Here’s another rarity from the 80’s. It’s a great AOR album but was released on tiny label Straight Ahead Records and I can’t see if it had a distribution deal. As such it isn’t very well known. I find this quite odd because John Andrew Schreiner is in the lineup and he was legendary. You may not recognize the name but he wrote many of the hits you know from CCM and worked in the studio with many many bands you are familiar with. I would have figured with a name like that on the album some larger label would have wanted this release but nope. Furthermore it was co-produced by Tim Archer. It’s actually the second album from Morningstar and by the way don’t confuse them with Morning Star who were a different band. Anyway you probably missed this one in the 80 so you should give it a listen if you like your music a little mellower.
Tracklist 1 – Where Could I Go – 4:07 2 – You’ve Got To Love Somebody – 4:01 3 – Read It For Yourself – 2:32 4 – Time’s A Wastin’ – 4:22 5 – In The World – 2:48 6 – Heart Of A Servant – 3:26 7 – Friend Of A Friend – 3:40 8 – Angel Of Light – 3:00 9 – Move On Up The Mountain – 3:34 10 – Serving You – 3:07
Credits Backing Vocals – Denise Graves, Gary Floyd, Gene Miller, Steve Archer Backing Vocals, Producer, Executive Producer – Tim Archer Bass – Keith Nelson, Tim Jaquette Drums, Percussion – Dave Spurr Guitar – Prince Robinson Guitar, Percussion – Bob Somma Keyboards – John Andrew Schreiner Performer – Al Ray Hebert, Chris Springer, Jeff Meador, Jesse Conte, Juddy Harris, Lee Matthews, Rickey Baxley Producer – Dan Cutrona
Geoff Mann is rapidly becoming one of my favourite 80’s artists that I didn’t even know existed in the 80’s. The information on this album is pretty scant and I don’t even know where it was released though I am assuming the UK. As for the album I guess it could be best described as conceptual New Wave though your description might be different. It only came out on LP but was re-released in 1994 on a compilation disc. Strangely the re-release was actually missing the track “Peacemeal” but it was included on the re-release of Chants Would be a Fine Thing in 2004. The album appears to be entirely Geoff and Dave Mortimer but we do know Steve Millie did step in to do the Bass track on “Creation”. So if you are a fan of New Wave and you missed this one in the 80’s I strongly suggest a listen to it now.
Credits Electric Guitar – Dave Mortimer Electronic Drums – Geoff Mann Guitar – Dave Mortimer Producer – Geoff Mann Synthesizer – Geoff Mann Voice – Geoff Mann
Companies, etc. Recorded – Pullman Studios, Manchester. Record Company – Wobbly Records
This was the one and only album from Chase from Upstate New York. It was released on Salt Incorporated Music,which was a sublabel of Rick Cua’s UCA Records Ltd. The album is best described as an AOR album with some Arena Rock tracks. It was very well produced thanks to Bill Baumgart who was one of the best producers in the CCM genre. The only real connection to the 80’s for this album is the sound. I know the album is a one off but these guys were great. I would love to hear more but this is all we get and none of the band members appear to have done any other projects. I guess my only concern with the album is that this sound might have been a little late for 1993 but I don’t care. Only have time for one track? Give “Don’t Shut Me Out” a listen.
Tracklist 1 – Keeping My Mind – 4:48 2 – Spectrum Of Emotion – 4:11 3 – I Am Living You – 4:23 4 – Love Is The Reason – 5:14 5 – Don’t Shut Me Out – 4:22 6 – Have You Got Some Time – 4:33 7 – Get It Right – 4:46 8 – In Your Arms – 4:19 9 – ‘Til The End Of Time – 4:25 10 – You Will Be The One – 4:20
Credits Art Direction – Mark Combs Bass – Ron Chase Co-producer, Engineer – David Johnsen Drums – Jay Corey Lead Guitar, Vocals – Virgil Burdick Lead Vocals, Rhythm Guitar – Scott Lowmaster Mastered By – Hoyt Dooley Photography By – Scott Miller Photography Producer – Bill Baugmart
This is the first album from Take 6 and I believe it’s the only A Capella album we’ve uploaded to YouTube. The group started out in 1980 when Claude McKnight started to assemble a group of singers who would be know as Gentleman’s Estates Quartet. Once the band was complete they changed their name to Alliance. When they signed with Reprise Records/Warner Bros. in 1987, it was discovered that there was another group with the same name. So the band sat down and picked a new name using the level of laughter as the deciding factor and Take 6 was born. The band won two Grammy awards for this album, Best Jazz Vocal Performance, Duo Or Group, and Best Soul Gospel Performance By A Duo, Group, Choir Or Chorus. Humorously the song that won Best Jazz Vocal Performance, Duo Or Group only made it to #25 on the CCM charts. If this isn’t proof of the idiocy that was the CCM charts then I don’t know what further proof I would need.
