REO Radio

If you have paid any attention to Rambling Ever On (REO), you know we love music. All kinds of music, in fact. I’ve lost track of how many articles we have published that revolve around music and song. We’ve published multiple playlists, a series on the forgotten history of Christian rock, and many, many other articles that are inspired by our love and appreciation of all the wonderful music that has been and is being created.

I love listening to the radio. It’s always fun to hear a song you love play over the airwaves. At least, it is for me. I love Christian music – CCM. I have since childhood. While I love secular music as well, my first love will always be grounded in songs that are infused with a sense of faith, grace, and redemption. You can find that kind of music in the secular world, but you might have to wade through a lot of garbage as well. So naturally, my heart turns toward music that is created by believers.

Unfortunately, most Christian radio these days is stuck in an endless loop of recency bias. Christian radio stations play the same handful of songs, all of which have released in the last year or so, and they play them repeatedly. (We dealt with this idea in more depth on our Christian Rock series – you can read those starting here.) Based on the popularity of those articles and playlists, I know we are not alone in our desire to hear songs from every generation and multiple styles and genres.

That is where this playlist comes in. We have been putting this together for some time. We’ve spent hours selecting the songs, sequencing the order, and doing our best to find the right blend of sounds, artists, and styles. If you are familiar with secular radio stations that play hits from various eras and genres, this is that, only featuring Christian music. We tried very hard to include as much variety as possible. If you have any history with CCM, you will be familiar with a lot of these songs though I’m sure there will be some news songs to just about everyone – that is intentional. While we focused on including artists and songs that would be easily recognizable to as many people as possible, we also wanted to do our best to introduce our readers/listeners to some music that they might have missed. And for those that love the newest Christian music, don’t worry. We included plenty of those songs and artists as well.

So, without any more delay, we present to you REO Radio. The playlist is 150 songs. We recommend that you follow it on Spotify and listen to it in the order we created – though that is not an absolute necessity. We think you could easily put this playlist on in the morning when you get to work and listen to it all day and you will not repeat a song. We hope it will serve as a journey through the varied textures, styles, and sounds of Christian music. We hope it’s a journey that many of you will take and enjoy. We know we enjoyed putting it together. Thanks for reading and thanks for listening. Feel free to share this playlist with your likeminded friends. Oh, and this playlist will evolve over time. We will continue to tweak it, adding and subtracting songs as they come to mind.

Phill Lytle
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Phill Lytle

Phill Lytle loves Jesus, his wife, his kids, his family, his friends, his church, J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, 80s rock, the Tennessee Titans, Brandon Sanderson books, Whiteheart, Band of Brothers, Thai food, the Nashville Predators, music, books, movies, TV, writing, pizza, vacation...

7 thoughts on “REO Radio

  • February 5, 2019 at 9:37 am
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    If you follow and listen to this playlist, we would love some feedback. What do you like? What would like to hear more of? Any artists or songs that you really wish had been included? Any songs you were not familiar with that really stood out – in a good way?

    Reply
  • February 5, 2019 at 12:59 pm
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    Love Rich Mullins “The Creed.” One of my all-time favorites.
    And “Walls” dc talk may be the best TobyMac ever wrote

    Reply
    • February 5, 2019 at 1:13 pm
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      “Creed” by Rich Mullins is amazing. Definitely an all-time great.

      We almost took “Walls” out since we didn’t want too many songs from any one artist but I left it in at the last minute. It represents a very specific sound of that era in music.

      Reply
  • February 7, 2019 at 10:24 am
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    One song that was a complete surprise for me was J.J. Heller’s “Sound of a Living Heart.” I was familiar with her music but for some reason, I had completely missed this song. So glad I found it! It’s just a beautiful piece of music with really good lyrics. I love the line, “Every tear will be redeemed in the hands of God.”

    Reply
  • February 8, 2019 at 12:42 pm
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    If you are following this playlist on Spotify and are enjoying it, please let us know. We would love some feedback on it. Did we miss any of your favorite songs or artists?

    Also, if you are following it, would you be so kind as to share it with your friends that you think might enjoy it as well? That would be excellent.

    Reply
  • February 21, 2019 at 3:07 pm
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    Tip: On Spotify, go to settings and adjust the Crossfade to 3 or 4 seconds. This will allow the songs to transition more seamlessly. Most of the time it works fantastically. A few times, though, it’s a bit jarring if one song ends abruptly and the next one starts abruptly.

    Reply
  • April 1, 2019 at 11:18 am
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    We continue to tweak the playlist and add songs. Check it out if you haven’t had a chance so far. There is a lot of great music on this playlist.

    Reply

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