Ray Mansfield – Page 3

Tommy James – Christian Of The World – 1971

1971 was a tough time for Christian music listeners and especially for new Christians. The Jesus music movement wanted Rock and Roll music but had very little. I mean you can only listen to Upon This Rock so many times. Luckily some mainstream artists saw this void and released a Christian albums. Tommy James stated that he wrote this album based on his Christian beliefs but only lightly touched on Christian themes so the mainstream record company would still release the album. I think it’s safe to say this is one of the more successful secular albums with a Christian theme. “Draggin’ the Line” hit #4 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and “I’m Comin’ Home”, “Church Street Soul Revival”, and “Adrienne” also hit the top 100. I don’t want to get into what level or type of Christian Tommy was but he never did another Christian themed album again though he had many songs that touched on religious themes. As for the album it leans more to Tommy’s sixties style than 70’s Jesus music and is quite good if you like that style of music. I think most of us in the 80’s skipped this one or were completely unaware of it which is a pity because it deserves to be heard.

Tracklist
1 – Christian Of The World – 2:37
2 – Rings And Things – 1:55
3 – I’m Comin’ Home – 2:01
4 – Sing, Sing, Sing – 3:05
5 – Draggin’ The Line – 2:42
6 – Sail A Happy Ship – 3:13
7 – Light Of Day – 3:44
8 – Bits And Pieces – 2:28
9 – I Believe In People – 2:24
10 – Church St. Soul Revival – 3:16
11 – Another Hill To Climb – 3:07
12 – Adrienne – 2:41
13 – Silk, Satin, Carriage Waiting – 2:48

Credits
Arranged By – Jimmy “Wiz” Wisner
Art Direction, Design – Ruby Mazur
Engineer – Bruce Staple
Featuring – The Stephentown Singers
Mastered By – Ed Grossman
Photography By – Francis Ing
Producer – Bob King, Tommy James
Typography – Michael Manoogian
Written-By – Bob King, Ritchie Cordell, Tommy James

Companies, etc.
Record Company – Roulette Records, Inc.
Produced For – Tommy James Ventures, Inc.
Manufactured By – Roulette Records, Inc.
Made By – Shorewood Packaging
Pressed By – RCA Records Pressing Plant, Rockaway
Recorded At – Allegro Sound Studios
Mastered At – Allegro Sound Studios
Published By – Big Seven Music Corp.

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

Rick Cua – Within Reach – 1991

We’ve noticed a bit of a resurgence in Ric Cua interest in our Facebook group so I thought it was time to listen to this one from 1991. I was surprised how much I liked this album. At this point Rick had been on the scene for 10 years but this album sounds like it has the effort of a first or second album. The album was produced by the Elefante brothers and as usual they nailed it on this album. Ric didn’t do that well on the CCM charts in his career but this album did quite well with 2 top 20’s. “Somewhere Tonight” made it to #12, and “Keeper Of My Soul” made it to #18. I have to say one thing I’ve always noticed about Ric’s albums. Even though Ric was a bass player he never influenced the mix to make the bass more of a lead instrument. I have often seen bands run by bass players and drummers try to influence the mix believing they are the lead instrument. No such silliness from Ric, he knew exactly where the Bass belonged. One last note but do you think “Diamond Girl” is begging for a Stryper cover?

Tracklist
1 – Message Of Love – 3:42
2 – Heaven Won’t Stop The Rain – 4:48
3 – Somewhere Tonight – 3:39
4 – Stand Your Ground – 4:18
5 – Fifteen – 4:07
6 – Power Of The Lord – 4:12
7 – Big Gun – 3:48
8 – Keeper Of My Soul – 3:23
9 – Do It – 4:37
10 – Diamond Girl – 3:57

