This was our final offering from Hank and it followed very closely with his previous work. The hard Rock style he was known for continued. Over his 3 albums the band didn’t seem to mature but for me this is a positive as I loved their sound and still love it today. Apparently Hank got disillusioned with Tunesmith records so this is the end. Not many artists even lasted 3 albums with Tunesmith so he should be commended for trying to make it work. It is probably a testament to how bad he wanted people to hear his music as it’s doubtful he was getting paid what was coming to him.
Tracklist 1 – Dying to Love You – 5:25 2 – Don’t Give Up – 3:30 3 – Plenty of Time – 3:53 4 – Change Your Life – 3:53 5 – Directions – 3:52 6 – Be a Shining Light – 5:31 7 – A Time for Anger – 4:02 8 – Till We Had Jesus – 4:34 9 – Keep Livin’ – 3:57 10 – Family of God – 4:30
Credits Bass, Vocals – Joe Burriola Cover Art – Dave Nadler Cover Photo – Tom Gaskill Drums, Lead Vocals – Hank Laake Engineer – Dennis Dyer, Tom Tucker Guitar – Dan Brown Guitar, Vocals – Terry Fitzsimmons Piano – Melody Dyer Producer – Hank Laake Synthesizer – Todd Toulouse, Joseph Dunn, Melody Dyer, Josef Laake
Companies, etc. Distributed By – Praise Industries Corp. Record Company – Tunesmith
Liaison was formed by brothers Larry and Tim Melby who grew up in rural North Dakota. The brothers played just about every instrument there was and they display this talent on their first album. The album was very well received partly due to some excellent production by tech wizard Bill Baumgart. This album has an excellent arenas rock feel but leans AOR too. It even had 2 chart singles on the CCM charts. Go And Sin No More made it to #14 and The Way, The Truth, And The Life to #38. I understand it was also very very popular on Christian rock radio but I don’t currently have access to any of their charts. This is a great rock album and everyone should give it a listen. I’m pretty sure there’s at least one track that will fall in your like pile.
Tracklist 1 – When The Kingdom Comes Down – 4:21 2 – You Are His Main Concern – 3:51 3 – Go And Sin No More – 3:31 4 – Man With A Mission – 5:02 5 – The Way, The Truth, And The Life – 4:23 6 – Kick It Down – 3:21 7 – The Light Is On – 4:11 8 – He Lives – 4:15 9 – Give Me One Day At A Time – 3:29 10 – You’ve Got My Heart In Your Hands – 3:42
Credits Arranged By [Arrangements By] – Tim Heintz Art Direction – Ed McTaggart Bass – Kelly Burns Engineer [Assistant Engineer] – Beth Wisner, Eric Kibby Engineer [Engineered By] – Dave Jahnsen Illustration – Jeff Foster Mastered By – John Matousek Music By, Lyrics By – Lary, Tim Melby Musician, Backing Vocals – Bill Baumgart Musician, Drums – Jeff Porcaro Musician, Guitar [Additional Guitars] – Gawain Reifsnyder, Glenn Pearce, Vince Mendoza Musician, Guitar [Guitars] – Michael Landau Musician, Keyboards – Bill Baumgart, Tim Heintz Musician, Saxophone – Dave Koz Performer [Liaison Is], Guitar [Guitars], Keyboards, Backing Vocals – Tim Melby Performer [Liaison Is], Lead Vocals, Backing Vocals, Keyboards, Guitar [Guitars], Bass – Lary Melby Photography By – Ralph Bizik Producer [Produced By], Arranged By [Arrangements By] – Bill Baumgart
Companies, etc. Phonographic Copyright (p) – Frontline Records Copyright (c) – Frontline Records Distributed By – The Benson Company Produced For – Asylomar Productions Recorded At – The Mixing Lab Mixed At – The Mixing Lab Mastered At – Sound Works West Copyright (c) – Broken Songs
David continues his Pop dominance of the charts with Candle In The Rain. It had 4 top 10 singles which is a pretty darn successful album. I do have some problems with this album however. Quite simply it is completely over produced. The album had 6 producers and countless mixers and engineers. This is a recipe for success for making hit singles but in my opinion a recipe for disaster for an album. Now I certainly can’t argue with the success of this album but when you listen to the whole album it is disjointed and has no flow. I am not actually a fan of David’s earlier work but it is much better than this. The songs are pop songs with very poor lyrics which I guess doesn’t matter as you can’t hear them properly over the drum and keyboard tracks. But what do I know, the album was a huge success and sold lots of copies. It dominated the charts and I’m sure people of all ages ran right out and bought it. But lets be clear, this is a collection of great singles and not a great album, there is a difference.
