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
The North Dakota Melby brothers are back with their 3rd and last album with Frontline Records and boy did they go out with a bang. This is by far the best produced album they had. Is it the best album? That’s actually going to be a little dependent on what you like. For me this is their best because I generally don’t like Metal unless it’s well produced and leans more to arena rock which describes this album. The band also include a couple acoustic metal ballads as was the trend in the late 80’s which is the period of sound this album best fits. The guest guitarist list for this album is stunning with Lanny Cordola (Magdallan), Oz Fox (Stryper), and Tony Palacios (Guardian). Could you think of a better trio of guest guitarists for an arena metal album? They absolutely nailed this album and it is probably one of the best arena rock albums in CCM history.
Tracklist 1 – Hard Hitter – 4:48 2 – Attitude – 4:06 3 – Up At Night – 4:45 4 – Steal, Kill, And Destroy – 5:38 5 – Who Can Heal The Pain – 3:58 6 – Whatsoever U Sow – 4:07 7 – Wicked Ways – 4:35 8 – Violent Burning – 3:44 9 – As Far As The East Is From The West – 4:41 10 – My God Is A Rock – 3:08
Credits Art Direction – Brian Godawa Bass Guitar – Kelly Burns Design – Joe Potter Drums, Percussion – Gregg Bissonette Drums, Percussion, Backing Vocals – Tim Jones* Engineer, Mixed By – Mike Mierau Guitar – Lanny Cordola, Oz Fox, Tony Palacios Keyboards – John Andrew Schreiner Mastered By – Wally Traugott Music Consultant [Guitar Consultant] – Tim Ellis (5) Photography – Wayne Armstrong Producer, Lead Vocals, Guitar, Bass, Acoustic Guitar – Lary Melby Producer, Rhythm Guitar, Lead Guitar, Backing Vocals, Acoustic Guitar – Tim Melby
This is another one of those albums that escaped us in the North American market. It actually missed a lot of people in the European market too due to it being on a small label. This is also another one of those albums that the minute I heard it I was so disappointed that I didn’t get to hear this one back in 1984 when it was released. Adrian had been performing in his local market area since the 70’s but an opportunity came up for him to record an album while he was in theological college. He put thought into the album and with the exception of one track he chose songs that people had told him were a blessing to them. This was an excellent strategy to pick tracks. Remember he didn’t have some big dollar producer to guide him on what tracks to record so he chose this route and it worked. As for the album it’s a fun 80’s folk pop album with shades of Ishmael here and there. The title track alone is worth the price of admission and I can only imagine how great this track would have been with some top notch studio musicians and production. Which brings me to my only criticism. The production is not that great but let’s remember this was a small label and no one was throwing money at this album. With some good production I truly believe this is one that could have sold well and I know I would have loved it in 1984. Actually I love it now but I’m stuck in the 80’s. Adrian continues his musical journey today and he directed me to his website which you may want to head over to to hear even more from him or perhaps listen to one of his sermons. I enjoyed both over at his website and his YouTube channel.
Tracklist 1 – Psalm 150 – 4:16 2 – Song – 3:28 3 – Cleaning – 1:59 4 – Tired Song – 3:01 5 – Now – 4:56 6 – Will You Listen (Or Will You Mock) – 5:28 7 – Angry – 4:09 8 – God Is Moving On – 3:54 9 – Message – 3:10 10 – Where Is The Love – 3:36 11 – He Knows You Know – 4:49 12 – Jester Before The Throne – 4:23
So today as I am reflecting on the life of Chuck Girard and I had to pick an album to listen to. I actually chose Glow in the dark as I think that is his best album but this is his second best in my opinion. Chuck Girard holds a strange place in my CCM listening history. His style is not in my preferred genre BUT I have always enjoyed listening to him. Growing up my circle and I probably ranked Anthem as the best album intro in history. We preferred Rez or David Edwards but something often drew us back to Chuck. While his style was definitely on the easy listening side of the market we always seemed to connect with his vocals and harmonies. I remember many nights driving around in my best friends car and us listening to Chuck and in particular “Somethin’ Supernatural”. This particular album from Chuck is definitely on the lighter side of his work but as usual his vocals and harmonies are second to none. I rank this one so high because of the quality of those vocals and the quality of the writing. So give this one a listen and reflect on one of the greatest CCM artists thetre ever was.
