Blessed Weakness NFCLC 1975
Lovely acoustic folkrock custom from St. Louis male/female sextet that is at times spellbinding, like the guitar/recorder instrumental 'Prelude' or the haunting stratospheric harmonies of Peggie Telscher and John Foley that grace 'Psalm 65-66'. Acoustic guitars, often 12-string, lead the way backed by bass and percussion through jangly Jesus music, melodic ballads, carefree pop-minded folk and banjo/fiddle hoedown ('Jesus Save The Popcorn'). Some nice guitar leads and one-shot appearances of piano, organ, trumpet and violin. Sponsored by the National Federation of Christian Life Communities. KS

Don Boucher, lead guitar and back voc's
Jim Ford, rhythm guitar and back voc's
Steve Cass, rhythm guitar, bass guitar, lead and back voc's
Candy Kennedy, lead vocals
Fr. Tank, bass guitar
Pat Lydon, rhythm guitar, banjo, keyboards, harmonica, and back voc's
Jim Gage, drums.

From Steve Cass, former member of Followers of the Way:

The original Followers of the Way was founded in Massachusetts and in 1973 recorded its first album which was self-entitled. The members came together as a result of their affiliation with the National Federation of Christian Life Communities, an association with ties to the Catholic Church. Don Boucher and Jim Ford are from Massachusetts and became leaders of the CLC in Massachusetts. Soon, Peggie Telscher (from St. Louis where the headquarters of the NFCLC is located) and Jim Ford found themselves on the National Board of Directors for the NFCLC and Don became the head of the College movement in New England. The band toured extensively in New England and also the Midwest.

They played a concert in Des Moines (IA) that I went to, and for whatever reason, they all loved Des Moines. First Jim, and then Don moved to Des Moines and became leaders of my youth group (rather large). I got to know them very well and of course hit it right off because we all played guitar together for fun and for church. I began sitting in with the band on ocassion, but I was still under 18. During this time, they cut this album you found called Blessed Weakness in St. Louis.

The title Blessed Weakness was taken from one of the songs that Peggie had written for the album entitled Under the Willow. Here's the beautiful lyrics for this:

Under the Willow

Under the weeping willow tree
I saw, Jesus, how much I need You
And we both wept
The willow and I
For joy at Your gentleness and mercy

My faults weighed upon me heavily
I could hardly breathe
And I wanted to run far away from You
But Lord, where could I go?

O blessed weakness
Which brought me to Your feet again
There to be lifted
By Your strong and gentle hand
And to be welcomed back into Your Love
Dear Savior, this is where I want to stay.

©1975 NFCLC

Maybe it's just because of the joy that this beautiful song brings me and reminds me of this past, but I just melt at these lyrics. I pulled this album out of a box in my garage. Now I wish I had made a tape or CD copy. I guess it's not too late; the vinyl still's in pretty good shape.

So, for my 18th birthday, my new friends surprised me with an offer to join the band (short history up to this point in time: I first picked up a guitar in 1970 and was playing in church 3 weeks later and still do to this day, although not Roman Catholic. I was amongst the first people ever to play guitar in the Catholic church. In 1967 the Roman Catholic Church ratified the Vatican II Council. Amongst many changes and leniencies was that now Mass would be spoken in English and not strictly Latin, and the altar would be turned around to face the people. In late 1969, one of the new things to emerge was allowing guitar/folk music for worship. This would become a big platform for me and my friends) and live with them in community (big thing in the '70s. It was so cool.

Our band practice room was floor to wall carpet and other soundproofing. We never had the police stop and tell us we were too loud) and tour with them full-time. This was not a big money decision whatsoever. As a matter of fact it was more or less a decision to live in poverty. This new version of the FOW was now employed by the Catholic Diocese of Des Moines (Band Members: Don Boucher, Jim Ford, Candy Kennedy, Steve Cass, Fr. Thomas M. (Tank) DeCarlo, Pat Lydon. Sound man was Mark Brayer. Part time drummers Jim Gage and Dave Donato) We each got a check for $50 a week, and our job was to travel around Iowa and give workshops and concerts at rural as well as big city churches. They were mostly all weekends where we would arrive Friday and give a couple different workshops centering on youth interaction as well as a few adult topics, Saturday night would be the concert and Sunday mornings we would play 'unplugged' for their church service.

We did a lot of traveling. Most of it was in Iowa and especially at all the Catholic churches in Des Moines area (about 10 of them), but we did the whole shebang in St. Louis, Mo., Rock Island, Ill., Fall River, Mass as well. We were known as the Followers of the Way, but we also did PLENTY of secular gigs as well playing Rock and Country and old favorites (can you picture yours truly singing "I Left My Heart in San Francisco". We tailored our playlist to the house, and one of our favorite spots was this lodge we played every New Years Eve and they loved all this stuff) and was billed as FOW. We were regulars at several different spots as FOW in full band, quartet, trio and duet combinations. We were very blessed with some awesome talent and became very well respected for what we were doing both within and out of the church.

Unfortunately, the marriage bug bit Don and Jim. Jim moved to St. Louis with his new wife and Don married the lead singer, Candy Kennedy. We never made it into the studio. These were the leaders and so it was just time for the band to come to an end. Life changed fairly drastically in 1979.

Where are all the members today? Don and Candy for years lived in Des Moines in the very same house in which we all lived in community and are raising four children, but just recently moved to Don's original home town, Fall River, Mass., Jim Ford lives with his wife Nan in St. Louis as well as does Mark Brayer, Steve Cass lives in Phoenix, AZ (is the only member to still be currently active in the music business. Currently an entrepreneur who's main focus is Christian songwriting, music publishing, recording, and a new online Christian CD store. Check out http://www.solidwalnut.com for music publishing and http://getchristianmusic.com for the new online CD Store. Steve's debut solo CD, Wisdom - Discovery of the Word can be found there and many different music sites on the web) Fr. Tank and Pat Lydon lives in Des Moines. All of the other former members prior to the Des Moines version live in Massachusetts with the exception of Peggy Telscher, who lives in St. Louis.

Thanks for bringing back some great memories.

Steve Cass
Dec. 11, 1999