Gideon’s Army was born in 1973, during the early years of CCM.  Hailing from the San Francisco Bay Area, the band worked to support the prison ministry that is now known as Follow Up Ministries.  Gideon's Army worked closely with juvenile halls, the CA Youth Authority, and CA State and Federal prisons. Their sound started out as acoustic, laid back gospel similar to the Maranatha! bands out of L.A.  Before long, the band would morph into a full-fledged aggressive Christian rock act.  The change was better suited for their outreach which included street ministry (Jews for Jesus, S.O.S. San Francisco), Christian coffee houses, and concert ministry (Great America, Oakland Civic Auditorium, H.P. Pavillian San Jose) among many other ministry opportunities. It wasn’t until 1982 that the band recorded and independently released their debut album Rock n’ Roll For Your Soul. The album reflected what was happening in the S.F.B.A. music scene at the time - dual lead guitars, horns and an R&B feeling. Their follow up 1985 release of the now iconic Warriors of Love brought big changes both in personnel and sound. Gone were the horns, dual guitar leads and most notably there was a more aggressive rock format. The new sound stood shoulder to shoulder with bands like Van Halen, Night Ranger, Petra, and .38 Special. The album sold like crazy at shows, but with no formal distribution many people never got their hands on the now high dollar collectible vinyl of this legendary classic rock release.  This problem continued with their third and final album, Grace, which was released in CS and CD formats on a small independent label that did not remain in existence for very long after the album's release.  Original CD copies of Grace are some of the rarest and most sought after CD collectibles in the world of AOR and Christian rock, almost never selling on eBay for less than $100 whenever one comes up for sale, which is usually only a few times a year at most.  However, 2013 may be a landmark year for fans of this legendary band.

[Additional commentary from the author of this entry] - In June or July of 2013, Retroactive Records (see links) released a remastered reissue of Warriors of Love on CD for the first time ever.  Then, in late 2015, the rumors I heard earlier about the other two Gideon's Army albums (Rock And Roll For Your Soul and Grace) being reissued finally came true.  Yes, all 3 of Gideon's Army's excellent albums, including the once ultra-rare Grace album, are all available again on CD thanks to the diligent work of Retroactive Records.  Grab them while you can.  I have added lyrics to the album entries, including an attempt at transcribing the lyrics from the Rock And Roll For Your Soul album.  My original cassette copy of RARFYS did not come with a lyric sheet and neither did the reissue.  So if anybody reading this does have an LP copy of that album, and if it did come with a lyric sheet...or if you happen to know the complete correct lyrics to any of the songs with missing words/lines or have better comprehension from the original recordings than I do (probably not a hard feat...), then please feel free to double check what I have posted, and email me (ccmrockman@gmail.com) with corrections or to fill in some of the blanks.  Lyric sheets were included for the CS and CD packages of the other two albums, so what I've posted for those should be accurate.