Month: November 2018

Barnabas – Hear The Light – 1980

I either forgot huge parts of this album or I blocked them out. It’s weird.

Track 1: Drop the needle, and the first thing you hear is the beginning of “Greensleeves”. Where’d that come from? The first verse of “Saviour” might fit in as a Christmas song, but only on the Lump of Coal CD.

So many lyrics I’ve forgotten, like “I want an angel for a next door neighbor / Hey, Gabriel just might drop in for tea!” Maybe I forgot because you can’t make them all out unless you read the liner notes.

“Little Faith” has an almost Israeli-style feel, but like everything else on the album, the operative word seems to be “almost”.

One lyric you can’t forget (I didn’t) is from what is truly the signature song on the album: “Marshalls and drums! Cymbals and bass! / Get out and blow ’em away – playin for Me! / You’ll be playin’ for Me.” The next time around, it’s “We’ll make all the noise we can, so you’ll believe in Him / Marshalls and Drums! Cymbals and bass! Get out and blow ’em away – playin’ for Him!”

“No More Blues” starts laying down a nice bluesy bass line, but don’t get too into it, because before you know it, they’ve added a punk rock vocal and some hard rock guitar riffs, especially in the solos. I don’t know what it is at that point, but despite the underlying bass line, there really are no more blues in there.

The next track is “Father of Lies”, which lays down a nice little beat that you can start grooving on until… once again, the vocal comes in.

The lyric sheet is truly worth reading if you want to know what the lyrics are. Some of them are really over the top. The sheet includes a short statement of faith and thanks JPUSA and the Vineyard of West Los Angeles. Maybe they even met Larry Norman out there somewhere, but neither seems to be advertising it.

Track Listing:
1 – Saviour – 3:02
2 – There’s A New World Coming – 2:35
3 – Directory Assistance – 3:55
4 – Little Faith – 2:54
5 – He Loves You – 3:20
6 – B.C. – 2:22
7 – Playin’ For Him – 3:33
8 – No More Blues – 7:28
9 – Father Of Lies (A Song About The Other Guy) – 2:30
10 – It’s Up To You – 3:00

Credits:
Art Direction – Dan Lienart
Photography By – David Randle
Producer – David Storrs
Written-By – Barnabas
Bass – Gary Mann
Drums – Kris Klingensmith
Guitar – Monte Colley
Lead Vocals – Nancy Jo Mann

Geri Baird – Cool Age – 1980

Geri Baird has been described as the Pat Benatar of Christian music.

This album doesn’t really have any hard rock tunes but I think it could have held it’s own in the secular music scene that was the 80’s. My research into this album indicates that it was only released in Canada which is a pity as I think it was ripe for the U.S. market.

The fan favourite was “Backside Of The Desert” but my personal favourite was “Taking My Baby For A Ride”. Oh and she was very attractive which is probably the reason we bought this album 🙂

Track Listing:
1 – Super Heroes
2 – Backside Of The Desert
3 – Cool Age
4 – Somebody Loves Me
5 – Family
6 – Taking Baby For A Ride
7 – Living On Broken Hearts
8 – Visions
9 – Just A Heart
10 – I Know

The Lifters – What Love’s All About – 1985

The Lifters return after their successful EP release.

This regular length album is more of the same Rockabilly sound. There was one track carry over from the EP “Eternity Bop” which is very slightly altered. If you had to pick a “single” that would be it, but personally I suggest “C’mon Back” Bottom line is that this is a fun sounding album that should keep your toes tapping.

Track Listing:
1 – Be Like You – 2:10
2 – Operator – 2:45
3 – Scream and Shout – 2:41
4 – I’m Goin’ to Heaven – 3:01
5 – Front Slidder – 1:49
6 – No Middle Ground – 3:13
7 – What Love’s All About – 2:24
8 – Do What I Do – 2:48
9 – Eternity Bop – 2:21
10 – C’mon Back – 3:13
11 – My Love For You Will Stay – 4:04

Credits:
Albert Berry – Background Vocal
Chris Brigandi – Producer, Songwriter, Guitars, Lead Vocals
Lucky Chuck – Background Vocals
Derri Daugherty – Engineered, Mixed
Stan Endicott – Over Dub Production
Rex Harvey – Songwriter, Guitars, Background Vocals
Dave Kaplowitz – Sax
Kass – Bass, Background Vocals
Mark Kirschak – Songwriter
Joey Mitchell – Drums, Background Vocals
Kathy Perry – Background Vocals
Brian Ray – Drums
Joanne Saundenberg – Background Vocals
Marnie Saundenberg – Duet Vocal, Background Vocal
William Spivery – Songwriter
Adrian Tapia – Sax, Clarinet
Joe Van Gilder – Piano

Larry Norman – Something New Under the Son – 1981

This album is probably Larry’s best straight out Rock and Roll album.

