In 1993 Mike Lee put out this acoustic album. I want to straight up say that I think Mike is a fantastic vocalist unfortunately this album just doesn’t seem to work. The album was self produced so maybe this is the stumbling block. It doesn’t sound like Mike had the skill set to release an acoustic album all on his own. Acoustic albums are harder to put together than most artists think. That said Mike’s vocals are good but the guitar playing suffers a little bit. Strangely this album was initially released using the name Mike Lee on cassette. When a CD veriso0n was released later the same year he called himself Michael D.R.I.V.E. I’m not really too sure why this was done but Michael D.R.I.V.E. is a great stage name.
Tracklist 1 – True Love – 3:42 2 – Time For Love – 4:14 3 – Don’t Say Goodnight – 4:21 4 – Goodbye – 4:07 5 – Johnny Lost – 4:03 6 – Too Late For Never – 3:55
Pakaderm Records strikes again. This is sort of a compilation album of artists singing rockified hymns. Now I’ll be straight up here. When rock artists try to interpret a hymn it rarely if ever works for me. Usually this is because the arrangements basically suck. It’s not as easy as people think to take and old Hymn and turn it into a rock song. That aside the Elefante brothers wrote the arrangements for these tracks and they know what they are doing. As a result this is hands down the absolute best collection of rockified hymns that has been produced. What’s even more impressive on this album as that some of the vocalists are actually Maranatha singers who certainly are not known for Rock & Roll. Case in point is Sara Tennison covering A Mighty Fortress Is Our God which she absolutely nails and Mike Hadley’s Amazing Grace. This album is an absolute must listen. Where others have failed the Elefante brothers have succeeded.
Tracklist 1 – The Old Rugged Cross – 4:48 2 – He’ Got The Whole World In His Hands – 4:40 3 – A Mighty Fortress Is Our God – 4:19 4 – We Need Jesus – 4:49 5 – Holy, Holy, Holy – 4:00 6 – Nothing But The Blood Of Jesus – 3:21 7 – Amazing Grace – 4:02 8 – Go, Tell It On A Mountain – 4:27 9 – When We All Get To Heaven – 3:38 10 – I Have Decided (To Follow Jesus) – 4:41
Credits Arranged By – Dino Elefante, John Elefante Backing Vocals – Barney Dunn (2), Gregg Lancer, Sara Tennison, Terry Stratton Bass – Ba-Ba Drums – Artemus Crowe, Jack Mac Guitar – Rock Lobster, T-Mex Keyboards – Jack Mac, John Andrew Schreiner, John Elefante Lead Vocals – Gregg Lancer, Jamie Rowe, John Elefante, Sara Tennison, Scott Springer, Mike Lee, Mike Hadley, Russell Painter Producer – Dino Elefante, John Elefante Saxophone – Greg Vail
Companies, etc. Manufactured By – Word, Inc. Distributed By – Word, Inc. Pressed By – Disctronics USA
This was the first album form Priority Paid. I still can’t find much info on this Australian band but I’m still enjoying their work. The album is a great 80’s Pop album with above average lyrics in my opinion. As this was only released in Australia many of you haven’t heard it so here’s your chance to catch up on an 80’s rarity.
Tracklist 1 – Night After Night – 5:11 2 – Can You Come Over Tonight – 4:50 3 – Going Home – 5:07 4 – Forever – 5:20 5 – Robin Hood – 3:20 6 – Do You Know – 4:17 7 – Voice – 4:00 8 – Shut Up And Dance – 3:03 9 – In Your Image – 4:03
Credits Acoustic Guitar, Vocals – Peter Downey Bass, Vocals – Owen Craig Drums, Vocals – Rik Petereit Electric Guitar – Iain McDonald Percussion, Vocals – Bill Marsden Vocals, Keyboards – John Burns
Companies, etc. Engineered At – Rich Studios Engineered At – Silver Wood Studios
Here’s Volume 3 of the Strait Tapes and I believe the last in the series but we’ve had a few surprises in this series so I will will say I think it is the final one. Again we have quite a few unreleased tracks to enjoy. I didn’t do a count but I think this one has the most examples of secular bands of Christians. Anyway it’s another fantastic offering and we should give credit the the gang over at Strait Magazine for putting together such a great series of tapes. I’ve listed below what album these tracks showed up on if they did.
