This is actually a FAQ more for the "Calling Out Your Name" webpage than it is for Rich Mullins himself, so it isn't the place to look for biographical info on Rich. However, questions that are received regularly are answered here. I also include a fair amount of background about me as well as historical notes about how the webpage evolved into its present state. It also contains my basic philosophy on the webpage and what I intend for it to convey to my visitors. I wrote it in the informal language I'd use in emails, so hopefully it's informative reading, while remaining personal.
1. What is this Behold the Man album you mention?
2. How do a get a copy of the Wichita memorial service, "20: The Countdown Magazine" tribute, Release Magazine "Home" tribute, etc.?
3. I haven't seen the Canticle of the Plains soundtrack in my local CBS, how can I buy one? And what's the status on it, anyway?
4. I love "The Jesus Record" - can we expect to see any more albums offered?
5. I don't get one of Rich's songs, what does it mean?
6. I'm just trying to learn to play the dulcimer - is there any way to get sheet music for Rich's songs?
7. Where can I buy Rich's music?
8. Hey, you're not really Rich Mullins, are you?
9. Do you have a real life or are you just a full-time computer nerd?
10. Other than Rich Mullins, what are your other musical tastes?
11. Wow, you must spend a lot of time on this webpage. Are you obsessed with Rich or something?
12. Well, if you aren't obsessed, then why have you spent so much time on the webpage?
13. Why don't you add a bio of Rich to the webpage? `
14. Why don't you add a photo gallery (or more pictures) of Rich to the webpage?
15. How has the webpage evolved over time?
14b. More about the animated gif's
16. What's in store for the future of the webpage?
1. What is this "Behold the Man" album you mention?
Since I've added the lyrics to this album to the webpage, there have been a number of people who have asked, "What's this Zion album? I'm the biggest Rich Mullins fan in the world and I thought I had every one of his releases!" So here is a little bit of an explanation. The story as well as I know it:
While Rich was attending Cincinnati Bible College in the late 1970's and early 1980's, he formed a band that featured him and three other vocalists as well as several instrumentalists. They were very popular among college students, performing throughout the Ohio area for various colleges and churches. The singing quartet performed together throughout the late 1970's and had informally recorded a number of their songs. Through a grant from his uncle, they eventually were able to get some studio time to record an album, and in 1981 released this lp, Behold the Man. It was never distributed through normal channels (unless some local stores in Cincinnati were selling them) and was mainly sold to concert-goers after their shows. It was a copy of this album that ended up in the hands of Amy Grant's manager who took the song "Praise to the Lord" and had her record it for her Age to Age album. It became a very successful song for her, and Rich went on to establish a friendship with her that led to his first recording contract and his debut album that was recorded at her home.
The album is a group effort, and there is actually only one Rich solo on it. "Heaven in His Eyes" features Rich on vocals and piano, but all of the other selections feature the entire group singing or duets of the two men or two women. If you go over to the music page, there are the lyrics, Scriptural references, and sound clips for every song on the album.
Of the original members of the group Zion, only Rich decided to pursue a career in music. Beth Lutz is married, lives in Cincinnati, and works as a flight attendant. Tom Weimer is married and has two kids and lives near Dayton. Jenny Wesner is the mother of five and lives in Indianapolis. All of the singers, however, are still involved in the music programs of their local churches. (Thanks to Jenny for that info.)
2. How do a get a copy of the Wichita memorial service, 20: The Countdown Magazine tribute, the Release Magazine "Home" tribute, etc.?
KTLI has decided not to sell recordings of the memorial service, but the real audio version available on their webpage. The "Countdown Magazine" is making their tribute available as a double cd set for $15.95 plus $3.00 for shipping and handling. More information about the "Countdown" tribute is available at the Mailing List Archive. For the Release Magazine tribute to Rich, including all of the articles he wrote for them, the cost is $12.95 and can be ordered by emailing them at RELEASEmag@aol.com and simply including your name, address, and credit card information. As for other tribute or memorial programs done by other radio or television stations, I've heard people mention a bunch of different ones. I don't have any of these, so try calling or writing the station that aired it.
3. I haven't seen the "Canticle of the Plains" soundtrack in my local CBS, how can I buy one? And what's the status on it anyway?
Myrrh is still working through the options of picking this up and giving it national distribution, but for the time being, the cd is only available by directly ordering it from one of the Christian book stores offering it. The original hope was to eliminate all the middle men to maximize the revenues from the album. Because all proceeds are being donated to Compassion International, they wanted to be as effective in that pursuit as possible. To order the cd (it is not available on cassette), check the Canticle FAQ at the Mailing List Archive.