Recorded in 1977 it didn’t get released until 1981 due in part to difficulty with Word Records. In fact Word censored “Watch What You’re Doing”. Given these difficulties, this album was the end of Larry’s distribution agreement with Word Records. It was also his last release on Solid Rock Records, which was actually shut down before this album was released.

As a teen I remember loving “Watch What You’re Doing” though now I can enjoy all of the album with more years of life experience under my belt.

Track Listing:
1 – Hard Luck Bad News
2 – Feeling So Bad
3 – I Feel Like Dying
4 – Born To Be Unlucky
5 – Watch What You’re Doing
6 – Leaving The Past Behind
7 – Put Your Life In His Hands
8 – Larry Norman’s 97th Nightmare
9 – Let That Tape Keep Rolling (C:12/L:6)

Credits:
Bass – Billy (Shazam) Batstone*, Dave Coy, Tim Jaquette
Drums – Alex MacDougall, Peter Johnson (3)
Guitar, Slide Guitar – Jon Linn
Producer, Arranged By, Written-By – Larry Norman
Vocals, Guitar, Drums, Bass, Piano, Harmonica, Saxophone, Harmony Vocals, Photography By, Artwork – L.N.*

Steve Camp – One on One – 1986

This 4th offering from Steve Camp was more of the same.

This album has a distinctly 80’s sound and is slightly more up tempo than previous ones. If I had to pick one track to listen to it would be “Foolish Things”.

Tracklist
1 – Foolish Things
2 – Other Side Of The World
3 – Judgement Begins With The House Of God
4 – One On One
5 – He Covers Me
6 – Cheap Grace
7 – Mr. Brokenhearted
8 – Threshing Floor
9 – He’s All You Need

Credits
Backing Vocals – Bill Champlin, Bob Carlisle (2), Jason Scheff, Steve Lively, Tamara Champlin, Tommy Funderburk
Bass – Lee Sklar*
Drums – Jeff Porcaro
Engineer [Additional] – Dan Garcia, David Schober, Mike Ross*, Peter Hayden
Engineer [Rhythm Tracks] – Dennis Mackay
English Horn – Jon Clarke
Keyboards – Smitty Price
Mixed By – Bill Schnee
Percussion – Dan Greco*
Producer, Arranged By, Drum Programming [SP-12 Drum Machine Programming] – Steve Camp
Producer, Arranged By, Orchestrated By – John Rosasco
Rhythm Guitar – Michael Landau
Rhythm Guitar, Lead Guitar – Dann Huff
Vocals [Female Vocal, Duet] – Margaret Becker (tracks: A4)

Steve Taylor – Meltdown – 1984

This album was a followup to Steve Taylor’s EP “I Want to Be a Clone”. It is slightly more refined, but for the main part it followed the new wave sound of the previous EP.

The album features some strong “political” messages, something Steve Taylor was well known for. The album did well commercially, reaching the No. 10 spot on Billboard’s Top Contemporary Christian chart and No. 18 in the 2001 book CCM Presents: The 100 Greatest Albums in Christian Music.

The single was “Meltdown” though I preferred “Am I in Sync?”

Track Listing:
1 – Meltdown (At Madame Tussaud’s) – 4:26
2 – We Don’t Need No Colour Code – 2:43
3 – Am I In Sync? – 4:32
4 – Meat The Press – 3:48
5 – Over My Dead Body – 5:21
6 – Sin For A Season – 4:14
7 – Guilty By Association – 3:21
8 – Hero – 3:40
9 – Jenny – 4:04
10 – Baby Doe – 3:51

Credits:
Arranged By – Steve Taylor
Bass – Chris Richards
Cover – The Graphics Studio
Cover [Coordination] – B. Charlyne Hinesley
Drums – Cactus Moser
Engineer – Jonathan David Brown
Guitar – Kerry Conner
Keyboards – Woody Waddell
Management – Rob Marshall
Photography By – Greg Wigler
Producer – Jonathan David Brown
Saxophone – Dave Thrush
Vocals, Other [Anything Else That Requires No Talent] – Steve Taylor
Written-By – Steve Taylor

Gentle Faith – (self titled) – 1976

Gentle Faith was Darrell Mansfield’s first band and they released their only album in 1976.

