Shotgun Angel is the second album by Christian rock band Daniel Amos, released in 1977. It was their final album for Maranatha! Music and their last album performed in their early country rock sound.
Background
The album is named after the song of the same name, which finished side one of the album. The song was written earlier by Bill Sprouse Jr. for his band The Road Home which featured future Daniel Amos drummer Ed McTaggart. After Sprouse's untimely death at age twenty-six, sound engineer Mike Shoup dug up an old four-track tape of the song and asked Dom Franco of the Maranatha! group Bethlehem to add pedal steel guitar to the song. When Daniel Amos heard it they decided to record it themselves and enlisted Franco to play the pedal steel and Shoup and McTaggart to add the CB radio voices on the recording.
Although DA's previous release was largely country, this album marked the start of a return to the band's pre-label roots, rock and roll, which took some of their country fans by surprise. Shotgun Angel was half country and half rock opera. The 'side two' of the LP featured lush orchestrations and a string of rock songs linked together in a way that was reminiscent of The Beatles 1967 Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album. The band even made a number of concert performances at this time with a full orchestra backing them.
Reissues
In 1986, the entire "side two" of the album was remixed and re-released on a collection called The Revelation with some narration by Chuck Smith included between songs.
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AllMusic showed a mixed reaction in their retrospective review, noting the overt similarity to the Eagles and deeming the rock opera of side two "a little too wide-eyed and doomsaying for most modern audiences". However, they praised the track "Better," comparing it to the psychedelic rock work of The Beatles.