Tracklist 1 – All Is God’s Creation – 3:42 2 – Nothing To Forgive – 4:27 3 – God Only Knows – 4:53 4 – The Water Is Fine – 5:40 5 – His Love Was Reaching – 3:29 6 – Amor Conquesta Todo (Love Conquers All) – 4:24 7 – Higher Ground – 3:40 8 – Candle In The Rain – 4:16 9 – Hold On – 3:54
Credits Jeff Balding – Engineer, Mixed Brown Bannister – Producer, Mixed, Arranger Lynn Barrington – Production Coordination, Songwriter Jonathan David Brown – Producer, Engineer, Mixed, Arranger, Songwriter Lenny Castro – Percussion Kevin Clark – 2nd Engineer Paul Delph – Songwriter Roy Freeland – Songwriter David Garibaldi – Drums, Percussion, Drum Programming Linda Green – Background Vocals Bernie Grundman – Mastered Tom Hemby – Guitars Dann Huff – Guitar Danny Johnson – 2nd Engineer Jean Johnson – Background Vocals Shane Keister – Arranger, Keyboards, Synthesizers Marva King – Background Vocals Rhett Lawrence – Producer, Arranger, Keyboards, Synthesizers Maxayne Lewis – Background Vocals Carl Marsh – Arranger, Fairlight, Bass, Keyboards, Drums Debbie McClendon – Background Vocals Howard McCrary – Arranger, Background Vocals Steve McMillan – Engineer David Meece – Songwriter, Acoustic Piano, Vocals Michael Miller – Electric Guitar, Bass Paul Mills – Acoustic Piano Marc Russo – Saxophone Alfie Silas – Background Vocals Brian Tankersley – Producer, Engineer, Mixed, Arranger Keith Thomas – Arranger, Keyboards, Synthesizers Gino Vannelli – Producer, Engineer, Arranger, Songwriter Joe Vannelli – Producer, Engineer, Arranger, Songwriter, Keyboards, Sequencer Programming Bill Whittington – 2nd Engineer
Companies, etc. Phonographic Copyright (p) – Word, Inc. Copyright (c) – Word, Inc. Manufactured By – Word, Inc. Recorded At – Blue Moon Studio Recorded At – Ocean Way Recording Recorded At – Weddington Studios Recorded At – OmniSound Studios Recorded At – Mama Jo’s Mixed At – Blue Moon Studio Mixed At – Rivendell Recorders Mixed At – Mama Jo’s Mastered At – Bernie Grundman Mastering
As I understand it this was Fighter’s first demo. 2 of the tracks got released on their first album, “Radio Man”, and “Face To Face”. “Leo” and “Irresponsible Evil” remained unreleased until 2019. In 2019 these four tracks were bonus material on a re-release of Fighters first album, The Waiting. Do not confuse this with the 2019 Girder Records release “The Fighter Demos” which is a collection of most of their demo work but not these 4 tracks.
Tracklist 1 – Radio Man – 4:38 2 – Leo – 3:15 3 – Face To Face – 5:27 4 – Irresponsible Evil – 3:24
Credits Bass – Jim Wolter Drums – Sean Murphy Guitar – Billy Heller Keyboards – Mark Pence Lead Vocals – Amy Wolter, Sean Murphy
The late 80’s provided the Christian metal scene some fantastic metal bands and this is one of them. Fronted by a female singer they stuck out a bit from the crowd and the fact that she was gorgeous certainly didn’t hamper the band either. Arsenal first appeared on a Regency Records sampler “East Coast Metal”. I am assuming they were well received so the album came about. Unfortunately this is all we got from them as it appears this was a one record deal. This band continues my complete bewilderment of the Christian Metal scene as obviously there was sufficient talent here to merit another album. That said I was not involved with this area of the Christian music scene so I don’t know what kind of sales numbers these albums were getting. Apparently there are demo’s pre and post this album and you can rest assured I’ll be looking for them. I understand that Christine is still strongly involved with music and recent pics of her show that she is every bit as beautiful now as she was when this album came out.