Tracklist 1 – Gold Mine – 3:52 2 – Spread Love – 3:29 3 – If We Never Needed The Lord Before (We Sure Do Need Him Now) – 4:59 4 – A Quiet Place – 2:43 5 – Mary – 3:31 6 – David And Goliath – 4:25 7 – Get Away, Jordan – 4:23 8 – He Never Sleeps – 3:10 9 – Milky-White Way – 4:47 10 – Let The Words – 0:55
Credits Arranged By – Mark Kibble, Mervyn Warren Art Direction, Design [Cover] – Kav Deluxe Engineer – Don Cobb Executive-Producer – Jim Ed Norman Hair – Jeffrey Johnson Lacquer Cut By – Denny Purcell Make-Up, Stylist [Wardrobe] – Vanessa Ware Management – C.H.O.I.C.E., Nashville Mastered By [Originally] – Denny Purcell Mixed By – C. McKnight, D. Cobb, M. Kibble, M. Warren Percussion [Finger Snaps], Effects [Sound] – David Humphries Photography By – Jeff Katz Producer – Claude V. McKnight III, Mark Kibble, Mervyn Warren Vocals – Alvin Chea, Cedric Dent, Claude V. McKnight III, David Thomas, Mark Kibble, Mervyn E. Warren
I’m going to start this review by saying, I don’t know anything about thrash, I don’t like thrash, and I don’t understand how it fit in the Christian genre of music. All that said I listened to the album and quite frankly I was left with more questions than answers. This album was released on Wonderland records which was a division of Word that I assumed Word opened so they could keep stuff like this off their main label. Now I just finished listening to a Towne Cryer album and I am mystified at how that band couldn’t get a record deal but these guys did. Did Word put someone in charge of this label that like me didn’t understand the genre? As for the album, this was their first release after rising from the ashes of a band called Marty. They had a 2 album run on Wonderland before self releasing two more albums. I hate to criticize the band as I struggle with this style of music but feel free to comment and let me know if they were good or bad. I just can’t tell.
Tracklist 1 – Renaissance By Death – 1:41 2 – The Invitation – 4:28 3 – Fallen Deceived – 3:50 4 – More Faith Than Me – 3:44 5 – Escaping The Alter – 9:06 6 – Assassins In The Midst – 4:56 7 – Mortal Flesh – 6:12 8 – Stroll Thru A Wicked Age – 6:45 9 – Prophets Of Baal – 4:08 10 – Plead The Blood – 5:16
Credits Bass – Jeff Lain Drums – Brian Meuse Engineer – Caesar Kalinowski Engineer, Keyboards – Christopher Mosher Guitar – Matt Maners Guitar, Backing Vocals – Marcus Colon Mastered By – Eddie Schryer Producer – Caesar Kalinowski Vocals – Chris Ackerman
Companies, etc. Recorded At – The Sonic Temple Mastered At – Future Disc
Recorded live as part of the Big Voice tour Bryan Duncan, Anointed & Crystal Lewis come together for this star studded performance. Unfortunately we don’t know where this particular concert was recorded as it was part of a series of concerts.