1 – The 77’s – The Lust, The Flesh, The Eyes And The Pride Of Life. – Released on their 1987 album The 77’s 2 – Talking Drums – You Do Cry A Lot – Released on their 1985 album Reassembly 3 – Maldwyn Pope – Reunion Of The Heart – Released on his 1990 album Love Will Find A Way 4 – Bryan McGlynn – Soul Doctor – still unreleased 5 – The Good Guys – Still A Mistake – Released on their 1984 album A System Of Grooves 6 – Charlie Peacock – Down In The Lowlands – Released on his 1986 album Charlie Peacock 7 – Trade Secret – With Or Without You – Released on their 1987 album Trade Secret 8 – One A.M. – Over And Over – still unreleased 9 – Mike Starkey – I Became A Johnson’s Baby – still unreleased 10 – Vector – America – Released on their 1984 album Please Stand By 11 – Deniece Williams – Straight Ahead – Released her 1986 album 12 – The Refuseniks – Quiet Time – Gag track as intro to next track 13 – Terry Scott Taylor – Old Time Gospel Camp Meeting Hour – Released on his 1986 album Knowledge & Innocence 14 – Bruce Cockburn – Wondering Where The Lions Are – Released on his 1979 album Dancing In The Dragon’s Jaws 15 – Steve Scott – Not A Pretty Picture – Released on his 1988 album Lost Horizon 16 – Jump The Nile – Proud To Be A Warrior – still unreleased 17 – First Strike – Power – Released on their 1987 album Crank It Up! 18 – Bryan McGlynn – Stranger At The Party – still unreleased
Tracklist 1 – The 77’s – The Lust, The Flesh, The Eyes And The Pride Of Life. – 3:25 2 – Talking Drums – You Do Cry A Lot – 3:07 3 – Maldwyn Pope – Reunion Of The Heart – 4:31 4 – Bryan McGlynn – Soul Doctor – 3:28 5 – The Good Guys – Still A Mistake – 2:16 6 – Charlie Peacock – Down In The Lowlands – 4:28 7 – Trade Secret – With Or Without You – 3:42 8 – One A.M. – Over And Over – 3:12 9 – Mike Starkey – I Became A Johnson’s Baby – 2:01 10 – Vector – America – 4:05 11 – Deniece Williams – Straight Ahead – 4:07 12 – The Refuseniks – Quiet Time – 0:44 13 – Terry Scott Taylor – Old Time Gospel Camp Meeting Hour – 3:17 14 – Bruce Cockburn – Wondering Where The Lions Are – 3:27 15 – Steve Scott – Not A Pretty Picture – 4:03 16 – Jump The Nile – Proud To Be A Warrior – 4:13 17 – First Strike – Power – 4:51 18 – Bryan McGlynn – Stranger At The Party – 3:13
In 2006 Wendell released an updated version of his single For America. He also released a new track that’s pretty good too. I have always been of the opinion that For America was one of the best CCM songs of all time and quite frankly it just begged for a secular release. Unfortunately the song is a little patriotic for most mainstream artists that do the style of music this would have worked in. Anyway usually we don’t upload stuff after about 1995 but this is a special case.
Tracklist 1 – For America – 5:03 2 – Back To The Cave – 3:17
This is the second and last album from The Crucified. The line up changed slightly with Jeff Bellew replacing Mark Johnson on bass but everyone else stayed the course. I think this album is actually a bit better than their first but it very similar just with slightly better vocals or perhaps it’s been better engineered. Unfortunately the band split after this album and in fact toured very little to support the album. They did however come back together for a good bye show at Cornerstone Festival. Everyone went on to further projects including, Stavesacre, Neon Horse, The Blamed, CHATTERbOX, and Applehead. After a long battle with Ocean Records the band was able to get the rights to their music and released a complete collection CD set. The band also returned to touring including a show at Cornerstone Festival in July 2009.
Tracklist 1 – Intro / Hateworld – 5:20 2 – It’s All About Fear – 2:29 3 – The Wrong One – 3:41 4 – Mindbender – 3:53 5 – Path To Sorrow – 4:02 6 – Fellowship Of Thieves – 3:12 7 – Focus – 2:32 8 – The Strength – 3:53 9 – Blackstone / So-Called Living, 1991 – 4:16 10 – The Pillars Of Humanity – 2:57
Credits Artwork – Rick Catizone Artwork [Inside] – Mark Salomon Bass – Jeff Bellew Design Concept, Cover – Mark Salomon, Rick Catizone Drums – Jim Chaffin Guitar – Greg Minier Photography By [Group Shots] – Perry Cooper Photography By [Individual Shots] – Andrew P. Watrous, Teddi Sherrer Producer, Mixed By, Engineer – Chris Morris, The Crucified Vocals – Mark Salomon
This is a rather odd sampler from Pakaderm Records. I’m not entirely sure but I think the point of this sampler was to hear these artists doing sort of an acoustic track. This is a little weird because there are a few artists here that usually only do this style of music so like I say I’m a little confused at what the Elefante brothers were trying to achieve here. I’m even further confused as most of the tracks seem to be newly written and the recordings are only with the performer as the vocalist and the album appears to utilize a studio band. I honestly don’t think most of the artists understood what was going on either because most of the tracks just don’t work in my opinion. There are 3 tracks that in my opinion did get it. The 2 tracks form Richie Furay are absolutely excellent and include an appearance form Darrell Mansfield on harmonica. The other track that “got it” is the one from Guardian where they absolutely nail the vocals. Anyway it is what it is and I’d suggest a listen even if it’s just for the 3 tracks I mentioned.