Tracklist 1 – Turn Around – 3:30 2 – Someone Believes In You – 3:38 3 – Armored Choir – 3:39 4 – Coming Back To You – 2:29 5 – Forever Yours – 3:44 6 – The Valley – 3:14 7 – You’re No Good For Me – 3:28 8 – Bishop Of Souls – 3:56 9 – Take It Away – 3:23 10 – The Candle… The Flame – 3:30
Credits Backing Vocals – Dale Tiemann, Doug Kirkland, Russ Kirkland Bass – Kandy Slaughter Cover – Jeff Spencer Drums – Dave Calliano Lead Guitar – J.D. Miller Lead Vocals – Christine Steel Producer, Engineer, Keyboards – Russ Kirkland
Companies, etc. Phonographic Copyright (p) – Regency Records Made By – Disctronics S Distributed By – Word (U.K.) Ltd Recorded At – Papa K’s Produced For – September Music Productions
This was the final album for The Pat Terry Group but Pat Terry would go on to record 3 rocking albums in the 80’s. It is said that Pat was becoming increasingly disillusioned with the CCM industry and felt it was getting too commercial and stifling his songwriting skills. Apparently he wanted to broaden his songs and slightly reduce the JPM content. So this caused the Pat Terry Group to dissolve? Considering he went on to record several solo albums this explanation of the break up makes no sense at all. Personally I think this had more to do with 2 things. First of all Pat wanted to get away from Newpax records and back to Myrrh. Secondly I think Pat thought the other members of the group were holding him back. It’s obvious he wanted to do more Rock & Roll and the 70’s sound the group was doing wasn’t where he wanted to go. Whatever the reason I think he made the right decision as his solo work is fantastic. That said this album was a good close out for the 70’s. It is a good album but was right at the end of it’s appropriate timeline.
Tracklist 1 – One More Try – 3:31 2 – All I Can Be – 3:38 3 – Faith Has Eyes – 2:32 4 – Everyday Man – 4:35 5 – Seen It Now – 3:44 6 – Bring Me To The Balance – 4:02 7 – I Got To Go Down – 4:00 8 – IRIS – 4:21 9 – So Many Reasons – 2:58 10 – The Heart Of His Will – 3:36
Credits Backing Vocals – Al Holley (tracks: B1) Bass Guitar – Randy Bugg Design [Logo] – Rip Carloss Electric Guitar, Acoustic Guitar, Marimba, Drums, Percussion, Vocals – Sonny Lallerstedt Guitar, Keyboards, Vocals – Pat Terry Keyboards [Acoustic and Electric] – Tonny Shannon Mastered By – Glenn Meadows Mixed By – Randy Bugg, Sonny Lallerstedt Narrator [Narration] – Randy Bugg (tracks: B1) Recorded By – Randy Bugg, Sonny Lallerstedt
Companies, etc. Recorded At – Twelve Oaks Studio Mixed At – Twelve Oaks Studio Mastered At – Masterfonics Distributed By – The Benson Company, Inc. Copyright (c) – NewPax Records Phonographic Copyright (p) – NewPax Records Designed At – Studio C
This was Bryn’s 3rd album but his first to be released in North America. It’s a rather typical 70’s Jesus music album but Bryn’s vocals do help it stand out. It’s no secret that Bryn is one of my favorite artists so I’m biased in saying this is a fantastic 70’s album. Quick point of trivia is that the Imperials provided some background harmonies which I find odd as this album was actually on A&M records and the Imperials were on Dayspring (Word). Generally speaking Christian labels and secular labels didn’t mix so well but it worked here.
Tracklist 1 – Come See What Love – 4:28 2 – Nothing Without You – 3:41 3 – Woman Friend – 3:00 4 – Moments – 3:00 5 – We’re All One – 4:13 6 – The Grand Arrival – 4:42 7 – Sing To The Lord – 3:42 8 – Full Day – 3:28 9 – Summer Wine – 4:28 10 – Beans On Toast – 4:43
Credits Backing Vocals – Don Everly Banjo – Courtney Johnson Bass – Jessie Boyce, Joe Osborn, John Cowan, Nick Rather, Tommy Cogbill Claves – Jerry Carrigan Drums – Buddy Harmon, Jerry Carrigan, Karl Himmel Engineer – Ronnie Light Guitar – Bill Sandford, Curtis Burch Guitar [High String, Gut String] – Harold Bradley Guitar [High String] – Ronny Light Guitar, Mandolin, Strings [Harpolek], Vocals – Bryn Haworth Keyboards – Bobby Woods, Ron Oates Mandolin – Sam Bush Percussion – Farrell Morris Piano – Bobby Woods, Hargus “Pig” Robbins Producer – Audie Ashworth Remix – Chris Kimsey Saxophone – Andrew Love, Billy Puett Steel Guitar – Buddy Emmons Strings – Shelley Curland Strings Trombone – Dennis Goode Trumpet – George Tidwell, Wayne Jackson Vocals – Halladay Sisters Vocals [Harmony] – The Imperials Written-By – Bryn Haworth
Companies, etc. Phonographic Copyright (p) – A&M Records Ltd. Produced For – Audigram Inc. Published By – Signalgrade Published By – Island Music Ltd. Recorded At – Crazy Mama’s Studios Remixed At – Olympic Studios Remixed At – Basing Street Studios
Q. Stone are an excellent Blues Rock band out of Finland. My first exposure to them was the 1989 Larry Norman album where they played as his backup band. This album actually has a rather odd release history. It was first released in 1988 in Europe and apparently sold well. It was then released in the United States in 1989 on Refuge Records. Apparently it did not sell well. Then in 2000 Larry Norman obtained the rights to the album and released the album on Solid Rock Records. Apparently it sold slightly better under this arrangement. My favourite track on the album actually features Larry, “Sweet Dreams’. I find it humorous that on Larry’s release of this album his track is the lead track but on other versions it is the 2nd track. Anyway, this is probably one of if not the best CCM Blues Rock album of the 80’s though lets be clear there wasn’t a lot of competition.
