Ray Mansfield – Real 80s CCM

The Way – The Way – 1973

The Way was one of the original Maranatha bands of the early 70’s. There were several bands in this era and you’ll see several of the same names from band to band. No apparently Bruce Herring is not related to Buck Herring but that’s a heck of a coincidence so I’d be happy to be wrong on that one. As with most of the albums from this era it’s relatively easy listening but they do turn it up for “Song Of Joy”. Personally I think this is one of the better albums of the era and I am told their 2nd album is quite a bit more rock so I’m looking forward to hearing it soon.

Tracklist
1 – Son Come Out – 3:58
2 – You’re Caught In A World – 4:10
3 – Song Of Joy – 3:30
4 – Come On Down – 3:45
5 – Closer To God – 4:43
6 – New Song – 3:45
7 – There’s A Love – 2:44
8 – He’s The Reason To Go On – 2:56
9 – Harvest Time – 4:42
10 – Are You Listening? – 3:32

Credits
Artwork By – Neal Buchanan
Artwork By [Caly Sculptures Front Cover] – Trace Guthrie
Backing Vocals, Guitar – Gary Arthur
Backing Vocals – Bruce Herring
Bass – John Wickham
Design – Gary Arthur
Drums, Percussion – Alex MacDougall
Engineer – Buck Herring, Buddy King
Lead Vocals, Guitar – Dana Angle
Photography – Woody Blackburn
Producer – The Way
Remix – Chuck Johnson

Companies, etc.
Phonographic Copyright ℗ – Maranatha! Music
Copyright © – Maranatha! Music
Recorded At – Buddy King Studios, Huntington Beach, CA
Recorded At – Mama Jo’s
Remixed At – Mama Jo’s

Various – The Everlastin’ Living Jesus Music Concert – 1971

Generally speaking we avoid compilation albums but the early ones from Maranatha are sometimes pretty special and that’s the case with this one. Fist of all let me say that this sounds like it might be a live album. It is not. We will dive into this topic a little more on another one of these albums coming up in a few weeks. This album is a gem because of all the unreleased tracks and some of them are really good. Great to hear a very early Gentle Faith (Darrell Mansfield). The highlight of the album is actually a released track from Love Song. I really enjoy “Little Country Church” because of Bob Wall’s great guitar work. Anyway this is some of the best of the Jesus music years. Below are the origins of each track;

1 – Love Song – Little Country Church (Appeared on their self titled album released 1971)
2 – Selah – In Jesus’ Name (Unreleased)
3 – Blessed Hope – Something More (Unreleased)
4 – Country Faith – Two Roads (Unreleased)
5 – Various – Holy, Holy, Holy (Compilation Unreleased)
6 – Gentle Faith – The Shepherd (Unreleased)
7 – Debby Kerner – Behold, I Stand At The Door (Appeared on her 1972 album Come Walk With Me)
8 – The Way – If You Will Believe – (Unreleased)
9 – Love Song – Maranatha (Unreleased until their 2010 Box set)
10 – Children Of The Day – For Those Tears I Died (Appeared on their 1971 album Come To The Waters

Tracklist
1 – Love Song – Little Country Church – 2:38
2 – Selah – In Jesus’ Name – 3:47
3 – Blessed Hope – Something More – 3:30
4 – Country Faith – Two Roads – 5:40
5 – Various – Holy, Holy, Holy – 3:00
6 – Gentle Faith – The Shepherd – 3:30
7 – Debby Kerner – Behold, I Stand At The Door – 2:05
8 – The Way – If You Will Believe – 4:22
9 – Love Song – Maranatha – 3:30
10 – Children Of The Day – For Those Tears I Died – 5:10

Credits
Design – Barry Malone, Kernie Erickson
Photography By – Gary Conniff (tracks: Gary Connif)
Producer [Not Credited] – Chuck Girard

Changed – It’s Good To Be Alive – 1988

Here’s another of my new to me artists probably because they never released anything outside of the Netherlands. They did have 1 album on a Netherlands label but their other 3 albums were self released. As near as I can tell this is their first album which is odd because even self released a band doesn’t usually release a live album as their first album. The album is a hard rock album that has a sound that we were used to from a little earlier in the decade. All the tracks are in English which I find a little odd for a Netherlands band but it works for us. Most the tracks here appeared on their later studio albums but there are some loners on this album. If you’re a big fan of early Rez or Barnabas I strongly suspect you will like this one.

