Month: August 2025

Bliss Bliss – Bliss Bliss – 1994

Let’s call this album what it is, it’s Reneé Garcia’s third album. Her husband (Lang Bliss) played small roles on her previous 2 albums but suddenly they’re a band called Bliss Bliss. Yes he did play a bigger role on this album but without her there really was no album but without him the album could easily have gone ahead. Furthermore he is apparently a drummer but all of her albums have electronic drums. How can you be the drummer on an album with electronic drums? If anything you may be a programmer but you aren’t a drummer. There I’ve said my piece. Most people know that I quite like Reneé Garcia so I was pretty happy when I discovered she had more albums using this name. While the album was on a new label Chris Eaton returned to produce this album though the electronic drummer also took production credits. I don’t think the songwriting measures up to her first 2 albums but it’s okay and her vocal skills make up for it. So it’s another fun pop album here from Reneé and if you liked her first 2 you’ll probably like this one.

Tracklist
1 – Fight For Peace – 4:34
2 – Building Bridges – 4:51
3 – Field Of Daisies – 4:27
4 – A Little Love – 4:19
5 – Believe In You – 4:37
6 – When The World’s Asleep – 5:06
7 – House Of Cards – 3:46
8 – Modern World – 4:39
9 – Walking Through Paradise – 3:37
10 – Chain Of Fear – 4:46
11 – Love And Devotion – 5:04
12 – House On The Hill – 5:52

Credits
Lang Bliss – Producer, Songwriter, Keyboards, Drums, Background Vocals, Choir
Keith Brown – Songwriter
Dave Bunker – Executive Producer, Choir
Tina Clark – Background Vocals, Choir
Eric Darken – Percussion
Chris Eaton – Executive Producer, Songwriter, Background Vocals
Gene Ford – Guitars
Reneé Garcia – Songwriter, Choir, Background Vocals, Vocals
Joe Gautier – Songwriter
Bob Halligan, Jr. – Songwriter
Mike Haynes – Trumpet, Flugelhorn
Renay Herrington – Background Vocals, Choir
Chris Kearney – Choir
Isabella Kearney – Choir
Jamie Kearney – Choir
Bryan Lenox – Additional Engineer
Russ Long – Co-Producer, Engineer, Mixed
John Mallory – Songwriter
Blair Masters – B-3, Keyboards
Heath McMillen – Choir
Michael Mellett – Background Vocals
Patsy Moore – Songwriter
John Mark Painter – Bass
Tim Pierce – Guitars
Kip Summers – Songwriter
Hank Williams – Mastered

Companies, etc.
Phonographic Copyright ℗ – R.E.X. Music
Copyright © – R.E.X. Music
Mastered At – Mastermix
Made By – Disc Manufacturing, Inc., Huntsville – 102125

Wall Bros. Band – Start All Over Again – 1978

The Wall Brothers are one of the most mystifying 70’s bands I have listened to. I missed this album back in the day and I’m guessing it’s because it wasn’t released in Canada. That said the band was hugely popular in the Genre. We get comments all the time about how much people liked them yet, I can find next to nothing about them. Bass player Randy Nelson has chimed in on our website and speaks fondly of his time with the band and says he’s still in contact with them. All that said I can find very very little about them in the interwebs. How did such a popular and excellent band become so unknown? This is a travesty because these guys were great and deserve some attention. Okay let’s get onto the album. While the album has a 70’s feel it does not have a typical Jesus Music sound. This is a Rock & Roll album and not some worship album. That said it does have some Ballads but they are actual Rock ballads. The lyrics are in your face Christianity. None of this ship in the desert stuff. This is well thought out Christ lyrics. Wish I had heard this one back in the day, it would have fit in nicely with our early SCB listening sessions.

Tracklist
1 – I Never Understood – 3:10
2 – Wind On Summer Nights – 4:46
3 – Walkin’ On The Water – 3:15
4 – Your Love Is Just What I Need – 4:45
5 – I Am – 4:38
6 – Givin’ It Up – 3:07
7 – Start All Over Again – 5:12
8 – Joyman – 3:48
9 – Clouds Of Glory – 4:32
10 – Where Will You Be Tomorrow? – 4:42

Credits
Arranged By [Horn Arrangements] – Shane Keister
Art Direction, Design – Bob McConnell
Bass, Vocals – Greg Wall
Drums, Percussion – Lance DeMers
Electric Guitar – Randy Nelson
Engineer – Bob Clark, Gene Eichelburger
Flugelhorn, Trumpet – George Tidwell
Flute – Billy Puett
Keyboards [Fender Rhodes], Lead Vocals – Kraig Wall
Lyrics By – Lance DeMers
Mastered By – Glenn Meadows
Mixed By – Travis Turk
Music By – Kraig Wall
Photography By – Dill Beaty
Producer – Phil Johnson
Synthesizer [Arp] – Shane Keister