The entire Rich Mullins catalog, including "Canticle," is also available from the Better Book Room in Wichita. They are offering the album for $15.78 ($12.78 + S&H) and can be reached by visiting The Better Book Room Website or by calling them at 1-800-678-6119. It is also being offered through a handful of Christian book stores which are listed at Danl site:
In the midst of all the excitement this year about the Dove awards, a new Ragamuffin album, the inauguration of the Legacy, and the ongoing tour, it seems that the "Canticle" project has been moved to the back burner for the time being. It still remains to be seen whether the Kid Brothers will ever release a video recording of the performance; whether they will publish the script to allow interested acting groups around the country to perform it themselves; and whether Mitch will ever tour the country as Saint Frank as was originally planned.
4. 4. I love "The Jesus Record" - can we expect to see any more albums offered?
A tribute album titled "Awesome God: A Tribute to Rich Mullins" featuring Michael W. Smith, Kevin Max, Caedmon's Call, and others was released last November 10th. More information available at the RMML The Ragamuffins will be returning to the studio to record a new album of songs this summer. In addition, there is a possibility of a video of a concert performance from last year, to share the unique concert experience with those who never had the chance to see Rich on stage. There also has been some talk about making a music video for the song, "My Deliverer." And finally, the film, "Prince of Egypt," featured DC Talk's Toby McKeehan singing "My Deliverer," with release on the movie inspirational soundtrack as well. So there are lots of exciting projects still being released!5. I don't understand one of Rich's song, what does it mean?
Your guess is as good as mine! I truly don't think any of Rich's songs are so inaccessable that anyone can't come up with a perfectly reasonable interpretation (although I'll admit I have no idea what some of the lines in Jacob and 2 Women were supposed to mean! :->). Email me your summary of what a song means to you, and I'll give you my take on it, but that's about all I can offer. Hopefully, they can take on different meanings for each of us based on our own individual background and experience.
6. 6. I'm just trying to learn to play the dulcimer - is there any way to get dulcimer sheet music for Rich's songs?
It's too bad that I receive this question quite often, since I have no idea as to the answer. I have no experience on the dulcimer at all and wouldn't even know what dulcimer music looks like if I saw it! :> My advice would be to write the Kid Brothers and suggest that they release a book or video or something of the music itself, as well as describing what type of dulcimer Rich used and the special technique he employed. If there is enough interest to make it feasible, they might consider releasing something of that type. The address is:
Kid Brothers of St Frank
303 N. Hillside
Wichita, KS 672147. Where can I buy Rich's music?
None of Rich's albums are out of print, so they should all be available by making an order with your local Christian or Family book store. For places online that offer the cds, each of these places carry (or claim to carry) all nine of Rich's albums. It's likely that everyplace is backed up right now, though. Price ranges are listed, although shipping is not included.
CCM Vendors:
Better Book Room - $12.77 - $13.58
Gofishnet.com - $14.88 - $15.28
House of Christian Music - $12.79
Jacob's Ladder - $10.99 - $13.99
True Tunes Online - $14.99
General CD vendors:
A B CD's - $8.62 - $13.55
Best Price CD - $8.46 - $13.13
CD Now - $9.49 - $14.49
CD Universe - $9.50 - $13.50
CDworld - $8.47 - $13.47
Mass Music Superstore - $9.42 - $13.08
Compact Discovery - $9.95 - $12.95
In addition to the online vendors, BMG Music Club offers all but the first two of Rich's albums. If you are low on cash, all seven of the albums can be bought this way for 1 cent, plus the $20 or so shipping and handling they will charge. The price is right, but I've begun to wonder if they individually precrack every single cd case before they mail it, because they don't seem to be very careful with their merchandise! The numbers for Rich's albums are as follows:
Songs - 1149483
Brother's Keeper - 1000777
A Liturgy, a Legacy, and a Ragamuffin Band - 1015841
The World As Best..., Volume 1 - 1168434
The World As Best..., Volume 2 - 1168442
Never Picture Perfect - 1168327
Winds of Heaven...Stuff of Earth - 1084821
The Jesus Record - 2250702
Awesome God Tribute - 1267277
8. Hey, you're not really Rich Mullins, are you?
Well, for obvious reasons, I don't receive this question any longer, but some of the funniest emails have been from people who didn't know that Rich didn't personally read emails sent to me. So, no. I have never been, am not now, and never will be named Rich Mullins. My name is Brian William, I'm 23, and a recent graduate of WSU. And the W doesn't stand for Wisconsin or Wichita or Wayne or Wollongong or Winona or any number of other possibilities. I received my degree from Washington State University in Environmental Engineering. For those who have no idea where WSU is, it's in Pullman, Washington, which is about a ten minute drive to Idaho to the east, one hour and a half to Oregon to the south, five hours to British Columbia to the north, and six hours to Seattle and eight to the Pacific Ocean to the west.