Credits
Art Direction – Buddy Jackson
Backing Vocals – Dino Elefante, John Elefante, Sara Tennison, Terry Stratton
Bass – Rick Cua
Design – B. Middleworth*
Drums – Mike Caputy
Engineer – John Elefante, Mike Mierau
Engineer [Assistant] – Jeff Simmons (2)
Executive-Producer – Michael Blanton, Richard Headen
Guitar – Dino Elefante, Glen Pierce*
Horns – Andy Martin, Scott Martin (6), Stan Martin, Wayne Bergeron
Keyboards – John Andrew Schreiner, John Elefante
Mixed By – Dino Elefante, John Elefante, Mike Mierau
Percussion – Alex Acuna*
Photography By – Mark Tucker (7)
Producer – Dino Elefante, John Elefante
Saxophone – Greg Vail

Companies, etc.
Phonographic Copyright ℗ – Reunion Records, Inc.
Copyright © – Reunion Records, Inc.
Distributed By – Word, Inc.
Manufactured By – Word, Inc.
Produced For – Pakaderm Productions
Recorded At – Pakaderm Studios
Recorded At – Pakaderm West Studios
Mixed At – Pakaderm Studios
Mixed At – Pakaderm West Studios
Designed At – Jackson Design
Pressed By – Denon Digital Industries

Sheila Walsh – Say So – 1987

This is Sheila’s 8th studio album and it has a bit of an interesting history. It was released in 1987 around the world but not in the U.S. It was subsequently released the next year in the U.S. which was coincidentally after Sheila Walsh took a co-host seat on the television talk-show, The 700 Club. I don’t know if they held the release or weren’t going to release it but anyway it was released in the U.S. and did very well on the CCM charts. It had 3 top 10 singles, “Angels With Dirty Faces”, “Jesus Loves The Church”, and “Wind Of Change”. Interestingly the album included a cover of the Todd Rundgren’s Utopia song “Love Is the Answer”. I can’t really judge if it’s a good cover as I don’t acre for the song no matter who did it. You should always read the credits for Sheila’s albums and on this one Phil Keaggy stepped in to help out on “Angels With Dirty Faces” and “Hope For The Hopeless”. Personally I have always struggled listen to Sheila. My first exposure to her as her duet with Steve Taylor of David Edwards “Not Going To Fall Away” which is one of my all time favourite recordings. Also on that E.P. was her cover of Bryn Haworth’s “We’re All One”. These two recordings were certainly not her usual style and as such I ended up judging all her subsequent work against something she wasn’t particularly known for. This ended up causing this strange situation where I absolutely loved her as an artist but didn’t really like her music. Strange I know but I stand by my misguided love of her.

Tracklist
1 – Wind Of Change – 4:07
2 – Surrender – 4:27
3 – Love Is The Answer – 4:32
4 – Trapeze – 5:03
5 – Dorai Sani – 6:33
6 – Empty Boxes – 5:05
7 – Angels With Dirty Faces – 3:50
8 – Jesus Loves The Church – 4:16
9 – Human Cry – 4:12
10 – Hope For The Hopeless – 4:24

Credits
Jimmy Abegg – Songwriter
J.J. Belle – Guitars
Richard Blackford – Orchestra Arrangmenets, Conductor
Simon Chamberlain – Piano
Clem Clemson – Guitars
David P. Cook – Songwriter
Neil Costello – Guitar
Pandit Dinesh – Percussion
Colin Elswood – Background Vocals
Dave Engel – Drums
Martin Green – Saxophones
Steve Griffith – Songwriter
Phil Keaggy – Guitars
London Community Gospel Choir – Choir
Basil Meade – Background Vocals
Charlie Morgan – Drums
Lynn Arthur Nichols – Executive Producer
Stuart Ongley – Executive Producer
Richard Osborne – Producer, Drum Programming, Keyboards, Guitars
Alan Park – Piano
Todd Rundgren – Songwriter
Bruce Spencer – Songwriter
Miriam Stockley – Background Vocals
Jon Sweet – Producer, Songwriter, Keyboards
Rod Trott – Songwriter
Sheila Walsh – Executive Producer, Songwriter, Vocals
Paul Westwood – Bass

Departure – Last Plane To The Mainland – 1985

This is going to be a real short review. Departure were a band out of Nashville. They had a one album deal on Morada Records. I can not find anything else the band or any members ever recorded. This is fantastic pop rock album that really deserved to be more recognized than it was. In fact I can’t even find anyone in my circle that ever even heard of it. What a pity because this is a fantastic album. And that’s it, that’s all I got. If you heard this album in the day comment wherever you are reading this.

