Beginnings
It’s a typical Friday night in the fall of 1979 at Old Dan Tucker’s restaurant in Orem, Utah, and the dinner crowd has begun to thin. The wait-staff bustles about, delivering desserts and dinner checks and cleaning up for the night.
At the grand piano, a young man is playing and singing ‘Mandy’ by Barry Manilow, and another, perched on a stool in the curve of the piano, adds a perfectly blended harmony, baritone and tenor in a complementary duet.
As the crowd filters out, most of the diners stop by to drop a dollar or two in the tip jar, nodding thank you’s which are returned mid-song by the performing duo as they swing into the next song in their set.
A Latter-day Saint bishop and his wife from Alpine pause to chat between songs, asking a question that will significantly alter the arc of the young mens’ lives.
“Do you guys ever do firesides?”
Early History
Joel McCausland and Kevin Peay grew up in northern Utah County; Joel in Pleasant Grove and Kevin in Lindon. They started singing together their junior year of high school, performing at school assemblies and for some church meetings. For a short time, they also performed with the Collett twins, Kelly and Kori, also from Pleasant Grove.
As their high school years drew to a close, they also found opportunities to make extra money singing at local restaurants, which brought them to places like Old Dan Tucker’s in Orem and Jimba’s on Provo’s Center Street.
The question from the bishop turned into a request for the duo to create a musical program for the young people in his congregation. With few original songs of their own at this point, Kevin and Joel gathered up a few tunes they’d learned in church or in seminary and organized them into a musical program interspersed with stories, personal experiences and testimonies.
This first fireside was inevitably an experiment, with Kevin and Joel working to find a cadence and comfort with the musical flow and the interactions between them. But one request led to another, and with more experience, the process became more natural. Within a month or two, their schedule filled up with requests from church groups all along the Wasatch Front, then expanded to other areas around the country. In the year before they left on missions for the church, they averaged four or five fireside performances per month.
As the time approached for them to serve, in the autumn of 1980, they were approached by a member of Joel’s ward after one of their performances. He handed them a check for $500 and said, ‘I’d love to see you guys get in the studio and record this (meaning the fireside program), but if you can’t make that happen, take this money as a donation for your missions.’
The unexpected gift made it possible for the young men to consider just how much they could record for $500, and they determined to create something simple that could be left behind as they embarked on their missions, Kevin to St. Louis (and later to Nauvoo), and Joel to Tokyo, Japan. Joel’s Aunt Judy agreed to get them set up in her living room, and with the help of Joel’s sister Micki and Kevin’s sister Cheri, they created two simple albums.
The recording itself was done on a small four-channel recorder/mixer that captured the piano and guitar accompaniment (including frequent squeaks from the sustain pedal and the creak of the piano bench!), along with the lead and harmony vocals from the duo.
“It probably wasn’t the most professional recording we’ve ever done,” Joel recalls, “but it was exciting for a couple of kids from a small town to actually get to put something like this together!” The many projects completed since then have been recorded in some of the finest studios in the industry, but there has always been something special about this first effort.
“We couldn’t have made this happen without people willing to help us…and most of the time, without getting paid much if anything for it,” Kevin says. “We were getting ready to go on our missions, saving our money, and the gift from Fred and help from family made it possible.”
To Our Friends was a collection of some of their favorite songs to sing, both inspirational tunes and some in a more popular vein, and A Worship in Song was a re-creation of the fireside programs they had been performing regularly over the previous year. Cassette tapes—the prevalent musical media of the time—were produced so that copies could be shared with family and friends, and the duo left shortly after, happy they could leave something of their music behind as they embarked on their mission service.
An album requires an ‘artist name’, and to this point, they had just been known as Kevin and Joel. As they considered various options, they came across a word—and more importantly, a definition—that spoke to them. Perhaps their imminent departure to the mission field influenced their choice, too, but they had come to hope that their music and messages could have a lasting positive impact on their listeners.
Afterglow—the glow that remains after a light has disappeared—seemed like the perfect choice.
Building a Legacy
The first years following their mission service were filled with the typical points of re-entry—school, family, dating, marriage and children. The simple cassette tapes had been shared more widely than they could’ve expected, and they returned to find that their albums were among the first contemporary Latter-day Saint projects ever distributed by Deseret Book.
Demand for more firesides and other live performances quickly grew, and once again, the pair found themselves with a busy schedule, although one that now also had to be balanced against the growing demands of family life and careers.
In the year following their missions—and using proceeds from the cassette sales—they put together their first studio album, Someone is Listening, which found widespread success among church members interested in music that spoke to their faith, but with a more modern style than the well-known hymns. By now, both had begun to write original songs which they combined with other inspirational and worship music they had acquired along the way.
Perhaps the most notable and recognized song on that album was I Heard Him Come, a simple but deeply personal reflection on the mortal ministry of the Savior from the perspective of a leper who experienced healing at His hands. Written by Utah native Jeff Goodrich, it had a powerful effect on both the artists and on many thousands who heard Afterglow’s reverent acoustic treatment and harmonies.