Tracklist
1 – Introductie
2 – Anyone Pays The Price
3 – Tell The Children They’re Mine
4 – Big Shot
5 – Masks
6 – The Answer Of My Live
7 – You Have It
8 – Share It With God
9 – What Live Is All About
10 – Changed
11 – Lost And Lonely

Credits
Ytsje Droogsma – Vocals
Jouke Droogsma – Vocals and lead guitar
Jurjen Wind – Rhythm guitar
Benno Nijmeyer – Bass
Johan Boersma – Drums

Double Check – Shake It Down – 1989

The absolute joy of this project is stumbling on an album that we never heard of or ever even heard of. It’s even a better surprise when you stumble across a great album. This is one of those times. I literally have no idea how we came across this album. I have about 250 albums sitting in a folder waiting for me to get to and quite honestly I haven’t even listened to half of them. This once ended up at the top of the list and wow is it great. This is an 80’s style Pop/New Wave album and is really really well engineered. Not perfect but that might be because it was released on cassette so we’re kind of at the mercy of whomever dubbed it over. As the album says all instruments and voices by Andy and Joy Clark who are a husband and wife team out of the U.K. I say are because they are still making music. It appears all their albums (there are several) were/are self released which was no easy feat in the late 80’s. They still appear to be heavily involved in the ministry and you can read their updates at https://andyjoy.wordpress.com/ which is their blog. If you missed this one back in the day, which I strongly suspect you did, and you like new wave sounding pop this is a MUST listen.

Tracklist
1 – Cold
2 – Strike Back
3 – No Way
4 – I Don’t Understand
5 – Go For It
6 – Don’t Stay Away
7 – Forgive Me
8 – So Badly
9 – Wake Up (It’s Obvious)
10 – Start Over

Credits
All instruments and voices by Andy and Joy Clark

The Alarm – Raw (1990 – 1991) – 2000

When the original versions of this album came out in 1991 I was left wanting. I didn’t agree with all the track choices on the English version and I wanted some of the Welsh tracks in English. I guess I wasn’t the only one with this complaint as years later Mike Peters gave us this version of the album and it’s just excellent. It includes all the original tracks from both albums but all in English and with the mix brightened up considerable. Other than that explanation it doesn’t require more as you have most likely already listened to the original 2 albums this comes from. You might have missed this release as it wasn’t heavily promoted so you should take the time to give it a listen.

Tracklist
1 – The Road – 3:46
2 – Rockin’ In The Free World – 4:43
3 – Raw – 4:28
4 – The Wind Blows Away My Words – 4:32
5 – Unsafe Building 1990 – 4:50
6 – God Save Somebody – 4:10
7 – Moments In Time – 5:42
8 – Let The River Run It’s Course – 4:29
9 – Lead Me Through The Darkness – 4:34
10 – Hell Or High Water – 3:47
11 – Wonderful World – 5:01
12 – Save Your Crying – 4:36
13 – Up For Murder 1990 – 2:55
14 – Happy Xmas (War Is Over) – 3:41
15 – Walk Forever By My Side – 4:09

Credits
Bass Guitar, Keyboards, Backing Vocals, Producer – Eddie MacDonald
Drums, Percussion, Backing Vocals, Producer – Nigel Twist
Engineer – Mark Phythian
Engineer [Additional] – Danny Griffiths, Dave Buchanan, Keith Andrew, Keith Hartley
Engineer [Assistant] – Ian McFarlane
Engineer, Keyboards [Additional] – Rob Storm
Lead Guitar, Harmonica, Vocals, Producer – Dave Sharp
Vocals – Mike Peters

Sacred Warrior – Obsessions – 1991

This is the 4th and final album from Sacred Warrior for the period. In my opinion it has the best production of any of their work. While the album has some more commercial oriented tracks it has some tracks that long time fans will also appreciate. While this isn’t my preferred genre this is probably the most listenable album from them for my ear. Luckily for fans in 2019 Retroactive Records CD reissued the album, and that reissue features a 16 page booklet packed with band photos, a write up from Heaven’s Metal Magazine’s Jonathan “Doc” Swank, and lyrics. All in all a very good metal album especially for the period.