Tracklist
1 – I Just Wanna Love You Forever – 3:37
2 – Cry of the Lost – 4:25
3 – I Need You – 3:31
4 – Raise Your Hands – 3:07
5 – Run and Hide – 4:43
6 – God Bless America – 4:57
7 – Let Him Love You – 3:23
8 – Suicide – 5:53
9 – He’s Comin’ – 3:00

Credits
Bass Guitar – Jed Morehouse
Drums, Percussion – Tony Huff
Guitar, Vocals – Doug Stanfield
Lead Vocals, Keyboards – Jeff Booth

Steve Camp – Consider The Cost – 1991

For his 1991 release Steve turned down the music a bit but in my opinion turned up the songwriting. This was also his final album for Sparrow before he moved on to Warner Alliance. I’ve always kind of questioned that move but it did work out okay for Steve. I just never liked the secular record industry getting involved in the Christian music genre. I heard some pretty good guitar on this album and was fully expecting to see Dann Huff’s name in the credits but nope. Playing guitar on this album was Dan Lee (misspelt in the credits as Dann Lee). Dan was not on many albums but seems to me like he was a pretty good guitarist and did a great job on this album. This album was a pretty successful one for Steve with “For Every Time” and “Shade For The Children” coming in at #1 and #2 on the CCM charts and “Guard The Trust” gave the album a third top 10 hit. While this probably isn’t one of my favourites from Steve it’s a little hard to argue with the numbers. No doubt about it people loved this album.

Tracklist
1 – The Cross Is A Radical Thing – 4:23
2 – For Every Time – 4:19
3 – Carry Me – 4:07
4 – Shade For The Children – 5:28
5 – Consider The Cost – 5:51
6 – Follow Me – 3:26
7 – Could I Be Called A Christian – 5:33
8 – The Agony Of Deceit – 5:27
9 – Guard The Trust – 4:19
10 – All That I Need – 4:30

Credits
Arranged By – Phil Naish, Steve Camp
Arranged By [Horns] – Chris McDonald
Arranged By [Srtings], Conductor – Paul Buckmaster
Art Direction, Design – Heather Horne
Backing Vocals [Background Vocals] – Ashley Cleveland, Chris Rodriguez, Lisa Bevill, Mark Heimermann, Steve Camp, Vicki Hampton
Bass – Leland Sklar
Coordinator [Production Coordinator] – Wendy Holt
Drums – Paul Leim
Engineer – Ronnie Brookshire
Guitar [Guitars] – Dann Lee
Horns – Barry Green, Chris McDonald, George Tidwell, Mike Haynes
Illustration – Nancy Nimoy
Mastered By – Doug Sax
Mixed By – Bill Schnee
Percussion – Terry McMillan
Photography By – Mark Tucker
Piano – Steve Camp
Piano, Synthesizer – Phil Naish
Producer [Produced By] – Phil Naish
Strings – Carl Gorodetzky, The Nashville String Machine
Written-By – Kemper Crabb, Kim Maxfield-Camp, Rob Frazier, Steve Camp, Steven Curtis Chapman

Companies, etc.
Phonographic Copyright ℗ – The Sparrow Corporation
Copyright © – The Sparrow Corporation
Distributed By – Word (Uk) Ltd.
Produced For – NT Productions
Recorded At – Quad Studios
Recorded At – Javelina Recording Studios
Recorded At – Treasure Isle Recorders
Recorded At – Classic Recording
Recorded At – North Beach Studio
Recorded At – Morningstar Sound Studio
Mastered At – The Mastering Lab
Glass Mastered At – Nimbus