“We’ve always been so grateful to have discovered this song and been able to be the first to record it,” Kevin recalls. Joel adds, “Jeff was the creative genius behind the song, but it’s become kind of a signature tune for us—we closed nearly every fireside we did for 30 years with I Heard Him Come.”
Even today, the duo is always gratified by the response when they have the opportunity to introduce this song to a new generation or audience, and its popularity provided a great boost to their early career and recognition in the growing Latter-day Saint music scene. Following the release of Someone is Listening, discussions began with Deseret Book, which was moving toward more of a creative, executive-producer role in developing new talent within the church. This relationship lasted for over two decades and resulted in numerous albums.
In the early years, with demand at its peak, Afterglow released at least one album every year, and began to expand their focus to include other musical genres. While every album is recognizable for Afterglow’s unique, close-harmony sound, that model was soon applied to Christmas and holiday albums, a couple of albums of contemporary love songs recorded in Los Angeles, two albums of new and original country music done in Nashville, and several albums recorded with the National Philharmonic Orchestra in London, England. Each of these works provided the artists with opportunities to grow and stretch in their writing and performing, and lent variety to the listeners’ experience, as well.
At one point, with their performance schedule set nearly three years into the future and with rapidly growing families, Kevin and Joel and their wives felt a need to set some boundaries for the place of music in their lives. Both have always pursued full-time non-music careers, treating their music as more of a demanding hobby, and with ten children between them, life was a constant juggling act between work, sports, family relationships and their desire to continue to write, record and perform music with a purpose. It wasn’t always an easy balance to strike.
“There’s no doubt that having so much going on all the time was hard to deal with sometimes, and required some sacrifices by our families,” Joel remembers. “I wasn’t always able to keep it all in perspective—there are certainly things I wish I’d done better.”
Still, audiences seemed to respond to each new release, and the duo found they could be as busy as they wanted to be, traveling to perform or record around the world. They released an album in Japanese and another in Portuguese, which led to trips to Brazil and Japan to do concerts and firesides. Joel had learned Japanese for his mission, but neither of them knew any Portuguese, so they employed translators to guide them through both the recording process and in the tours that followed.
Ebb and Flow
Today, the albums come less frequently, but in talking with the artists, it becomes clear that they’ve never had the desire to stop writing and performing music. One album per year became one every three or four, as other priorities and demands required more time and energy. As they perform in various venues today, their core audience might be moving into middle age and senior life, but they continue to appreciate opportunities to share their music and message with new listeners.
Over the past fifteen or twenty years, three or four albums have been added to the catalog, and if the audience isn’t as large or as vocal as it used to be, the group still receives many messages, posts and shares from loyal fans, many of whom have a personal story of a time and place when an Afterglow song helped them through a trial or provided a helpful perspective on a question or challenge.
Their latest album, Come and See, was released in spring of 2024 and features both new original songs and a few fresh arrangements of beloved hymns like I Know That My Redeemer Lives and It Is Well With My Soul.
The new songs address common themes on our faith journey—loss, doubt, learning to draw closer to and develop a more personal relationship with the Savior, and discovering ways to exercise and build our faith in the promises of the Lord. The experience of lifetimes can be found in the thoughtful lyrics, giving audiences both a pleasant if familiar musical experience coupled with an opportunity to reflect on principles and truths with a more eternal perspective.
When Afterglow releases a new album today, or posts a new single online, the music might be simpler and more acoustic than in the past sometimes, but the message still resonates. And they continue to explore new ways to share their story, writing new songs on a regular basis, and preparing for the release of a new podcast, Stories and Songs by Afterglow Music, which is launching in the fall of 2024.
Recording podcast episodes has been a joyful and remarkable look back for the artists, and they hope that the stories—many untold until now—will not only bring back welcome memories for the older crowd, but perhaps stimulate some interest with a new audience, as well. Look for podcast episodes, available soon wherever podcasts are available.
Is the end in sight? Will Afterglow become a ‘glow remaining where the light has disappeared’? The future might be unpredictable, but as Kevin and Joel often say, “We’ll keep doing this as long as people want to hear it,” and so far, there are still listeners looking forward to what’s next from Afterglow. For those interested in following the continued journey can do so at www.afterglowmusic.com.
The Catalogue: Albums by Afterglow
To Our Friends (1980)
A Worship in Song (1980)
Someone is Listening (1983)
The Greatest Gift (1984)
A Feeling Within
Another Witness
Mercyville
Forever Christmas
A Christmas Wish
Come and See
A More Perfect Light
Love at Home
Where Can I Turn for Peace?
Ever Onward
Warriors of Light (Japanese)
Voce e Meu Amigo (Portuguese)
It Takes Love
Love Notes
Walk with Me
No Love Lost
Close to Home
Matt ProctorNovember 5, 2024
I listened to Afterglow on my mission in the Dominican Republic (84-86). Everytime I hear one of their songs, I am transported back to that special time in my life. Some of the best LDS music I have ever heard.
Debbi McOctober 7, 2024
I would love to know if then Elder Joel McClausland ever went to Thanksgiving dinners at Yokota AB. We were stationed there from 1979-1983, near Tokyo, and have fond memories of hosting elders in our home on the base. What a coincidence that would be from so long ago!