Companies, etc.
Copyright © – Greentree Records
Published By – John T. Benson Pub. Co.
Published By – Dimension Music
Recorded At – Great Circle Sound
Mastered At – Masterfonics

Ron Salsbury And J.C. Power Outlet – Forgiven – 1974

Jesus Music was in dire need of a rock and roll band. In 1972 Myrrh released the self-titles debut album from JC Power Outlet to mixed reviews. The Devil’s music in your Christian bookstore! Two years later the follow up come out and it was better produced and, in some way, quite a bit harder edged. Bookstores still weren’t ready. The driving force behind JC Power Outlet was Ron Salsbury and he provided a formula of rocker followed by balled followed by rocker throughout each project. This second and final release for the group made a huge impact on the Jesus Music world as they finally had a legit rock band to go with the folk and pop groups like Love Song, Jamie Owens and Honeytree. Nothing earth shattering lyrically here as this is vintage Jesus Music evangelism and rapture ready warnings. But it’s very important to remember that these artists were also walking a very fine line of acceptance within their own churches and making bold proclamations of faith were all but necessary for their own survival and support. Forgiven was a game changer from the very creative artwork to the more consistent “rock” sound for the day, especially landing on a more mainstream Christian label. Here again we have an album that is both good and important to the growth and expansion of the Christian Music industry.

Contributor David Lowman – https://legacyccmsgreatestalbums.wordpress.com

Tracklist
1 – Peace and Power – 3:17
2 – Oh My Jesus – 2:54
3 – Too Bad – 2:54
4 – My Friend – 2:49
5 – I Choose to Follow You – 5:29
6 – Give Him Your Love – 2:15
7 – Goodbye – 4:07
8 – My Sign – 3:32
9 – Don’t Let Jesus Pass You By – 3:24
10 – Open Your Spiritual Eyes – 3:35

Credits
Arranged By, Producer [Produced By] – Darrell Rodman
Band [J.C. Power Outlet] – Bruce Neal, Dave Edwards, John Pantano, Ron Salsbury
Composed By – Ron Salsbury
Cover, Design Concept – Ron Salsbury
Engineer – Dan Holmes
Lacquer Cut By – Eck
Photography By – Bill Grine
Photography By [Backliner] – Jennifer Salsbury

Companies, etc.
Record Company – Word, Inc.
Phonographic Copyright ℗ – Word, Inc.
Copyright © – Word Music, Inc.
Engineered At – Audiotek Studios, Minneapolis

The Alarm – Change – 1989

This was the fourth studio album from The Alarm and the band/label continued their Russian roulette approach to producers. Tony Visconti was chosen as the producer/engineer for this one and quite frankly wasn’t the best choice. He completely failed to capture the feel of The Alarm and instead produced a commercial sounding album that made the band sound like anything else that came out in 1989. This is not to say that the album isn’t good, in fact the songs are great, it’s the arrangements/mix that sucked. So many great songs and if you see any of them live they are fantastic but for whatever reason the label thought the band needed a mainstream sound. The Alarm were not a mainstream band, they were a band of Christians with an edge that Rock and Roll needed, especially in 1989. Some interesting trivial about the album is that it was released on vinyl even though the vinyl version had to eliminate 2 tracks because the album was 2 long. There was a version of the album released in the U.K. that had the extra 2 tracks on a 7 inch insert. If I still collected vinyl I’d love to have that version. The album’s first single, “Sold Me Down the River” is a fantastic track and if you ever hear it live you realize how good a track it really is. It reached #13 on the UK charts, #75 in the US charts and in Canada it reached # 19 so I remember it very well. My personal belief is if this had been mixed properly it would have been a top 10 hit but the label knew better than me, or at least they think they did. Anyway I urge you to listen to the album as it really is very good and I absolutely love it. BUT, if it had been produced properly it would have been huge in my opinion.

Tracklist
1 – Sold Me Down The River – 5:25
2 – The Rock – 4:39
3 – Devolution Workin’ Man Blues – 4:11
4 – Love Don’t Come Easy – 4:08
5 – Hardland – 4:09
6 – Change II – 2:52
7 – No Frontiers – 3:53
8 – Scarlet – 4:17
9 – Where A Town Once Stood – 3:48
10 – Black Sun – 4:30
11 – Prison Without Prison Bars – 3:48
12 – How The Mighty Fall – 4:19
13 – Rivers To Cross – 3:42
14 – A New South Wales – 4:46

Credits
Arranged By – The Alarm
Bass – Eddie MacDonald
Drums – Nigel Buckle
Guitar – Dave Sharp
Keyboards – Mark Taylor
Management – Barry Dickins, Elliot Roberts
Producer, Engineer – Tony Visconti
Vocals – Mike Peters

Companies, etc.
Manufactured By – Cinram
Record Company – I.R.S. Records
Distributed By – MCA Records
Phonographic Copyright ℗ – International Record Syndicate, Inc.