Tracklist 1 – Spirit Wind – 3:37 2 – Mary’s Song – 3:51 3 – Thank You Lord – 3:26 4 – Plain Ol’ Joe – 4:50 5 – Harvest Time – 3:40 6 – Fool For Jesus – 2:40 7 – Hear The Angels Sing – 3:26 8 – Peace In The Valley – 4:26 9 – The Warrior – 6:45
Credits Acoustic Guitar – Dan Ferguson, Jon Linn Arranged By [Strings, French Horns, Bells and Timpani] – Jimmie Haskell Art Direction – David Larkham Autoharp – Kit Alderson Backing Vocals [All Background Vocals] – Chuck Girard, Jay Truax, Larry Myers, Terry Clark Bass – Mark Levine Drums – Jim Keltner Electric Guitar – Jon Linn Electric Piano – Chuck Girard Graphics [Logographics] – Margie Melton, Tom Nikosey Keyboards [Supplementary] – Chuck Girard, Herb Jimmerson Music By – Terry Clark Music By, Words By – Chuck Girard Photography By – Christian Micoine Piano – Chuck Girard
A few times I’ve been asked when it all went wrong for Christian music. I truly believe that this album was that moment. This was MWS’s 10th album and as far as commercial success goes it was his biggest. This album actually entered the Billboard 200 at #16 which is the highest-debuting Christian album in history. It also won the 1996 Grammy Award in the ‘Best Pop-Contemporary Gospel Album’. Unfortunately this caught the attention of record executives and that lead to where we are today. When Christian artists were small change their labels were lead by other Christians who knew what Christians wanted to hear. Now we are fed what the executives think we want which most people listen to reluctantly and some even actually think they like it. This album is literally every worship service I now hear on Sunday minus the congregation singing along. The songs are absolutely dull and has zero creativity. The album was recorded in 8 different studios with 22 engineers. I’m not kidding, 22 engineers and 40 musicians. As a result the album has absolutely no flow at all and no continuity in the sound or feel of the album. It’s just a collection of mediocre worship songs. This is what record executives thought we wanted to hear. No, it’s what our parents wanted to hear, we wanted to hear Rock & Roll whatever definition that had in 1995. So this was the beginning of the end. I have listened to this album 3 times in 2 days now and I can not remember one track. Not one. Absolutely nothing on this album stood out. Sorry Michael you put zero effort into the album and it shows but apparently that’s what our parents wanted and here we are today.
Tracklist 1 – Cry For Love – 5:12 2 – Breakdown – 5:27 3 – As It Is In Heaven – 5:09 4 – Straight To The Heart – 2:48 5 – Someday – 3:52 6 – I’ll Be Around – 4:45 7 – I’ll Lead You Home – 5:23 8 – Trilogy: The Other Side Of Me – 4:24 9 – Trilogy: Breathe In Me – 3:55 10 – Trilogy: Angels Unaware – 4:37 11 – Calling Heaven – 4:54 12 – A Little Stronger Everyday – 4:43 13 – Crown Him With Many Crowns – 4:34 14 – I’m Waiting For You – 3:12
Credits A&R – Don Donahue Acoustic Guitar – Bruce Gaitsch Arranged By, Conductor – Jeremy Lubbock Art Direction – Rob Birkhead Backing Vocals – Brent Bourgeois, Chris Rodriguez, Gardner Cole, Lisa Cochran, Louis Johnson, Micah Wilshire, Molly Felder, Natalie Jackson, Renee Garcia Bliss, Richard Page, Tim Erwin Bass – Lee Sklar, Tommy Simms Choir – Angelo, Anointed, Bob Bailey, Chris Harris, Chris Rodriguez, Da Dra Crawford, Denise “Nee-C” Walls, Donna McElroy, Kim Fleming, Mary Tiller, Micah Wilshire, Michael Mellett, Nicole Coleman Mullen, Steve Crawford, Veronica Petrucci, Vicki Hampton Contractor – Jules Chaikin Coordinator [Vocal Coordinator] – Donna McElroy Design – Buddy Jackson, Karinne Caulkins Design [Creative Assistant] – Diana Lussenden Drum Programming – Marc Moreau, Patrick Leonard Drums – Brian MacLeod, Chris McHugh, Steve Brewster, Vinnie Colaiuta Engineer [Second] – Al Lay, Darren Smith, David Dilbeck, David Faulkner, Dennis Patton, Greg Parker, Jason Wilder, Jeff Wright, John “JT” Thomas, Krish Sharma, Mike Janas, Patrick Kelly, Paula Montondo, Rob Burrell, Scott Lenox Executive-Producer – Michael