Tracklist 00:05 – Anointed – The Call 03:07 – Bryan Duncan – United We Stand 05:08 – Crystal Lewis – Shine Jesus Shine 07:06 – Crystal Lewis – The Lion And The Lamb 12:15 – Crystal Lewis – Beauty For Ashes 16:05 – Anointed – Adore You 20:15 – Anointed – Under The Influence 24:30 – Bryan Duncan – Blue Skies 29:04 – Bryan Duncan – Joy Is A Singable Thing 32:29 – Bryan Duncan – Love Takes Time 36:40 – Anointed – Get Ready 39:38 – Crystal Lewis – People Get Ready 45:08 – Anointed & Crystal Lewis – I Surrender All 47:02 – Anointed – If I Labor 52:30 – Anointed, Bryan Duncan & Crystal Lewis – One Voice
Credits Bass – Kevin O’Neal Drums – Steve Latanation Executive-Producer – Chuck Shanlever, Dan Posthuma Film Director – Chuck Shanlever Horns – Alan Palmer, Andy Cleaves Keyboards – James Slattery Lead Guitar – Bob Hartry Producer – Denise Mortimer
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Here’s another band I had a difficult time finding any information on. They were from southern California and this is their first of two albums. It was the second release for New Breed records who were a sub label of Frontline Music Group. It was produced by Chris Wimber (The Lifesavors) who produced most of the releases for New Breed records. That’s it, that’s all I know. Okay so lets move onto the album. I really like it. It has an early 90’s late 80’s sound and was spot on style wise in 1990. I do have one nitpick though. They tried running many of the tracks together. This worked great on LP’s but in the world of CD’s and now MP3’s it just doesn’t work. I wish someone would have caught this at the time but hey it’s a pretty trivial thing so I shouldn’t make a big deal out of it. I can’t really pick a favourite track so my suggestion is to listen to the whole thing.
Tracklist 1 – Good Boy – 3:09 2 – Armed For Hostile World – 1:45 3 – Cry – 3:55 4 – Speed Metal Mariachis – 2:33 5 – Unlisted Track – 0:34 6 – Spirit Of Love – 4:13 7 – Burning Fire – 5:58 8 – She Said To Me – 3:48 9 – Pray For Rain – 2:36 10 – Flowers – 3:09 11 – Saved By Grace – 3:54 12 – Sad, Sad, Lonely World – 5:19 13 – We Must Become – 3:30
Credits Backing Vocals – Chris Lizotte, Eddie Arizmendi, Jon Bestwick, Shawn Tubbs, Tim Curiel, Todd Warlock Bass – Marc Rivera Drums – Tim Curiel Guitar – Eddie Arizmendi, Jon Bestwick Keyboards – Jon Bestwick, Rob Watson Lead Vocals – Marc Rivera Mastered By – Bernie Grundman Mixed By – Jeff Dykehouse Percussion – Shawn Tubbs, Tim Curiel Performer [The Children Are] – Eddie Arizmendi, Jon Bestwick, Marc Rivera, Tim Curiel Producer – Chris Wimber Saxophone – Greg Vale
This is a demo from a band that never did get signed but it appears most metal heads are very well aware of them. They were best known as a thrash metal band but this demo leans far more to just a straight up metal band and not commercial metal, real metal. The quality of the demo is not all that great but I think the mix was pretty good. The problem probably lays in the quality of cassette tape used. You can’t fault bands when this happened as they were paying out of pocket for these things. Anyway this is a strong metal demo and I can’s tell you why they never got record deal. Just another one of those mysteries of early 90’s CCM.
Tracklist 1 – Still I Wait – 4:01 2 – Rock Of Salvation – 4:05 3 – Without You – 4:37 4 – He Is The One – 3:45 5 – The Tempter – 3:28 6 – Right To Kill – 3:03 7 – King Of Broken Hearts – 4:25 8 – Night Of The Thief – 3:03
Credits Gena McClure – Vocals Steve Metzger – Guitars Shawn Cummings – Bass Ron McClure – Drums
This is Michael’s second album and at this point in his career he was still on secular label A&M. He actually was not that vocal about being a Christian until later but famed music critic (at the time record store employee) David Lowman figured it out. You need to read David’s story about Anderson either on our website or his “https://ccms500bestalbums.wordpress.com/” Anyway this is Michael’s second album and while I loved his first one I think I love this one even more. It just has that great commercial pop sound that we all heard on the radio. Often I get sick of that pop sound but when it’s done right I just love it and Michael does it right on this album. I think we can attribute part of that great sound to production by Michael Omartian. Point of trivia is that Rob Watson (Daniel Amos) contributed a guitar track to the song “True Love”
