Ray Mansfield – Page 2

Say-So – Say-So (Demo) – 1986

This is yet another demo from Jim and Kim Thomas who were calling themselves Say-So at this point. As near as I can tell this is their second demo/album. The first one was using their real names so I think this is the first one with the Say-So name. That said I am not sure of this. Almost everything I know about these guys is from the crew over at Christian Tape Underground and even they aren’t too sure of all the demos/albums and if they don’t know for sure no one knows for sure. Be sure to check their website as they seem to know the most about these albums. https://christiantapeunderground.wordpress.com/tag/say-so/ As for the demo it is yet another very well engineered and produced demo. I can’t find any info on who engineered and produced it but it very professional as all their work really is. I actually can’t even find a list of who helped them in the studio for this one. Anyway this demo has a little less synth than some of their subsequent work but the vocals are very strong and I love all four tracks. No B sides here.

Tracklist
1 – Fire Song – 3:30
2 – Strengthening My Grip – 3:24
3 – Celebration Waiting – 3:44
4 – Say-So – 4:33

John Fischer – The Cold Cathedral – 1969

This is John’s first album and I’ll admit I had no idea he went this far back. His Dark Horse album is a personal favorite and I thought he was a late 70’s/80’s artist. I had no idea he was actually a late 60’s artist. In fact this album came our before Larry Norman’s MGM release of Upon This Rock. John was born in Pasadena, California and attended Wheaton College in Wheaton, Illinois. John had been writing and performing music while in College and somehow got noticed by Catholic music label F.E.L. Records. John started recording the album right after graduation and it was released in Oct 1969. The producer and musicians on this album were all from the Old Towne School of Folk Music in Chicago. The album is a perfect bridge from the 60’s style of music to the Jesus Music of the 70’s. The title track is a fantastic track and you should definitely listen to it if you enjoy music form this era. To sum up this album was a pleasant surprise for me and I found it a perfect representation of CCM music of the period.

Tracklist
1 – The Cold Cathedral – 2:55
2 – The Road Of Life – 3:05
3 – See The Lilies – 3:08
4 – Born To Die – 2:25
5 – Open Up! – 2:07
6 – Got To Shout About It – 2:30
7 – Allelula! – 2:50
8 – Death In The City – 2:52
9 – Look All Around You – 2:25
10 – Hard Feeling To Explain – 2:20
11 – No Vacancy – 2:43
12 – The Lord’s Prayer – 2:32

Credits
A&R – James E. Schaefer
Arranged By – Al Porth, Ray Tate
Design [Album] – Mark Burnett
Engineer – Al Handler
Illustration [Album] – George Lawlor
Liner Notes [Jacket Notes] – Robert Hughes Mitchell
Producer [Music Production] – Ray Tate
Written-By – John Fischer

Companies, etc.
Copyright © – F.E.L. Publications, LTD.
Pressed By – RCA Records Pressing Plant, Hollywood
Recorded At – Audio Finishers, Incorporated

Lisa Bevill – My Freedom – 1992

I am willing to guess that almost all fans of 80’s CCM have heard Lisa. We may not have known her name until this introductory album but her vocals were all over the industry. I’m not going to even bother with a list but she sang backup for a lot of our favourite 80’s artists. For those of you who liked the Prism albums she made an appearance on Blue and Red. Anyway this album started out her solo career but yet I don’t find many people talking about this album. I see more discussion of her later albums but quite frankly I think this is a great album. With Brown Bannister pulling the purse strings and Chris Harris and Mark Heimermann producing it I knew this would be a great album. Now I readily admit this album isn’t exactly my style but I always enjoy a great album and this album falls in that category. It has a fun 90’s hip hop pop feel and also has a great music video for the single “Chaperone”. That video also features DC Talk’s Toby Mac and was nominated Video of the Year at the 1993 Dove Awards. Regarding the “single” it seems like originally the single was “Place In The Sun” but they decided to cut a video for “Chaperone”. Now singles aside the album did produce 2 top 10 songs on the CCM charts. “My Freedom” made it to #4 and “Alone In Love” made it to #9. The album also did very well on Christian radio and I read somewhere that both “My Freedom” and “Place in the Sun” made it to #1. Hopefully Jay Whitehurst will chime in and confirm that. Anyway give the album a listen if you missed it back in the day especially if hip hop dance stuff is what you like.