Tradewind – Until The Storm Is Past – 1979

Here we have another self released CCM album that I never heard or heard of before. Tradewind was two sets of brothers joined by another friend on drums. There isn’t much info on the band out there but they were together for a few years and were able to get this album out there. The album leans more to 70’s light rock but Radio Man turns it up a notch and is a pretty good Rock track. It has an obligatory country track which was a required on any Jesus music album of the period. The real stand out of this album was the quality of the mix and the production. Greg Thompson was credited with assistant Producer and Engineer credits and while he may not be household name he worked on some really good projects in this era. When you hear this one it’s as good as anything that was on Word or Sparrow at the time and really with this quality of production this album should have been picked up by a label for distribution. It had everything they were looking for. Mike Pearsall and Dave Robbins continued on to record as Burton & Logan and we’re actively looking for a copy of their album for you.

Tracklist
1 – Until The Storm Is Past – 4:02
2 – Yours To Stay – 4:19
3 – My Heart Belongs To You – 4:04
4 – Perfect Love – 2:46
5 – Radio Man – 4:13
6 – There Won’t Be A Better Time – 2:19
7 – Puppet – 04:09
8 – Psalm 40 – 3:30
9 – As For Me And My House – 3:25
10 – Look Beyond Today – 3:26

Credits
Guitars, Vocals – Rob Robbins
Keyboards, Vocals – Dave Robbins
Guitars, Drums, Percussion, Vocals – Rob Pearsall
Bass, Vocals – Mike Pearsall
Drums, Percussion – Keny Baiza
Pedal Steel Guitar – Ismael Garcia
Executive Producer – Tom Murphy
Produced by – Rob Pearsall & Greg Thompson
Arranged by – Tradewind
Orchestrated by – Rob Pearsall
Recorded & Mixed – Greg Thompson
Mastered by – Steve Hall
Cover Design and Artwork – Thel Arthur
Photography – David Pavol, Eric Simonson

The Crusaders – Make A Joyful Noise With Drums And Guitars – 1966

I’m not gonna say this is the first Christian rock album because I keep finding one older every time I say that. That said this is definitely one of the first ones. The Crusaders were a 60’s garage rock band from LA. They emerged out of the surfing scene and actually had several different names over the years. The band signed with Tower records and used the name The Crusaders for this album. The record company said “five sincere young men … who have chosen the Big Beat as the means of expressing the religious faith”. Two of the members were Catholic and two were Jewish and we have no idea what the 5th member was. I think we can deduct from this that this album was a record company idea. The band did go on to record another album but it was secular and they used a different name. We generally don’t ever count on anyone’s “level” of Christianity but I think it’s safe to assume this was a record company idea not a expression of religious faith. Anyway all that aside this is a fun album. I generally love the sounds of the 50’s and 60’s so it’s a natural for me to like this one. The album features 5 traditional and 5 original tracks and is truly a Rock & Roll album. This albums holds an important part of Christian rock history so be sure to give it a listen.

Tracklist
1 – Little Drummer Boy – 2:42
2 – Battle Hymn Of The Republic – 2:10
3 – God Lives – 2:07
4 – You’ll Never Walk Alone – 1:56
5 – With The Lord On Our Side – 2:38
6 – Praise We The Lord – 2:54
7 – What Is Man – 2:00
8 – He’s Got The Whole World In His Hand – 2:25
9 – Onward Christian Soldiers – 1:44
10 – Make A Joyful Noise – 2:13

Credits
Danny Altcholer – Guitar
Walt Flannery – Organ
Mike Joyce – Bass
Jeff Barnett – Drums
Fred Barnett – Guitar
Mark Taylor – Engineer
Hank Levine – Producer
Larry Goldberg – Producer