September 2025 – Page 2

The Sharretts – Let It Shine – 1981

This is the 5th album from the Brothers Sharrett and this really was their last album. They did have a Christmas album after this but Christmas albums aren’t truly albums to me unless it’s a collection of newly written songs and theirs wasn’t. I’ll be truthful, this is another band I had no idea even existed. This isn’t surprising as it doesn’t look like they were distributed in Canada. There were several bands in the late 70’s that did the Imperials sound and style and unfortunately that’s the category these guys fall in. I have listened to several of their albums now and quite frankly they’re pretty good for this genre but they just don’t stand out. Now to be fair I am completely unqualified to judge this style of music because quite frankly I just don’t like it and I did not listen to it in the 80’s. So if you were a fan I am not faulting you but I’m actually interested in what drew you to this band and this album. Feel free to let me know all about it in the comments section of wherever you are reading this.

Tracklist
1 – We’ll Be Changed – 3:19
2 – Depend On Me – 3:19
3 – With My Faith In God – 3:56
4 – We Welcome You – 3:26
5 – You Haven’t Changed – 4:12
6 – Let It Shine – 3:49
7 – The Home Of The Lord – 3:13
8 – The Master’s Love – 3:25
9 – Smile – 3:17
10 – The Kingdom Of The Lord – 3:44

Credits
Bass – Dennis Belfield
Design – Dennis Hill
Drums – Ed Greene
Engineer – Billy Taylor, Jack Joseph Puig
Guitar – Paul Jackson, Jr.
Management – Adoration, Inc.
Mastered By – Doug Sax
Photography By – Harry Langdon
Producer, Arranged By, Keyboards, Percussion, Synthesizer [Prophet 5] – David Diggs
Saxophone, Flute – Jim Coile
Strings – The Doug Cameron String Section
Trumpet – Danny Ackerman, Terry Winch
Vocals – The Sharretts

Companies, etc.
Phonographic Copyright ℗ – Word, Inc.
Copyright © – Word, Inc.
Recorded At – Mama Jo’s
Recorded At – Martinsound
Overdubbed At – Hit Man Studio
Mastered At – The Mastering Lab

Zion – Eternal Horizons – 1983

I’ll start this review by letting you know that this is lesser known Oregon version of Zion. Today we have their first album/demo from 1983. This demo was recorded on a Tascam 4 track and this copy of the album is from a cassette copy. I have done my best to improve the quality but it is still pretty shaky. Given the rarity of this album however we’re proud to offer it anyway. I got this copy from the bands Bass player Cory Graper and I really appreciate it. I really really like this album. The song writing is excellent and quite frankly if they had a studio available to them this album was easily good enough to go on the shelves of your local book store. While it opens rather synth oriented it then slipped into more of a Rock & Roll sound. The highlight of the album for me was the live track “Comin’ Back” which is a fantastic fun Rock track. Another stand out for me is the last track which is a cover of Darrell Mansfield’s song “That’s Alright”. I’m pretty sure Darrell would have loved this cover and I hope he got a chance to hear it back in the day. Anyway this is a rare one you most likely haven’t heard and it deserves a listen.

Tracklist
1 – Eternal Horizons – I Have Decided – 1:52
2 – Vanity – 4:48
3 – Prayer Away – 3:58
4 – No Wave – 4:07
5 – Over And Over – 5:28
6 – Arise – 8:35
7 – Comin’ Back – 4:47
8 – Forever With You – 2:48
9 – Turn Or Burn – 3:37
10 – Cold Heart – 7:28
11 – That’s Alright – 5:28

Credits
Jeff Bates – Keyboards, Guitar, Lead Vocal, Producer
Dave Day – Guitar,Lead Vocals
Cory Graper – Bass, Vocals
Don Blenkush – Drums
Ricky T. Terando – Live sound

The Reign – Back From Euphoria – 1989

The Reign were/are a Christian rock band from Southern California in the late 80’s/early 90’s. They only had this one album but it was a real cult favourite. I had not heard this one as obviously it didn’t make it’s way to Canada but I wish I had. This is a great Rock Pop album that had a perfect sound for 1989. The album did get picked up for distribution by Image Records and the CD got the cover we have here. The Cassette had a much simpler and quite frankly better cover. The band recently recorded a new album which was inspired/encouraged by drummer Doug Lada’s granddaughter. It’s really good too, what a great bunch of talented musicians. If you only have time for one track I’m telling you that you need to hear “Looking For You (On Christmas Day)”, though really you should be listening to the whole album. You simply can not go wrong with Darrell Mansfield playing harp on a few tracks and Riki Michelle singing backing vocals on two tracks. I was really impressed with the production quality of this self recorded piece and then I saw that it was produced by Gene Eugene. Suddenly it all makes sense. Anyway the band is till at it and you can check out some of their work on their YouTube channel listed below.

https://www.youtube.com/@TheReign-Official

Tracklist
1 – In Another Room – 3:29
2 – Cold Desert Wind – 3:52
3 – Looking For You (On Christmas Day) – 3:48
4 – Running Out Of Time – 3:27
5 – Trouble On My Mind – 3:19
6 – Weakness – 4:38
7 – Love Survive – 3:53
8 – Don’t Let It Take You Down – 4:56
9 – Dancer – 3:01

Credits
Harold Bloemendaal, Jr – Lead Vocals, guitars, Backing Vocals
Greg Kemble – Guitars, Backing Vocals
Travis Sheets – Synth, Hammond B-3, Backing Vocals
Curtis Holtzen – Bass, percussion, Backing Vocals
Doug Lada (Dug Dorr) – Drums, Percussion, Backing Vocals
Darrell Mansfield – Harmonica (Track 2, 5)
Gene Eugene – Producer, Acoustic Guitar (Track 9)
Riki Michelle – Backing vocals (Track 4, 8)

Companies, etc.
Marketed By – Image Records