Tracklist
1 – Chaperone – 4:43
2 – It’s Gonna Worth It – 3:47
3 – Falling Off The Face Of The Earth – 4:32
4 – Love Oughta Be – 3:56
5 – My Freedom – 4:31
6 – Place In The Sun – 4:02
7 – Second Chance – 4:41
8 – Alone In Love – 4:28
9 – I Took A Tumble – 3:32
10 – Shirley (Keep It To Yourself) – 5:31

Credits
Lisa Bevill – Songwriter, Vocals
Carolyn Arends – Songwriter
Paula Carpenter – Songwriter
John Catchings – Strings
George Cocchini – Guitars
David Davidson – Strings
Mark Douthit – Sax
Julius Drummin – Songwriter, Drums
Chris Eaton – Vocals
Mark Hammond – Drums
Chris Harris – Producer, Songwriter, Vocals
Mike Haynes – Brass
Mark Heimermann – Producer, Songwriter, Keyboards, Drums, Vocals
Joe Hogue – Drums, Vocals
Wayne Kirkpatrick – Songwriter
Sam Levine – Sax
Gary Lunn – Bass, Drums
Chris McDonald – Brass
Toby McKeehan – Songwriter, Vocals
Jerry McPherson – Guitars
Tommy Sims – Songwriter, Keyboards, Bass, Drums
Pam Sixfin – Strings
Jackie Street – Bass
Kristen Wilkinson – Strings

Elim Hall – Let It Thrive – 1990

This is one of those odd situations when a band actually put out a demo after they had already released a successful album. Maybe the album wasn’t as successful as I think it was but anyway Reunion Records didn’t sign them for a follow up so the band got together and released a demo themselves. Personally I loved their album Things Break but I wasn’t aware of this album. Because of this I was pretty excited to hear it and I wasn’t disappointed. While it follows in the footsteps of their first album it definitely had an updated more 90’s sound. I don’t understand how this album didn’t get picked up by a label. It’s got excellent production and the band had already paid for the production so this was a freebie for some label. Anyway it wasn’t so many of you probably never heard but it’s a great listen with an updated 90’s feel that you should hear.

Tracklist
1 – Terry And The Pirates – 3:53
2 – Woman – 3:39
3 – A Silent Dove In A Distant Land – 4:53
4 – You And Me – 3:02
5 – Let It Thrive – 3:19
6 – Too Much Of A Good Thing – 4:38
7 – Found My Way Again – 4:56

Credits
Backing Vocals – Glenn Teeple, Steve Marsh
Bass – Rosser Teeple
Drums – Steve Marsh
Guitar – Glenn Teeple
Keyboards – Glenn Teeple
Lead Vocals – Rosser Teeple
Producer – Glenn Teeple

The Joy Strings – Well Seasoned – 1966

Continuing on my quest for the “first” here is another very early Christian rock album. I knew nothing of this album until a few months ago when it came across my desk and I’ll admit the cover didn’t make me rush to listen to it. You think I would know at this point that album covers mean nothing. This is without a doubt one of the best Christian rock albums I have ever heard. The band were led by keyboard player Joy Webb and got their start when they were featured on the BBC Tonight television show. The band mainly consisted of Salvation Army singers from the William Booth Memorial Training College, Denmark Hill in London. After appearing on TV they got a record deal and released a couple singles with great success. “It’s An Open Secret” made it to #32 and “A Starry Night” made it to #34 on the British charts. This is their first of 2 full length album and it’s a rather oddly structured album with Side A being all original tunes and Side B being Christmas carols. The album has 16 tracks which was great value for money at the time, something that would disappear until CD’s many years later. The album was picked up by Epic Records for U.S. release in 1967 but alas the album didn’t do as well in the U.S. If for no other reason you listen to this album you HAVE to listen to their rendition of “O Little Town Of Bethlehem” set to the music of The House of the Rising Sun. It is without a doubt one of the greatest moments of Christian music that no one ever heard.