Blanton, Michael W. Smith Guitar – Dann Huff Keyboards – Patrick Leonard Keyboards, Piano – Michael W. Smith Mastered By – Doug Sax Mixed By – Bill Deaton, Craig Hansen, David Thoener, Jerry Jordan Organ – Patrick Leonard Percussion – Luis Conte Photography By – Ben Pearson, Russ Harrington Photography By [Cover] – Timothy White Producer – Michael W. Smith, Patrick Leonard Programmed By – Michael W. Smith Programmed By [Additional] – Brian MacLeod, Dennis Patton Programmed By [Synth] – Patrick Leonard Recorded By – Bryan Lenox, Craig Hansen, Jerry Jordan, Keith Compton, Marc Moreau Steel Guitar – Paul Franklin Vocals – Michael W. Smith
Let’s call this album what it is, it’s Reneé Garcia’s third album. Her husband (Lang Bliss) played small roles on her previous 2 albums but suddenly they’re a band called Bliss Bliss. Yes he did play a bigger role on this album but without her there really was no album but without him the album could easily have gone ahead. Furthermore he is apparently a drummer but all of her albums have electronic drums. How can you be the drummer on an album with electronic drums? If anything you may be a programmer but you aren’t a drummer. There I’ve said my piece. Most people know that I quite like Reneé Garcia so I was pretty happy when I discovered she had more albums using this name. While the album was on a new label Chris Eaton returned to produce this album though the electronic drummer also took production credits. I don’t think the songwriting measures up to her first 2 albums but it’s okay and her vocal skills make up for it. So it’s another fun pop album here from Reneé and if you liked her first 2 you’ll probably like this one.
Tracklist 1 – Fight For Peace – 4:34 2 – Building Bridges – 4:51 3 – Field Of Daisies – 4:27 4 – A Little Love – 4:19 5 – Believe In You – 4:37 6 – When The World’s Asleep – 5:06 7 – House Of Cards – 3:46 8 – Modern World – 4:39 9 – Walking Through Paradise – 3:37 10 – Chain Of Fear – 4:46 11 – Love And Devotion – 5:04 12 – House On The Hill – 5:52
Credits Lang Bliss – Producer, Songwriter, Keyboards, Drums, Background Vocals, Choir Keith Brown – Songwriter Dave Bunker – Executive Producer, Choir Tina Clark – Background Vocals, Choir Eric Darken – Percussion Chris Eaton – Executive Producer, Songwriter, Background Vocals Gene Ford – Guitars Reneé Garcia – Songwriter, Choir, Background Vocals, Vocals Joe Gautier – Songwriter Bob Halligan, Jr. – Songwriter Mike Haynes – Trumpet, Flugelhorn Renay Herrington – Background Vocals, Choir Chris Kearney – Choir Isabella Kearney – Choir Jamie Kearney – Choir Bryan Lenox – Additional Engineer Russ Long – Co-Producer, Engineer, Mixed John Mallory – Songwriter Blair Masters – B-3, Keyboards Heath McMillen – Choir Michael Mellett – Background Vocals Patsy Moore – Songwriter John Mark Painter – Bass Tim Pierce – Guitars Kip Summers – Songwriter Hank Williams – Mastered
The Wall Brothers are one of the most mystifying 70’s bands I have listened to. I missed this album back in the day and I’m guessing it’s because it wasn’t released in Canada. That said the band was hugely popular in the Genre. We get comments all the time about how much people liked them yet, I can find next to nothing about them. Bass player Randy Nelson has chimed in on our website and speaks fondly of his time with the band and says he’s still in contact with them. All that said I can find very very little about them in the interwebs. How did such a popular and excellent band become so unknown? This is a travesty because these guys were great and deserve some attention. Okay let’s get onto the album. While the album has a 70’s feel it does not have a typical Jesus Music sound. This is a Rock & Roll album and not some worship album. That said it does have some Ballads but they are actual Rock ballads. The lyrics are in your face Christianity. None of this ship in the desert stuff. This is well thought out Christ lyrics. Wish I had heard this one back in the day, it would have fit in nicely with our early SCB listening sessions.