Tracklist
1 – Wings Of A Dream – 4:48
2 – Sweet Memories – 4:31
3 – Turning Back – 4:11
4 – Obsessions – 4:46
5 – Kamikaze – 4:49
6 – Remember Me – 4:40
7 – Fire From Heaven – 4:16
8 – Temples On Fire – 4:03
9 – Mad Man – 6:13

Credits
Art Direction – Ed McTaggart
Bass, Keyboards – Steve Watkins
Design – Brian Godawa
Drums – Tony Velasquez
Guitar – Bruce Swift, John Johnson
Illustration [Cover Illustration] – Judy Kajecki
Producer – Harry Witz
Producer [Vocals Produced By] – Steve Watkins
Recorded By, Mixed By – Harry Witz, Steve Weeder
Vocals – Rey Parra
Vocals [Additional] – Bruce Swift, Chuck Kawal, LaLa Parra, Rey Parra, Rick Tratar, Scott Bahry, Steve Moss, Steve Watkins, Steve Weeder, Tim McGovern, Tony Velasquez
Written-By [All Songs Written By] – Bruce Swift, Ray Parra, Rick Macias, Steve Watkins, Tony Velasquez

Companies, etc.
Record Company – Frontline Music Group
Phonographic Copyright ℗ – Frontline Records
Copyright © – Frontline Records
Distributed By – FMG Distribution
Recorded At – River North Studios
Mixed At – River North Studios
Published By – Broken Songs
Glass Mastered At – Nimbus, Virginia

Various – Our Hymns – 1989

This is another “Our favorite artists do their favourite hymns” projects. I certainly wasn’t the target audience for these projects but they did sell well as some people really enjoyed these albums. For those of you looking for anything vaguely rock The Petra track is pretty good but for the main part this is a pretty easy listening affair. Good, but easy listening.

Tracklist
1 – Michael W. Smith – Holy, Holy, Holy – 4:57
2 – Amy Grant – ‘Tis So Sweet To Trust In Jesus – 4:05
3 – Bruce Carroll – More Love To Thee – 3:22
4 – Kim Boyce – I Must Tell Jesus – 3:52
5 – Russ Taff – Near The Cross / My Jesus I Love Thee / Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus – 5:04
6 – Phil Keaggy – Prelude: Bach’s Bourrée / O God, Our Help In Ages Past – 7:02
7 – First Call – O Sacred Head, Now Wounded – 5:12
8 – Wayne Watson – It Is Well With My Soul – 4:37
9 – Take 6 – The Saviour Is Waiting – 4:09
10 – Petra – Onward, Christian Soldiers – 3:48

Credits
Art Direction, Design – Buddy Jackson
Coordinator [Album Coordination] – Mary Gross
Executive-Producer – Loren Balman, Michael Blanton
Photography By – Mark Tucker

Companies, etc.
Distributed By – Word (Uk) Ltd., 3XM, Emmaus Ministries, Filadelfia Forlag, Finngospel, GMI Records, Grace Music, Kir Music, La Sorgente Music, Master Music, Master-Vision-S.A., Pila Music, Sephora Diffusion, Viva Music
Phonographic Copyright ℗ – Word, Inc.
Copyright © – Word, Inc.
Made By – Sleeveprint Ltd
Printed By – Sleeveprint Ltd

David Diggs – Streetshadows – 1984

This album was a pleasant discovery for me. Believe me if you’re a fan of 70’s and 80’s CCM you have heard David as he performed the strings arrangements on well over 200 albums. He also worked as a musician on a large percentage of those albums. Anyway I have discovered he had a whole series of albums on secular labels. This one in particular is very cool as Bob Carlisle does the lead vocals. I am guessing David was a heck of a musician but not a great vocalist so he had people join him for vocals. Anyway so what we have here is a secular Bob Carlisle album and wow is it a great album. It has a great 80’s synth pop sound and gets a little funky in places. David mainly stuck to keyboards for this one and does a bang up job. So if you’re a big Bob Carlisle fan this one might surprise you.

Tracklist
1 – Last Night – 3:51
2 – Playing The Fool – 3:47
3 – Rachel – 3:46
4 – Framed – 3:26
5 – Somethin’ Might Be Burnin’ – 4:37
6 – Don`t Be So Shy – 3:16
7 – Holding On To Love – 3:32
8 – Sky Singer – 3:50
9 – Dancing With His Shadow – 5:04

Credits
Backing Vocals – Mary Ella Meek
Bass – Eddie Watkins, Jr., Louis Johnson
Drums – Harvey Mason
Executive Producer – Bob Edmondson
Guitar [Extraordinaire] – Paul Jackson Jr.
Guitar, Soloist – Lee Ritenour
Lead Vocals – Dianne Reeves
Lead Vocals, Backing Vocals – Bob Carlisle
Mastered By – Steve Hall
Piano, Electric Piano [Rhodes], Synthesizer, Electronic Drums, – David Diggs
Producer, Arranged By – David Diggs
Soprano Saxophone, Soloist – George Howard
Tenor Saxophone, Soloist – Ernie Watts
Violin, Electric Violin, Soloist – Doug Cameron

