, Switchfoot, The Fray, and yes, Creed. These bands all featured earnest-yet-unpolished vocals, a guitar intro with lots of reverb, easy-to-generalize lyrics, and occasional falsetto voice-jumps to signal a shift in the sound dynamics. For the longest time, this brand of rock has been treated as “terminally uncool” by anyone even remotely snobbish about music. Such is the lot in life for any band that sounds like Nickelback and writes lyrics like “if I go crazy then will you still call me Superman?” or “I'd sacrifice all those nights if I could make the Earth and my dreams the same.”
In case you haven’t been paying attention though, the past couple of years have been huge for bands of this era. Switchfoot recently re-recorded their most iconic album with some of the most famous and successful artists in the world. Three Doors Down has (as of the time of writing) 13 million monthly Spotify listeners, more than twice as many as the biggest artist in Contemporary Christian Music right now (Forrest Frank). And don’t even get me started on the Creed revival.
On some level, I kind of get it. Nostalgia is a powerful influence, and an awful lot of people in church communities grew up listening to a ton of music from these guys since it was the closest thing to “real rock” that the family-friendly censors would allow. Thus, if The Fray’s lack of sharp edges gave them a unique opportunity to speak hope into the lives of teens listening to the radio, it’s hard for me to begrudge the new wave of support and fandom.
On the other hand, I get a little defensive when I see that this new wave of support for early 2000s faith-curious bands hasn’t led to a similar reaction for bands that were absolutely transparent about their faith. When was the last time you heard someone talk about David Crowder Band? Jars of Clay? MxPx? A lot of genuinely great music from those guys and other 2000s bands has been left to languish in relative obscurity, and they were the popular ones!
So, with that out of the way, allow me to bring your attention to a band that you will be hard-pressed to find discourse on anywhere: Robbie Seay Band. Fronted by lead singer/songwriter/guitarist Robbie Seay, RSB got their start in 1997, the same year Creed released their debut album My Own Prison. If there was ever a “year zero” for this late-nineties/early-aughties crossover rock, 1997 would be the year. Thus, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that Robbie Seay Band at times sounds a lot like Lifehouse et al. with some worship music conventions thrown in the mix. They got more ambitious over time, but their first three albums are classic 2000s CCM radio fodder, and Give Yourself Away was when things really started to come together.
Broadly speaking, Give Yourself Away seems to have been the product of Robbie Seay and co. having a prolonged spiritual reawakening as a result of their involvement in the recovery efforts after Hurricane Katrina. In the aftermath, Seay said that “for the first time in a long time, I’ve been proud to say I was part of this bigger picture—a bigger church.” That sentiment is most obvious in the opening track “Rise”, a fun and catchy pop-rock tune with surprisingly bold lyrics for a worship song of its time. A quick perusal of the Billboard Christian top 40 in 2007 will reveal a lot of songs about either unabashed praise or falling prostrate to one’s knees in repentance, but not many implore the listener to “give yourself away”. Near the end of the song, Seay approaches territory that, dare I say, borders on radical when he belts out “we are not safe! We are not safe! But we will rise!” How many contemporary worship songs can you think of that remind us of the active danger the world presents us? I’m willing to bet the answer is “very few”.
“Rise” is not the only time he hides admonitions in plain sight. Closing track “Go Outside” was the first song written for this album, and while there are no direct references to the mission work his church was involved in, the disparities of resources and human rights weighed heavily on him. He absolutely hammers the sentiment home by repeating the lyric “no one should be left out” over and over again. I’ll admit that it’s six-minute runtime makes it a challenging listen, but he clearly cared deeply enough about the subject matter to make it the closing song. As such, I respect the effort.
Before you get the wrong idea, I should clarify that Robbie Seay did not write most of the album with a heavy heart. Track three “New Day” is unbelievably 2000s in that it’s a piano-driven ballad to the sentiment of “tomorrow being a new day”, but I can’t deny that it puts a little smile on my face whenever Mr. Seay humbly suggests that “you need hope, coffee, and a melody”. Meanwhile, “Love Wins” plays to the bands strengths of writing worship songs better suited to singing in the car than in a chapel, featuring a wonderfully sunny sheen on the guitars and a cool falsetto jump on the chorus. The lyrics are pretty standard as far as “holding out hope for the Lord” songs go, but it’s easier to get behind on an album that uses this theme in moderation.
Give Yourself Away is the natural starting point for any sort of retrospective on RSB in large part due to it having “the hit”. It’s hard to find quantifiable data, but from what little I remember I know that “Song of Hope (Heaven Come Down)” made at least something of a splash. It seemed to be in the regular worship music rotation at some churches for a few years after it was released, and it’s far and away their most popular song on streaming services. It’s a pretty good song too, exploring the “intimate yet infinite” nature of God and frequently referencing the light associated with God’s presence. Combine that with a catchy yet simple-to-play guitar hook and you have an archetypal 2000s worship music radio song.
However, while “Song of Hope” is their signature song, it’s not their best. In my opinion, the true high point in their catalogue is the eighth track “Stay”. The music isn’t particularly ambitious and the lyrics aren’t groundbreaking, but “Stay” is one of the purest expressions of desperate faith I’ve ever seen. Each verse illustrates a simple analogy for the struggle between faith and doubt, followed by a pre-chorus that sees Seay steeling himself in the face of the adversity so he can declare with confidence that the Lord will always be there for him. As more challenges come, Seay slowly builds momentum as he faces each challenge with the Lord’s help, pouring himself out as he puts all the power his voice can muster into the final chorus. It’s not a particularly cathartic ending, but that makes it feel more honest, more mature. At his most vulnerable, Seay reveals that the lesson he’s learned from all the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune is simply that God will “always stay”. It’s powerful stuff.
This is usually the point of the story where I zoom out and focus on the legacy of this album, but that’s pretty hard to do for Give Yourself Away considering how low-profile Robbie Seay Band has been recently. Aside from the modest success of “Song of Hope” and the fact that “Rise” was somehow selected as the theme music for an American Idol commercial, Give Yourself Away mostly came and went. If anything, probably the most significant impact was that its relative popularity ensured Robbie Seay Band got to keep making music for several years. The follow up, Miracle, sounds pretty similar to Give Yourself Away, albeit with a little more ambition and craft in the production value. I particularly like “Awaken My Soul” and “Crazy Love”, though the rest of the album feels like it's lacking the extra “oomph” that makes Give Yourself Away compelling.
After one more album and three Psalms EPs, Robbie Seay Band has been pretty quiet for almost a decade. Perhaps they are on an extended hiatus, or maybe they’ve just moved on to other things. Seay himself seems to still be somewhat active in the corporate worship space, especially focusing his efforts on something called “The Worship Initiative” that functions as a solid resource for the next generation of worship music leaders. He works a lot with Shane & Shane, and he seems pretty happy in his new role. Nevertheless, I think it’s a little sad that the sands of time came for his music so quickly. Robbie Seay Band was never the most experimental or envelope-pushing group in their field, but they had artistic integrity and put out some pretty solid music that still holds up. They gave themselves and their music careers away, and it’d be a shame if their only legacy 10 years from now is that they were on Christian radio at the same time as Creed.
BONUS RECOMMENDATIONS
Their final project was a compilation of their three psalms EPs, and it may be the best collection of tracks they ever assembled. My favorite of the bunch is “Psalm 3 (A Shield About Me)”, a very good song with an absolutely gorgeous and cinematic two-minute intro.