Tracklist 1 – David Robertson – The House Of The Lord – 3:17 2 – Richie Furay – Man Of Many Sorrows – 4:23 3 – Brighton – Taking Back The Land (Jericho) – 4:20 4 – Sara Tennison – What Did I Ever Do – 4:57 5 – X-Sinner – Shelter Me – 3:12 6 – Mark Pogue – Thou Shalt Love – 3:49 7 – Richie Furay – Song Of The Lamb – 3:06 8 – Guardian – Take Up Your Cross – 4:50 9 – Halo – Real Life Conversation – 3:47 10 – The Heard – We Need Jesus – 5:05
Credits Art Direction, Design – Terry DeGraff Backing Vocals [Additional] – Doug Beiden, Sara Tennison Bass – W.C. Jr Cover – David Del Sesto, Terry DeGraff Engineer – Dino Elefante, Doug Beiden, J.R. McNeely, John Elefante Guitar [Additional] – Rock Lobster, Tex Mex Keyboards, Drums – Mack Jack Mandolin, Violin – Matt Brislawn Mastered By – Chris Mixed By – Dino Elefante, Doug Beiden, John Elefante Percussion – “Chi Chi” Allison Producer – Dino Elefante, John Elefante
Bev and Steve are back with another album and another band name. I really don’t understand why they felt it was necessary to have a slightly different name every album. Oh well anyway I think I know what they were thinking for this album. It has several experimental tracks and I think that’s what they were aiming for further demonstrated by the fact they didn’t release any tracks as a singles. While I don’t like it as much as their other work it’s still good and I enjoyed it.
Tracklist 1 – Let There Be Neon – 3:44 2 – Mechanical Ballet – 4:47 3 – Berlin Ballerina – 5:56 4 – Observation – 3:51 5 – Techno Refugee – 4:27 6 – Lunatic Republic – 4:13 7 – When Is Pleasure Pain? – 4:03 8 – Boy – 4:10 9 – Lily Marlene – 1:21 10 – Military Business (Muscle Culture II) – 4:22
Credits Bass – Les Cargo Drums, Percussion – Dolphin Taylor, Gus Hale Horns – John Du Prez Keyboards – David Hewson Vocals – Bev Sage, Steve Fairnie
Companies, etc. Made By – Sounds Marketing System, Inc. Published By – Street Tunes Published By – Street Tunes Ltd. Published By – Westminster Music Published By – Westminster Music Ltd. Published By – Peter Maurice Co. Published By – EMI Music
Whenever you sit down to listen to a Phil & John album you are never really too sure what you are gonna get. Some albums are pop, some are folk, some are humour, and some are worship. To be clear I do like them I just never know what to expect every time I get a new album. Anyway this is a live humour based album and is probably their best work. This is really where these 2 gentleman shined. I of course never got a chance to see them live as I live in Canada but I really wish I could have. If your in a poor mood toss this album on and you’ll find yourself in a much better mood soon.
Tracklist 1 – Oblivious – 2:55 2 – The Boxer – 4:16 3 – Australia Story – 7:14 4 – Homeward Bound – 3:44 5 – Child Of My Time – 5:17 6 – Stay Young – 3:28 7 – Teeth Story – 5:42 8 – The Day The North Left Town – 3:17 9 – Tommy The Tortoise – 5:48 10 – Echoes To Return – 2:40 11 – What Kind Of Love? – 4:13
Credits Design – James Kessell Guitar – John Hartley, Phil Baggaley Mixed By – Neil Costello Photography – Branka Jukić Recorded By – Neil Costello Vocals – John Hartley, Phil Baggaley
In the early 90’s Out Of Darkness was enjoying a resurgence of people listening to their album from 1970. Somehow Plankton records got together with the band and released a 4 track recording of the band live in 1972. It was recorded live at the Celebration Club in Gillingham, England. The quality is actually really good as long as you remember this is a live recording in 1972. This album was a godsend to fans of the band as it gave them 6 more tracks to enjoy.
Tracklist 1 – Walk On The Water – 4:56 2 – Love To Love – 8:12 3 – Worldpool – 10:40 4 – Cocaine – 5:28 5 – Valley (I’m Gonna Follow) – 5:32 6 – Child Of The Universe – 13:18
Credits Artwork – Keith Oliver Band [Out Of Darkness], Bass – Bruce Duncan (tracks: 2, 3, 6) Band [Out Of Darkness], Bass, Percussion, Piano – Carl Grant Band [Out Of Darkness], Drums, Percussion – Tim Anderson Band [Out Of Darkness], Guitar, Vocals, Written-By [All Songs Written By] – Wray Powell Design – Keith Dixon (2), Tim Anderson Engineer – Peter Cornelious Photography By [Cover] – Chris Nicol Post Production [Post Recording Production] – Nigel Palmer