Tracklist 1 – Sweet Dreams – 3:56 2 – Open Door – 2:34 3 – High Winds – 4:40 4 – You Did It For Me – 5:35 5 – The Blue View – 4:38 6 – And I Wait – 4:35 7 – Give Me Something Else – 4:38 8 – Blues Man – 2:35 9 – Black Water – 2:49 10 – Behind The Bars – 4:32 11 – Tomorrow With You – 3:29 12 – Zack’s Blues – 1:24 13 – Dead Man At Dawn – 4:08
Credits Arranged By [Co-Arranged By] – Q-Stone Bass – Mikko Loytty Drums – Sakke Loytty Edited By, Mastered By – Tom Nunes Engineer – Benny Lundin, Cenneth Almgren, Heikki Silvennoinen Graphics – Wavelength Harmonica – Mikko Kuustonen Harmony Vocals – Larry Norman Keyboards – Harri Taittonen Lead Guitar – Heikki Silvennoinen Mixed By – Bosse Reimer, Larry Norman Producer, Arranged By – Larry Norman Vocals – Heikki Silvennoinen, Mikko Loytty, Larry Norman
Companies, etc. Distributed By – Phydeaux Records Copyright (c) – Phydeaux Records Recorded At – Royal Music Studio
This is Pam’s 4th and most successful album. It continued the pop sound she adopted earlier in the decade as opposed to her folk sound in the 70’s. I believe this album was produced with the goal of hitting the CCM charts and in this aspect it succeeded with 3 singles. “Unexpected Places” made it to #11, What Can I Do to #15, and Jordan to #27. That’s a pretty successful album. As usual the singles are just a little too worship oriented for my liking but there are some very good pop tracks on this album and that’s what makes the album worth listening for me.
Tracklist 1 – This Is A Test – 3:19 2 – Jesus In The Street – 3:48 3 – Unexpected Places – 2:50 4 – Never Trade My Love – 4:13 5 – Keeper Of The Vision – 4:40 6 – What Can I Do – 3:30 7 – Jordan – 3:42 8 – Determined – 3:09 9 – The Longing – 4:24 10 – Love Conquers Everything – 3:45
Credits Acoustic Guitar – Craig Bickhardt (tracks: 5) Bass – Michael Rhodes Drums, Percussion – Harry Stinson Engineer – John Wiles Executive Producer – Dan Harrell, Michael Blanton Guitar – Kenny Greenberg Keyboards – Gary Primm Producer – Wendy Waldman Rhythm Guitar – Wendy Waldman (tracks: 9) Saxophone, Recorder – Jim Horn
Companies, etc. Phonographic Copyright (p) – Reunion Records Copyright (c) – Reunion Records Recorded At – Ten Thirty Studio, Nashville Mixed At – Georgetown Masters
This is a fun little EP by a band out of Hawaii and I think they may be the only CCM band I have heard of as being from Hawaii. Anyway it’s a self produced effort and it’s pretty good. Their pop sound is strong and aside from some weak lyrics on a few tracks I really think one of the labels should have picked them up for at least a one album deal. I really like Mariko Martinez’s keyboard work and for that reason alone it should have got a deal. Anyway, they didn’t and this is all we would get from them. So many good bands in the 80’s just never got the chance they deserved. Apparently the cassette version has 4 bonus live tracks but I have read that they are pretty poorly recorded so perhaps it’s best we don’t have that version. Give them a listen, you might be pleasantly surprised at this self produced effort.
Tracklist 1 – Red White And Blue – 4:44 2 – When The Lord Comes Back – 4:04 3 – Not Tough Enough – 4:08 4 – Life With The Lord – 5:04 5 – Power And Might – 3:12 6 – You’ve Got To Know – 5:56
Credits Bass, Vocals – Ronald P. Simmons Drums, Percussion – Bret Kik Keys Keyboards, Synthesizer, Vocals – Mariko Martinez Lead Guitar, Vocals – Robert Giverink Lead Vocals, Guitar – Doug Morris Lead Vocals, Guitar, Keyboards – Dave Chumchal Engineer, Producer – Randy Bluer
Companies, etc. Recorded At – Songwriters Dream Studios Manufactured By – Greenworld Distribution Marketed By – Greenworld Distribution