Tracklist 1 – I Never Understood – 3:10 2 – Wind On Summer Nights – 4:46 3 – Walkin’ On The Water – 3:15 4 – Your Love Is Just What I Need – 4:45 5 – I Am – 4:38 6 – Givin’ It Up – 3:07 7 – Start All Over Again – 5:12 8 – Joyman – 3:48 9 – Clouds Of Glory – 4:32 10 – Where Will You Be Tomorrow? – 4:42
Credits Arranged By [Horn Arrangements] – Shane Keister Art Direction, Design – Bob McConnell Bass, Vocals – Greg Wall Drums, Percussion – Lance DeMers Electric Guitar – Randy Nelson Engineer – Bob Clark, Gene Eichelburger Flugelhorn, Trumpet – George Tidwell Flute – Billy Puett Keyboards [Fender Rhodes], Lead Vocals – Kraig Wall Lyrics By – Lance DeMers Mastered By – Glenn Meadows Mixed By – Travis Turk Music By – Kraig Wall Photography By – Dill Beaty Producer – Phil Johnson Synthesizer [Arp] – Shane Keister
This was the fourth studio album from The Alarm and the band/label continued their Russian roulette approach to producers. Tony Visconti was chosen as the producer/engineer for this one and quite frankly wasn’t the best choice. He completely failed to capture the feel of The Alarm and instead produced a commercial sounding album that made the band sound like anything else that came out in 1989. This is not to say that the album isn’t good, in fact the songs are great, it’s the arrangements/mix that sucked. So many great songs and if you see any of them live they are fantastic but for whatever reason the label thought the band needed a mainstream sound. The Alarm were not a mainstream band, they were a band of Christians with an edge that Rock and Roll needed, especially in 1989. Some interesting trivial about the album is that it was released on vinyl even though the vinyl version had to eliminate 2 tracks because the album was 2 long. There was a version of the album released in the U.K. that had the extra 2 tracks on a 7 inch insert. If I still collected vinyl I’d love to have that version. The album’s first single, “Sold Me Down the River” is a fantastic track and if you ever hear it live you realize how good a track it really is. It reached #13 on the UK charts, #75 in the US charts and in Canada it reached # 19 so I remember it very well. My personal belief is if this had been mixed properly it would have been a top 10 hit but the label knew better than me, or at least they think they did. Anyway I urge you to listen to the album as it really is very good and I absolutely love it. BUT, if it had been produced properly it would have been huge in my opinion.
Tracklist 1 – Sold Me Down The River – 5:25 2 – The Rock – 4:39 3 – Devolution Workin’ Man Blues – 4:11 4 – Love Don’t Come Easy – 4:08 5 – Hardland – 4:09 6 – Change II – 2:52 7 – No Frontiers – 3:53 8 – Scarlet – 4:17 9 – Where A Town Once Stood – 3:48 10 – Black Sun – 4:30 11 – Prison Without Prison Bars – 3:48 12 – How The Mighty Fall – 4:19 13 – Rivers To Cross – 3:42 14 – A New South Wales – 4:46
Credits Arranged By – The Alarm Bass – Eddie MacDonald Drums – Nigel Buckle Guitar – Dave Sharp Keyboards – Mark Taylor Management – Barry Dickins, Elliot Roberts Producer, Engineer – Tony Visconti Vocals – Mike Peters
Companies, etc. Manufactured By – Cinram Record Company – I.R.S. Records Distributed By – MCA Records Phonographic Copyright ℗ – International Record Syndicate, Inc.