I'm number fifteen (with my cousins as numbers sixteen and seventeen who are also currently attending!) in our family to attend WSU, including my parents, an aunt and uncle, my grandmother, a great-aunt, two great-uncles, and all the others who you'd have to ask grandma about. She told me when I was deciding where to go to college, "You can go anywhere you want, but I'll only help with your tuition if you go to WSU." I'm pretty sure she was kidding, but now I'll never be sure! :->
Since graduating, I worked for nine months at a chemistry lab in Richland, Washington. Recently I began my studies at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary with the intent to earn a Master of Divinity degree and enter into the ordained ministry within the United Methodist Church upon completion.
I grew up in Corvallis, Oregon where my parents still live and my dad is a horticulture professor at OSU and my mom works at a community college. So although I'm now a Washington resident to take advantage of the lower tuition, I remain an Oregonian in my heart.
9. Do you have a real life or are you just a full-time computer nerd?
In addition to the time I spend on the internet working on the webpage and reading my email, I am involved in a number of activities. I also enjoy cycling and the rolling hills of wheat in this area are great for someone who loves riding on the open road like I do. I sing in the college choir, and do a bit of writing as well when I have the chance. I love basketball and my loyalty to the Portland Trailblazers goes all the way to my bones. I'm a coach for a 5th and 6th grade parks and rec team, with this season my fifth as a coach. I'm also very involved in an ecumenical campus ministry that incorporates nine local churches. Last year (I have now passed on the torch) I was able to serve as the peer minister for the Methodist Church, which involved working closely with the campus pastors in leading and participating in the various programs such as covenant groups, Bible studies, etc. I also make an attempt to remain informed in world affairs by continuously reading books and magazines, in addition to reading the Christian Science Monitor daily. I love to cook, and since I'm living by myself this year, I often have friends over to share a meal with me. And oh, yeah. Classes! Somehow I find time to fit in lectures and homework and studying into my schedule as well. :-> So that's what my life in one paragraph!
10. Other than Rich Mullins, what are your other musical tastes?
This type of question usually comes from people who fill out the survey and are curious about the ABBA, John Denver, and Neil Diamond choices on there. And I'm not ashamed to admit that I own albums by both of them, among dozens of other artists. My tastes are quite eclectic, ranging from Beethoven and Brahms on one end to Green Day on the other, but I would never say that I like all types of music. Definitely at the top of my list is Paul Simon. Whether solo or with Art, this man is unquestionably a genius. Others that I'm particularly fond of (in random order as I think of them) include Bob Dylan, Mr. Mister, Midnight Oil, KC and the Sunshine Band, Aaron Copland, the 77's, Stravinsky, the Beatles, Steve Taylor, Wynton Marsalis, the Fifth Dimension, Mike + the Mechanics, Dire Straits, Ladysmith Black Mambazo, George Handel, Art Tatum, Tears for Fears, Koffi Olimide, Gipsy Kings, Balafon, Rimski-Korsakov, Michael Jackson, Madness, Marc Cohn, and others I'm sure I'm forgetting. If anyone cares, my entire music collection is listed at Brian's Music Library.
11. Wow, you must spend a lot of time on this webpage. Are you obsessed with Rich or something?
A question I receive more often than I'd like, the answer is a solid no. I probably know more about Rich than most of the people that visit the webpage, simply because I have worked on it a lot, but chances are that most of my visitors listen to his music more than I do. Right now, I have about 150 cd's, 150 8-track tapes, and over 300 lp's. Of those, I own a dozen albums by Rich Mullins. The proportion of 12/600 or 2%, is certainly lower than the amount of time that Rich is being played on my stereo. But it does emphasize that over 90% of the time, I'm not listening to his music. So while I truly do enjoy Rich's music and constantly find myself hearing new insights in the lyrics, he is only one of many musicians who I listen to. If I'm obsessed about anything, it is about the webpage itself. I do take a great deal of pride in maintaining the finest and most complete webpage on Rich Mullins in the world. I feel strongly that the message he gave us is a vitally important one and I hope to share it through the webpage. I am constantly trying to get more information for the webpage, but that is because I want to improve its quality - not because I am driven by a personal desire to know everything there is to know about Rich himself. In general, purely biographical information is intentially left off the webpage altogether, unless it is public knowledge and directly helps listeners understand the message that Rich delivered.
12. Well, if you aren't obsessed, then why have you spent so much time on the webpage?
Now this is a question that I much prefer to the previous one! And the simple answer is that it's a hobby of mine. At the end of 1995, I, along with every other college student on the planet (or at least the nerdy engineering types! ;>), decided that I should have my own homepage. So I began by setting up three parts to the webpage, with the first part a personal homepage, the second part about the campus ministry that I participate in, and the third was about Rich Mullins. Today, if you take the time to go and look at my personal homepage, you won't find much - just a few links and a few photos. And I'm even more hopelessly behind on my campus ministry page. But when I went to look for links to Rich, there simply wasn't much out there, so I set about to change that! The webpage then simply took on a life of its own, since I never had imagined that I would end up putting so much time and effort into it, but fortunately I received the help of a number of people. The thank you list on the main webpage is now up to about thirty five people who have been a part of making the webpage, and without them, this webpage would never have been possible. So, the bottom line is, I actually enjoy working on the webpage, and I consider myself lucky that I'm able to share it with so many other people. Some of my other hobbies like bicycling, singing, and reading are enjoyable to only me, but the webpage work is appreciated by thousands of others and can serve as a form of ministry as it helps share the Truth that Rich sang about.