Tracklist 1 – True Love – 5:08 2 – Could You Ever Love Me Now – 4:51 3 – The Rose And The Fire – 4:46 4 – Heaven Help The Lonely – 5:35 5 – Heartbeat From Glory (Memorial Day) – 4:41 6 – Raymond Chandler Said – 5:20 7 – Slip Away – 3:55 8 – Flame In The Fire – 4:36 9 – In The Dark Tonight – 4:24 10 – Let It Rain – 6:53
Credits Art Direction – Chuck Beeson Backing Vocals – Jeff Rollings (tracks: 1 to 9), Michael Omartian (tracks: 1 to 9), Toni Anderson (4) (tracks: 1 to 9) Band, Bass – Taras Prodaniuk (tracks: 1 to 9) Band, Blues Harp [Harp], Horns – Jimmy Z (tracks: 1 to 9) Band, Drums – Dave Raven* (tracks: 1 to 9) Band, Guitar – Don Kirkpatrick (tracks: 1 to 9), Randy Mitchell (tracks: 1 to 9) Band, Guitar, Bass, Vocals – Michael Anderson (5) (tracks: 1 to 9) Band, Keyboards, Percussion, Other [Lunch] – Michael Omartian (tracks: 1 to 9) Choir [The Choir] – Alphinette Silas* (tracks: 1 to 9), Jeff Rollings (tracks: 1 to 9), Linda Tavani (tracks: 1 to 9), Michael Omartian (tracks: 1 to 9), Steve Tavani* (tracks: 1 to 9), Toni Anderson (4) Coordinator [Production Coordinator] – Janet Hinde (tracks: 1 to 9) Design – Rebecca Keeley Engineer [Assistant] – Kevin Becka (tracks: 1 to 9), Mick Higgins (tracks: 1 to 9) Mixed By [Remixed By] – Terry Christian (tracks: 10) Musician [Additional], Bass – “Memphis” Buck Silvertone* (tracks: 1 to 9) Musician [Additional], Guitar – Steve Lukather (tracks: 8,) Musician [Additional], Guitar, Backing Vocals – Dean Chamberlain Musician [Additional], Guitar, Other [Attitude (For Days)] – John Anderson (3) (tracks: 1 to 9) Musician [Additional], Keyboards – Rob Watson (tracks: 1) Musician [Additional], Soloist [Solo] – Michael Landau (tracks: 2) Musician [Players], Backing Vocals – Toni Anderson (4) (tracks: 10) Musician [Players], Drums – Dave Raven* (tracks: 10) Musician [Players], Guitar – Josh Sklair (tracks: 10) Musician [Players], Guitar, Backing Vocals – Jeff Rollings (tracks: 10) Musician [Players], Guitar, Bass, Vocals – Michael Anderson (5) (tracks: 10) Musician [Players], Keyboards – Michael Omartian (tracks: 10) Musician [Players], Percussion – Ian Wallace (tracks: 10) Musician [Players], Piano – Ian McLagan (tracks: 10) Photography By – Aaron Rapoport Producer – Michael Anderson (5) (tracks: 10), Michael Omartian (tracks: 1 to 9) Recorded By – Ernie Sheesley (tracks: 10) Recorded By, Mixed By – Terry Christian (tracks: 1 to 9)
This is an album from the Imperials that seemed to slip under the radar. I don’t even remember this one and we listened to the Imperials back in this era. Maybe we did hear it and just ignored it as it’s pretty worship oriented. This was the last album with Sherman Andrus and Terry Blackwood before they went on to their own duo act. Strangely Andrus is not credited on the album but he’s rather obviously there. It’s a little hard to believe this was done in error so there’s a story there for sure. As for the album it’s pretty standard fare for an early 70’s Imperials album. Nothing really stood out on it for me but if you like the Imperials form this era this album will satisfy your ears.
Tracklist 1 – Just Because He Loves You – 4:08 2 – Jesus Came Into My Life – 2:45 3 – Love, It Comes In All Colors – 2:47 4 – Sweet Jesus – 4:10 5 – He Made My Life Come Together – 5:10 6 – He’s Coming Back – 3:23 7 – He Loves Me So – 4:09 8 – David’s Psalm – 4:17 9 – Sunny Day – 4:02 10 – Sometimes Alleluia – 3:55
Credits Arranged By – Jack Williams Arranged By [Orchestral Arrangements By] – Buddy Skipper Arranged By [Track Arrangements] – Gary S. Paxton Arranged By [Vocal Arrangements] – Terry Blackwood Art Direction – Bob McConnell Bass – Jack Williams, Steve Schaffer Design [Cover Design], Illustration – Michael Harris Drums – Kenny Malone, Larri London Engineer – Bob Clark Guitar – Bobby Thompson, Steve Gibson Keyboards – Buddy Skipper, Pig Robbins, Ron Oates, Shane Keister Percussion – Farrell Morris Photography [Cover Photography] – Dill Beaty Producer – Phil Johnson