Companies, etc.
Recorded At – Mama Jo’s
Recorded At – Peace In The Valley Recording
Recorded At – Can-Am Recorders
Recorded At – Bill Schnee Studios
Recorded At – Starlight Studios
Mastered At – Future Disc

Len Magee – Len Magee – 1973

Len Magee actually has very interesting back story. He was born in London. When he was 4 his father died and his mother ended up unable to take care of the children. At the age of 6 he was sent to an orphanage in Australia, a practise I had never even heard of before. Life in Australia was not good for him and I’m phrasing it politely. It was essentially a farm labor job disguised as a orphanage. At 17 Len left the house and began work with the railway and his life headed exactly where you think it would head. Keith ended up drifting around the country playing pub talent nights. On a hitchhiking trip to Sydney he was picked up by a Christian who ministered to him but it didn’t quite catch. After many more nights of debauchery Len hunted down the man who ministered to him and found him. This led to his salvation. Len still struggled with Christianity but the seeds were sown. He returned to England and there he started to finally understand Christianity. Len felt God’s call on his life and enrolled at Elim Bible College. At college he became involved with music ministry and eventually recorded this album. I really can not tell his story properly and I suggest you hunt down one of many interviews with Len and give it a listen or read. His story is well worth hearing. I apologize for the brief version of the story but really I’m not a good enough writer to tell the story properly.

Tracklist
1 – Freedom Road – 4:45
2 – I Found God – 3:14
3 – Mary Mary – 2:50
4 – The Morning Comes – 4:29
5 – Which Station? – 3:31
6 – As I Was Walking – 2:36
7 – For Me – 3:05
8 – Nativity – 3:56
9 – Cast Your Burden – 3:23
10 – Is It Nothing To You – 3:39

Credits
Backing Vocals – Gwen Murray
Bass, Percussion – Nick Ryan
Drums, Percussion – Mike Wade
Electric Guitar – Idris Jones
Engineer – Gerry Kitchingham
Keyboards, Producer – John Pantry
Vocals, Guitar, Harmonica – Len Magee

Companies, etc.
Recorded At – R.G. Jones Studios
Printed By – Nederlandse Normaal Drukkerij
Pressed By – Phonogram B.V.
Published By – Gideon

Lothar Kosse – One For All – 1988

Lothar Kosse is not a common name but swear he plays guitar on half the 80’s Christian albums coming out Germany. This is his first studio album and he actually had a pretty long career with several releases thorough the years with his latest in 2025. I don’t think any of them were ever released outside of Germany however. This album is a jazz infused pop instrumental album. I always wonder if a instrumental album should be labeled Christian just because the artist is Christian because we have no idea what they were envisioning while writing a song. Yet again this is not my preferred style but it leans just enough into Pop for me to enjoy. The instruments are all very well played and the engineering/mix was spot on. Note that a 1993 re-release by of the album by Intersound featured 4 extra tracks that I assume were on the cutting room floor. We have of course included those tracks.

Tracklist
1 – Cruising – 3:23
2 – Ya Ya’s Blues – 2:56
3 – Smile – 3:48
4 – Let It Rain – 4:36
5 – In The Groove – 3:51
6 – My Life With You – 3:40
7 – The Race – 4:56
8 – The King’s Dance – 5:37
9 – Streetshuffle – 3:58
10 – Swedish Summer – 4:12
11 – Now And Forever – 4:26
12 – One For All – 5:14

Credits
Alto Saxophone, Soprano Saxophone – Peter Schulte
Bass – Abraham Laboriel
Bass [Additional] – Hemi Jost
Design, Photography By – Fred Bush
Drums – Martin Stoeck
Electric Guitar, Acoustic Guitar, Keyboards, Composed By, Arranged By, Producer – Lothar Kosse
Engineer – Günther Pohlmann
Mastered By – W. Meyscheider
Percussion – Thomas Adam
Soloist [Synthesizer], Organ – Claus Feldmann
Tenor Saxophone – Elmer Frey

Companies, etc.
Phonographic Copyright ℗ – Intersound GmbH
Copyright © – Intersound GmbH
Published By – Vivatone Editions
Recorded At – ERF-Tonstudios
Mastered At – Tonstudio Ulrich Kraus
Glass Mastered At – P+O Pallas – 16188