Tracklist
1 – Keep Me In Your Love – 2:36
2 – He Is Near – 2:46
3 – No Time To Lose – 2:43
4 – Where Will It End – 2:24
5 – Long Lost Cause – 3:01
6 – Friend For You – 2:32
7 – There Will Be God – 3:00
8 – Love That’s All Around – 2:31
9 – We Three Kings Of Orient Are – 2:28
10 – Silent Night, Holy Night – 2:31
11 – The Little King Jesus – 2:42
12 – O Little Town Of Bethlehem – 3:31
13 – Away In A Manger – 2:27
14 – Mary’s Boy Child – 2:37
15 – Do You Hear What I Hear? – 3:23
16 – The Holly And The Ivy – 1:31

Credits
Joy Webb – guitar, keyboards, vocals
Peter Dalziel – guitar, bass, vocals
Bill Davidson – guitar
Wycliffe Noble – drums
Sylvia Gair – tambourine, vocals

Companies, etc.
Manufactured By – Epic Records
Manufactured By – CBS Inc.
Pressed By – Columbia Records Pressing Plant, Pitman

Gabriel – Gabriel – 1988

Strangely this is the second self titled album Gabriel published. The first one was their first album released on micro label Parable Records but this one was released on Home Sweet Home Records/Word. I still can’t find much out about these guys which is odd as they had 5 albums. So instead of talking about the band we will talk about the album. it has more of an early 80’s keyboard heavy pop sound though it might have been a little late for 1988. While it’s a little heavy on easy listening tracks the pop oriented tracks are really good and definitely get the toes tapping. Bottom line, I quite like this album and I could have found this is my collection back in the day.

Tracklist
1 – Send Me – 3:37
2 – Slippin’ Into Mediocrity – 3:19
3 – Out of the East – 4:19
4 – I Put My Hope – 3:58
5 – A Simple Prayer – 3:30
6 – Heartstrings – 2:45
7 – You Can’t Fool God – 3:00
8 – I Want To Be Your Light – 3:00
9 – That’s How It Is With Truth – 3:44
10 – That Day In Bethlehem – 3:52

Credits
Robin Lyle – keyboards, vocals
Jeff Walter – vocals, keyboard
Robert Noland – drums, vocals
Scott Compton – Coordinator, Marketing, Promotion
Chris Christian – Executive-Producer
Jake Pittman – Producer

Companies, etc.
Phonographic Copyright ℗ – Home Sweet Home Records, Inc.
Copyright © – Home Sweet Home Records, Inc.
Manufactured By – Word, Inc.
Distributed By – Word, Inc.
Record Company – Word Records Limited
Record Company – Word (Uk) Ltd.
Mastered At – Future Disc

The Children Of Faith – The Children Of Faith – 1972

This is actually Terry Clark’s first album. He recorded this one with his brother Duane and sister Nancy. Both Nancy and Duane would appear on Terry’s future albums and Duane had an album in the late 90’s. So in the end I classify this as Terry’s first album as it was self released and appears to have been a bit of an experiment. All that said this is a great album, I understand it had no distribution but I wish it would had because I think it would have done well. Terry had just come back from Vietnam before recording this album and he says that he was suffering from PTSD but this album has a great upbeat feel and there was no indication of his troubles. If you’re a fan of Terry you need to listen to this one to see where it all started for him.

Tracklist
1 – That’s Him – 2:09
2 – Nobody Like The Lord – 3:40
3 – Merry Go Round – 2:50
4 – Psalms 92 – 3:51
5 – New Song – 3:08
6 – David’s Song – 3:52
7 – Continuing Help – 3:14
8 – Love Of A King – 4:19
9 – For The World – 3:37
10 – This Could Be The Day – 2:21

Credits
Duane Clark
Nancy Clark
Terry Clark

Malachia – Under The Blade – 1986

Malachia released this demo on vinyl in 1986. All the tracks, except for the narrative track, appeared on their first album released in 1987. There were only about 200 copies of this vinyl pressed so it’s a pretty rare piece of history. That said there are several copies available on Discogs today. The demo was re-released in 2021 on CD so a copy can be had pretty easily now. We’re posting this album as the versions of the songs here versus the album are different but I think they were actually re-mixed and not re-recorded for the 1987 album. If you want to learn a little more about the band read our review of the 1987 album here.

