WE
WILL
STAND
WRITTEN BY RUSS TAFF, TORI TAFF AND JAMES HOLLIHAN
RECORDED BY RUSS TAFF ON WALLS OF GLASS (WORD RECORDS, 1983)
PRODUCED BY BILL SCHNEE
1983 GRAMMY AWARD—BEST MALE GOSPEL PERFORMANCE: WALLS OF GLASS
1984 DOVE AWARD—BEST MALE VOCALIST
Russ Taff was born the fourth of five sons to a fire-breathing Pentecostal preacher father R and a gospel music-loving mother. He grew up in tiny Farmers-ville, CA, in the heart of the verdant San Joaquin Valley surrounded by fruit orchards and itinerant migrant workers. “We were old-time Pentecostal,” Russ explains with a smile. ”Growing up in that church, I always felt kind of on the fringes of the rest of the body of Christ, because we were just so out there! I also saw how all the Hispanic workers in our town were treated by the locals. It gave me an understanding early on of what it was like to be an outsider, of how it felt to stand alone.”
Russ Taff left his hometown at 17 and eventually made his way to Nashville, where the new kid in town quickly found success as the lead singer of the legendary Imperials. By 1982, he had struck out on his own and was getting ready to record his first solo album for Word Records.
“I was blown away the first time I heard ‘We Will Stand.’ I love the theme of that song; it makes me glad I’m part of the family of God. I wish Gloria and I had been paying closer attention the day that one was floating around in the air…but I’m glad Russ and Tori were!”
BILL GAITHER
“I saw Russ Taff play this big outdoor festival, in ’92 or ’93. He did the guitar thing, just sat there singing those words and I was completely overcome with emotion. The message, the passion and just the whole aura of who he is as an artist and a writer… I saw him and thought, I want to do that—I want to write songs and move people toward God.”
MICHAEL TAIT OF dc talk
Late one night, Russ sat on the living room floor of the apartment he shared with his wife Tori, strumming his guitar and trying to come up with something for the new record. “I was thinking about this story I had heard from a guy named Archie Dennis,” Russ remembers. “He was a singer that traveled with the evangelist Kathryn Kulhman. He was a black man, and he had this huge voice like an opera singer. When he sang, you couldn’t tell what color he was, I guess on the radio most people thought he was white. He told about being invited to Alabama in the early ‘60s to sing at this big church. It was Sunday morning and when he got there early to set up his little sound system, the pastor walked in and asked who he was. When Archie told him he was the guest singer, the pastor said, ‘This is not going to work. This is Alabama, and there’s just no way this can happen. You are not going to be able to sing this morning.’ So Archie started packing up his equipment, tears running down his face. He walked out to the steps of the church on the way to his car and almost collapsed crying, saying ‘God, you know we’re all brothers and sisters in Christ—why won’t they let me in?’ And he said he felt a voice say back to him, ‘They won’t let Me in either.’”
As Russ recalled the story that he had carried with him for years, a theme of looking beyond our differences and finding unity in Christ began to form in his mind. “By about 4:00 in the morning, I had the chorus,” Russ says. “I went upstairs and woke up Tori to sing it to her, and the next day we finished the verses.” “We Will Stand” became one of Taff’s signature songs, and has been performed at Presidential rallies, Billy Graham crusades, Gaither Homecoming videos and in churches of every color and kind across the country. “We just don’t have room in the body of Christ for prejudice towards anyone,” Taff concludes. “No matter what denomination, race or culture— like the song says, ‘If you believe in Jesus, you belong with me, and the bond we share is all I care to see.’”
