Steve Adams › Hymnals

Stephen Robert Adams USA 1943-present. Born at Woonsocket, RI, he studied music at age seven, taking lessons from a pastor’s wife. At Andover Academy, Andover, MA, he continued music studies. In 1960 he became church organist where his father was a Nazarene pastor. Steve and brother, Nate, were singing on network radio before they were school age. By age 13, he felt God’s call to become a Christian songwriter. The family moved to IN after 1960, and he, again, was church organist. He studied Greek philosophy and English literature at Indiana U, Bloomington, IN. He worked with musician, Doug Oldham, in 1973. By 1974 he had settled in Urbana, OH, and was organist/choirmaster of a church in Xenia, OH. He survived a devastating tornado there in April 1974. Seeing a funnel cloud, he left his car and ran into a furniture store and hid under a sofa he had turned over. Later, his dad spent over an hour removing rubble before there was a hole large enough for his escape. Returning two days later to the store, he found that the National Guard, digging to find him, had found everyone else in the store dead. From this disaster, he wrote the song, ‘Peace in the Midst of the Storm’. That same year he had an allergic reaction to propane gas from his trailer and lost his voice for 2 and a half years, regaining it while traveling as an accompanist with Doug Oldham. In the mid-70s he married Janet ‘Jane’ R, and they had two children: Craig Alfred and Christopher John. He wrote some 24 gospel songs, several becoming well-known. Most of his music was published through Dimension Music Company. Stephen and wife currently reside at Franklin, TN.

John Perry