13. Why don't you add a bio of Rich to the webpage?
My philosophy on the webpage has been the same since I began working on it two and a half years ago, and has not changed with Rich's death. I always had a great deal of respect for Rich because of the humility (as I praise him for being humble, what irony...) he was able to show during his career in the music industry in spite of his "superstar" CCM status. A good portion of the survey responses mention how impressed they were that Rich slipped off the stage at the end of the concert, leaving the audience focused on praising God. It is that spirit that I intend to convey in this webpage. And it is for that reason that I've made every attempt to keep the webpage focus on the music and on the message that is being delivered, instead of on the messenger himself. I hope that through this webpage, I am able to be an aid in delivering the important message Rich attempted to sing and write about. If I can be a small part of continuing the legacy that he began, I will feel that the webpage is an overwhelming success. I hope that it doesn't come across as me simply trying to let everyone know what a "great guy" Rich was, because I'm sure he'd have been the first to correct me. So in an attempt to keep the focus off of Rich, I haven't included a lot of biographical information about him, because I feel it would essentially be trivial in comparison to the important message he delivers.
14. Why don't you add a photo gallery (or more pictures) of Rich to the webpage?
The corollary to the previous question, but this one isn't as common. When I first was working on the webpage, I did create a photo gallery containing over thirty graphics of Rich taken from various magazines and promotional materials. I was a bit hesitant about putting it on the webpage (for the reasons above), but did so anyway. Within the first few days of adding it, I received some of the best advice I've had, which was to "deep-six" it. I did. In addition to the reasons I mentioned above, I tried to imagine what my reaction would be if I discovered a webpage where someone had created a "shrine" to me, consisting of dozens of images of me. I know I would be more than a bit embarrassed, and I always thought Rich would have had a similar reaction. Now that Rich is no longer with us, I believe more than ever that the message he left us with is infinitely more important than his physical image is.
15. How has the webpage evolved over time?
I started by typing the lyrics to the albums (which are the actual lyrics he sings, not the ones in the liner notes!). I soon discovered the article that Rich writes for Release Magazine and set out to collect those, and received a great deal of help from several people who have subscriptions (mentioned on the thank you list). I went on to add the scriptural references, which include links from every single song of Rich's to relevant passages in the Bible. Then I recorded thirty or so clips of Rich's music, at which point my student account (ten megabytes worth) began to overflow. So I now have my webpage spread out between six different accounts, and I'm looking for another one to "commandeer" so I can further expand. (I have backups of everything in case university administration is reading this! :->) I decided the webpage had too much raw information, but wasn't enough fun, so I added the survey in an attempt to lighten things up a bit. Since then, I have received well over two thousand survey responsess. Several video clips from Pursuit of a Legacy were added to the webpage. And during the entire time, I've been constantly on the lookout for other resources that are being created and for new sites to link to. Last year, Mike Chang (who did such a great job on the guitar tabs) graduated from Stanford and graciously offered to allow me to add them to my webpage. In response to Rich's death, the memorial webpage was created, providing a place where over 2,500 people gathered together to express sorrow over his death and celebration for his life through messages to his family. Last November, the entire webpage was completely overhauled, resulting in the current "Calling Out Your Name" site, featuring all new graphics, color scheme, organization, and content. Finally, during the past two years, I've had the pleasure of working closely with Danl Blackwood, who maintains the Rich Mullins Mailing List. Together, we have been able to present a great deal of information to the internet community, while being careful not to duplicate each other's efforts. Much of my webpage has complimented the work he has done and vice versa.
16. What's in store for the future of the webpage?
Well, you see a big part of it here. The unveiling of "Calling Out Your Name" is the culmination of my dreams and plans for the webpage for quite some time. On the old webpage the graphics were long overdue for replacing and the organization getting less and less apparent as I haphazardedly added new information to the webpage as I created or found it. So, "Calling Out Your Name" represents a new name, new appearance, new content, and new organization for the webpage. Because I have been in the process of planning and designing "COYN" for quite a while, it finally looks the way and contains the information I want it to. All of this means that for the time being, I am quite pleased with the present webpage. And I continue to add articles, guitar chords, midi files as I create them or find them. I also hope to animate the entire webpage, with some very promising looking graphics a friend of mine and I have developed.
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