This album varies greatly in style as there are some light rock 70’s style tunes, a few bluegrass songs, and one good solid rock song. Most of the other band members from Gentle Faith worked with Darrell in future projects.

While this album is all over the place it should be listened to for the sake of hearing where Darrell came from.

Tracklist
1 – Simple Song
2 – Living In The Sonshine
3 – The Whole Lump Of Dough
4 – It’s So Good To Know
5 – Jerusalem
6 – Noah
7 – My Love For You
8 – Goin’ Back Home
9 – Turnaround
10 – Home

Credits
Acoustic Guitar, Banjo, Mandolin, Vocals – Don Gerber
Art Direction – Neal Buchanan
Artwork [Embroidery] – Nona Cutrona
Backing Vocals – Virgil Beckham
Bass, Lead Vocals, Acoustic Guitar – Henry Cutrona
Co-producer [Production Assistance] – Al Perkins
Drums, Percussion – Paul Angers
Electric Guitar, Bass, Mandolin, Vocals – Steve Kara
Engineer, Mixed By – Jonathan Brown*
Fiddle – Fred Field
Keyboards, Saxophone – Dave Garland*
Lead Vocals, Harmonica – Darrell Mansfield
Photography By – George Fortner, Scott Lockwood
Producer – Virgil Beckham
Resonator Guitar [Dobro] – Leroy McNee*
Strings – Dave Garland* (tracks: B5), Jim Stipech (tracks: A1)

Darrell Mansfield – Born To Be Wild – 2008

This is a collection of classic rock songs (some altered slightly) put out by Darrell Mansfield.

There is actually very little info on this album and I’m not able to find the catalogue number for it. It is however perhaps the greatest “cover” album ever put out.

Some of the covers are so good you wouldn’t even know it’s a cover. I have no idea who his backing band was for this album, but they are obviously a very strong band.

Track Listing:
1 – Born to Be Wild
2 – Just Lookin’ for a Church
3 – Spirit in the Sky
4 – Back Slider
5 – Radar Love
6 – Drift Away
7 – For the Love of Money
8 – Are You Ready?
9 – Respect Yourself
10 – Put a Little Love in Your Heart
11 – Oh Well
12 – Walking in God’s Love
13 – Get Together
14 – I’ll Be There
15 – Lean on Me
16 – Nature’s Way

Real 80s CCM Podcast # 1

Episode #1 Featuring

  • Darell Mansfield
  • The Keep
  • Servant
  • Scott and Ray talking about old music
  • Guest appearance by Gena the dog

To view this episode with its original live video, see it here on Youtube:

Listen to just the audio below, or Right Click Here To Download

 

Kenny Marks – Make It Right – 1987

This is the 4th album from Kenny Marks and by this point he had perfected his pop rock sound.

While this album has a decidedly 80’s sound it really has a feel that makes it an album that still plays well today.

The track “Good News” (a Randy Stonehill cover) shows us Kenny’s rock and Roll side and “Bon Appetite” gave us some variety in the form of a 50’s style rock tune.

Track Listing:
1 – Holy Eyes – 3:38
2 – Never Been A Stranger – 3:57
3 – White Dress – 4:52
4 – Promise Me – 3:25
5 – Make It Right – 4:26
6 – Bon Appétit – 3:11
7 – I’d Do It All Over Again – 3:26
8 – Say A Prayer For Me Tonight – 4:43
9 – No Compromise – 3:32
10 – Stand – 4:32
11 – The Party’s Over (The Video Mix) – 4:37
12 – Good News – 4:27

Credits:
Backing Vocals – Chris Harris (2), Chris Rodriguez, Kenny Marks
Bass – Mike Brignardello
Bass Harmonica – Buddy Greene
Dobro – Jerry Douglas
Drums – Chad Cromwell
Electric Guitar – Jerry McPherson
Electric Guitar, Acoustic Guitar – George Cocchini
Electric Piano [B-3 Organ] – Phil Madeira
Executive-Producer – Neal Joseph
Keyboards – Phil Naish
Mastered By – Hank Williams (2)
Percussion – Bubba Smith (2)
Producer – Bubba Smith (2)
Recorded By, Mixed By – JB (12)
Saxophone – Mark Douthit