My discovery of Lynn Haney is a result of another of my clicking on Discog links. Glenn Schwartz and the All Saved Freak Band join Lynn on the track “Building The Earth” and I found her from them. Lynn was not a member or involved with the All Saved Freak Band in any way that I can find but her sound is much like them. I hesitate to call this a Jesus Music album because it’s much more than that. There is some fantastic blues on this album and that just wasn’t heard in the Jesus Music genre yet. The album is on Tribute Records who had nothing else that sounded like this on their label. In fact while they were a Christian label most of their stuff was geared at the Catholic market so I have no idea how they got involved in this project. Anyway this is almost completely unknown Jesus Music era album that was great and deserved to be better known.
Tracklist 1 – If We Could Share – 3:02 2 – Believe It’s Time – 2:09 3 – Reality – 2:37 4 – Raise Your Voice – 3:04 5 – Hobab – 1:14 6 – Just My Life – 4:16 7 – Building The Earth – 3:03 8 – Makaha – 3:33 9 – You Can’t Run Away – 3:00 10 – Man Of Love – 2:34 11 – Go In Peace – 2:58
Credits Artwork – Lynne Dudnik Backing Vocals – Linda Sterrett Bass – Bob Surga, James Nice Drums – Jerry Coleman Engineer – Ken Hammond, Marty Feldman Guitar – Glenn Schwartz Guitar, Producer – Ray Tate Lead Vocals – Lynn Haney Photography – Billy Bass Piano, Harpsichord, Flute – Al Porth
This is the 4th studio album from Whitecross. To say it was successful would be an understatement. The album reached #12 on Billboard’s Top Contemporary Christian Albums chart and won a Dove award for Hard Music Album of the Year. The revolving door of members continued on this album with Butch Dillon on bass and Mike Feighan on drums for this album. I think it’s fair to say that at this point Whitecross was Scott Wenzel and Rex Carroll. Interestingly the track “Holy War” featured hip hop artist Alton Hood of Disciples of Christ. I’ve listened to this track a couple times now and one time I think it’s an excellent track and the next time I think it’s disjointed and doesn’t work. I don’t know if they were trying to reproduce the success of Aerosmith/Run-DMC but it’s certainly not of that level. One last point of trivia was that the music video for “No Second Chances” was the band’s first video ever seen on MTV’s Headbangers Ball.
Tracklist 1 – No Second Chances – 4:45 2 – We Know What’s Right – 6:06 3 – In The Kingdom – 5:20 4 – In His Hands – 3:37 5 – Good Enough – 3:58 6 – Love Is Our Weapon – 4:41 7 – The Eternal Fire (Guitar Solo) – 2:00 8 – You Will Find It There – 6:00 9 – If He Goes Before Me – 4:13 10 – Tell Me The Time – 4:29 11 – Holy War – 5:55
Credits Backing Vocals – Butch Dillon, Dez Dickerson, Glenn Kaiser, Linda Clifford, Mike Feighan, Rex Carroll, Rey Parra, Scott Wenzel, Steve Watkins, Vicky Hubly Bass [Musical Support] – Rick Cua Bass, Vocals – Butch Dillon Booking, Management – Gavin Markel, PGM Management Creative Director – Toni Thigpen Design, Layout – Jeff Spencer Director Of Photography – Toni Thigpen Drums [Musical Support] – Mike Mead Drums, Vocals – Mike Feighan Engineer [2nd engineer, mixing @ 16th Avenue Sound] – Graham Lewis Engineer [2nd engineer, recording @ Jor-Dan Studio] – Glenn West Engineer [editing @ Georgetown Masters] – Carlos Grier Engineer [mastering @ Georgetown Masters] – Denny Purcell Executive Producer – Dez Dickerson Guitar, Vocals – Rex Carroll Keyboards [Musical Support] – Chris Cameron Lead Vocals – Scott Wenzel Other [Make-up] – Michael Tyler Percussion [Musical Support] – Richard Trelease Photography By – Russ Harrington Producer, Recorded By, Mixed By – Simon Hanhart Rap – Alton Hood
