Bill Mallonee and Vigilantes of Love

Music speaking to the universal longings of the heart

Near the end of high school, a friend handed me a copy of Vigilantes of Love album. A period in the mid-90s between high school and college where I felt lost. Not sure where I needed to be, not sure if I had anything to offer the world, and fighting many demons of the past. But this VOT record spoke to me. Spoke to deep places in my soul. 

I’d never heard of Vigilantes of Love until high school, but something in the musicality and honesty and Christ haunting lyrics sucked me into their vortex. The music was akin to the Psalms, with honest lament, anger, fear, doubt, and hope mixed through their R.E.M and Americana vibes. 

“Now look, if you're gonna come around here

And say those sort of things

You gotta take a few on the chin

Talking about love and all that stuff

You better bring your thickest skin

Sometimes you can't please everyone

Sometimes you can't please anyone at all

You sew your heart onto your sleeve

And wait for the ax to fall” -“Skin” (Blister Soul)

Or, one of my favorite songs from VOT called “Welcome to Struggleville.”

They are building a new gallows

For when You show up on the street

Polishing the electric chair

They're gonna give You a front row seat

Heard a sneer outside the garden

Salutations so well-heeled

"Welcome, all you suckers, to Struggleville"

I’d recently become a disciple of Jesus after receiving the VOT album. I found myself the Mayor of Struggleville. Leaving one way of life behind and entering a new one. Leaving one culture behind and embracing a new one. One struggle in the Jesus Tribe was regarding music. 

I’d always loved various genres of mainstream music and when I became part of the Jesus family, they exhorted me to leave all the “devil” and “secular” music behind. I even went down to the record store and sold all my CDs because I wanted to be a good Christian and buy only music that said Jesus a lot, and talked about faith-y stuff, and victory, and streams of living waters. 

Little did I know the Jesus Tribe had their own brand of music. Let me say it’s typically not that good. In my opinion, merely poor imitations of mainstream music. Take a mainstream song in any genre and put Jesus in the lyrics and talk of mountaintops and rivers and oceans and you’re good. Don’t even think of using a bad word. 

I was told you don’t need Led Zeppelin when you can listen to White Heart or Petra. Why listen to rap music like Cypress Hill, when Jesus people have DC Talk? What I didn’t realize at the time was Vigilantes of Love walked the line of the best mainstream music, and dabbled in the Christian music scene. A hard tightrope act for any band. 

Mallonee burst into the consciousness of the music world with his band Vigilantes of Love in 1990. VOL made Jugular their first full-length album and people took notice. They were based out of Athens, Georgia during the heyday and rise of R.E.M. and the alternative and college rock scene. One little wrinkle: Bill Mallonee was a devout Christian. Bill wasn’t obnoxious about it and connected with a wide variety of audiences. 

The problems Bill faced was the music he wanted to make wasn’t overtly Christian and much of what he experienced in the world of Christian Contemporary Music (CCM) was nothing he wanted to take part in. They force the CCM artists to say certain things in their lyrics and have a particular sound to meet market demand. Bill wanted the creative freedom to make music in his own way. He wanted to make music for all kinds of people, not just Christians. What happened was Bill and VOL tried to dance between Christian audiences and the mainstream, and nobody fully embraced them.

Often too Christian for mainstream audiences, and not Christian enough for the Jesus Tribe. I related. 

What is the role of Christian music? To convert the found? Convert those living outside the Christian community? Nobody gave great answers in those early years of following Jesus and only said: get rid of Jimi Hendrix and Pearl Jam or you might face eternal ramifications. I heard Third Day has a new album. These answers were not satisfactory for me.

I’ve heard someone say the problem with Christian music is it’s from a certain perspective. It’s for those already living in the Christian story. Those already convinced of Jesus and all that comes with the faith. Instead of making excellent music and letting it say what it needs to say, they write music from a certain perspective, and for those who already resonate with the perspective. Isn’t good art and music for the masses? 

Despite having spiritual themes running through their music, the genius of bands like VOT was that they spoke to a universal human longing. Regardless of faith tradition, we all feel it. The longings of love, hope, and healing in suffering. Our feelings of fear, doubt, and purpose wondering if our lives matter. Sadly, many in the Jesus Tradition believe these things go away once you become a Christian. The art we make sounds less like the ache of the Psalms, and more like Hallmark Greeting cards.

Back to Struggleville. Nobody told me the struggles of life don’t magically go away after following Jesus. The doubts and pain and guilt of the past don’t vanish into thin air. Our struggle with sin doesn’t simply hide under a rug, never to return. The music of VOT helped me grapple with these tensions. 

Unfortunately, bands like Vigilantes get pigeonholed into categories that often aren’t helpful. Much of their career fizzled out because promoters and the gatekeepers were never sure where to put them. Do they play a mainstream club in Athens, or a Christian festival in Atlanta? Do they make records on Christian labels, or not?

Bill Mallonee wanted to make good music for people to connect to. He wasn’t trying to convert anyone to his Christian faith. He wanted to address the universal longings of the human art and do it with voice and a six string. And the good news after a little digging is Bill is still making his art. 

Eighty albums later, seventy five to eighty songs a year, no record label, and not much money to speak of, but, Bill Mallonee the talented singer songwriter you’ve never heard of is still cranking out music speaking to the longings of the human heart in a small house in the New Mexico desert. 

What is beautiful about VOT and the Mallonee story is if you ask mainstream and Christian audiences, they’ll say the VOT music was some of the best in the 90s and 2000s. They’ll say Bill’s music still resonates with a variety of audiences despite little commercial success. Good music and good art are universal. It speaks to a variety of peoples and communities. 

Bill makes music from the heart, a heart that longs for redemption and healing, and love. A heart like all of our hearts. Perhaps why I believe his music will last long after we’re gone. 

I’m glad Bill didn’t give up in those early years because I’d never encounter Struggleville, and despite the struggle still being real, I know I’m among a community of fellow-strugglers. 

Thanks Bill Mallonee for making great art with your life.