Malachia – Red Sunrise – 1987

Tracklist
1 – Narration – 0:15
2 – Heaven Or Hell – 3:22
3 – Mark Of The Beast – 3:41
4 – Master’s Call – 5:00
5 – Let It Go – 3:10
6 – Red Sunrise – 3:46
7 – In Christ We Rock – 4:55

Credits
Bass – Wade A.Little
Drums – Dave Devaughn
Executive Producer – Bill Bafford
Guitar – Jeffrey James
Keyboards – Steve Ayola
Producer – Wayde Production
Remastered By – Rob Colwell
Vocals, Guitar – Ken Pike

Special Division – Bonds Of Trust – 1989

I have literally no idea how this album ended up in our collection but if you sent it to us a heartfelt thank you is in order. This is another band/album no one ever heard and everyone should have. The band is a collection of relatively unknown artists with the exception of Glenn Teeple who was the keyboard player for Elim Hall. The band was out of rural Ontario Canada as was Elim Hall and like I said even though I’m Canadian I never heard of them. The album has a similar fell as Elim Hall but updated for 1989. The exception is a straight up Rock & Roll cover of Dylan’s Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door which has the Darrell Mansfield Band as guests. You can easily hear Darrell’s harmonica and background vocals. It was obviously not recorded at the same time and place as the rest of the album as it has entirely different engineering. I would love to hear the story of how this track came to be. Anyway the album is fantastic and will easily land in my top 100 of all time. So if you like synth pop/rock with a new wave feel with excellent vocals this is a much listen.

Tracklist
1 – Bonds Of Trust – 2:43
2 – Take My Hand – 3:43
3 – Free Her Lord – 4:21
4 – Let It Go – 4:19
5 – Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door – 5:02
6 – Maybe Somehow – 4:30
7 – I Wanna See You Momma – 3:28
8 – Keep Searching – 3:51
9 – Angel – 3:10
10 – If I Had Wings – 4:24

Credits
Bass, Backing Vocals – Jeff Mann
Drums, Backing Vocals – Chris Mcintosh
Guitar, Backing Vocals – Jm English
Keyboards – Glen Teeple
Lead Vocals, Guitar, Harmonica – Mark Hussey
Producer – Fred Gage, Peter K. Hopper
Guest On Track 5 – Darrell Mansfield Band

Face Of Five – The Famous And The Forgotten – 1990

This is a pretty rare one. In a conversation with the guys over at Christian Underground Encyclopedia (Linked below) I asked for a suggestion for a really good unknown album and this was their suggestion and boy were they right. This is a fantastic album that should be heard. This is not some unknown bunch of guys though. There’s a track on here written by Daniel Amos guitarist Greg Flesch who also appears on the album. Obviously someone was connected to the scene here. The album was released on Victoria Ltd records which I suspect guitarist Ken Roberts owned as he is involved on every single album they released, usually as producer but we are talking about very few albums and artists. Ken also produced and mixed this album. I have reviewed a few other albums Ken produced and they have, in my opinion, not had great production but that is not the case on this album as it has absolutely excellent production. Sometimes when you’re in the studio a mix just comes together like magic, I suspect this was one of those times. “I Am The Wounded Warrior” found itself on the 1991 compilation album “Rob Woolsey Radio Singles Spring 91” which I hope I can get my hands on because it has some great unreleased material. As for this album it has a pretty pop sound which leans new wave at times. While I’m not sure 1990 was good timing for this sound as it fit better in 1985. All that said this album really has no criticism from me and I love the sound and this is probably in my personal top 10 of albums that no one every heard of and in fact may hold the number one spot. Thanks to the crew over at Christian Underground Encyclopedia for their help with this one and if you love odd and rare 80’s CCM their website is a must see.

Christian Underground Encyclopedia – https://downthelinezine.com/cue/start

Tracklist
1 – One Love – 4:01
2 – Turn Away – 3:07
3 – The Falling Reign – 3:44
4 – Pass The Torch – 4:14
5 – Waiting For You – 3:30
6 – I Am The Wounded Warrior – 5:34
7 – Ring-A-Ling – 3:45
8 – And Like The Leaves – 5:31
9 – Are We So Wise – 4:38

Credits

Band
John Hall: vocals & guitar
Ken Roberts: Guitar
Taylo: Keyboards

Support Musicians
Jeffrey Allen: Bass guitar
Ralph Clayton: Bass guitar
David Casanova: Drums
Tim Pope: Drums
Greg Flesch: Guitar
Kevin Fisher: Guitar
Suzie Cappetta: Backing vocals
Mike Cappetta: Backing vocals
Ralph Clayton: Keyboards
Lorenza: Sax

Production
Ken Roberts – Producer & Engineer
Joan Bullin – Photography