Category: Albums

Margaret Becker – Never For Nothing – 1987

This is the introductory album from Margaret Becker.

While usually classified as easy listening I think it’s one notch closer to Rock & Roll though you won’t hear any screaming guitars. I do detect a Patty Smyth and Scandal sound but with less lead guitar riffs.

Track Listing:
1 – Fight For God – 4:02
2 – Standing On Top Of The World – 3:31
3 – Never For Nothing – 3:43
4 – Break The Silence – 3:32
5 – Sacred Fire – 4:32
6 – Love Was Waiting – 3:27
7 – What You Feel – 3:42
8 – Make It Right – 5:19
9 – Giants Will Fall – 4:09
10 – For The Love Of You – 4:24

Credits:
Art Direction – Barbara Catanzaro-Hearn
Design – Stan Evenson Design*
Engineer – Brent King, Doug Sarrett, Jeff Balding, Joe Bellamy, Mike Psanos
Executive-Producer – Peter York
Mastered By – Steve Hall
Mixed By – David Schober
Photography By – Steven A. Heller
Producer – Billy Smiley

Level Heads – (self titled) – 1986

Level Head was a new wave band out of Sarnia Ontario Canada.

This was their self titled introductory EP that appears to only have been released in Canada. Very heavy New Wave influence on this album makes it a favourite of mine.

The music has a strong Depeche Mode feel while I can’t actually nail down a comparative vocalist. The bottom line is that the album has a very strong Synth sound and yes the track Wo Wo Wo is supposed to end that way.

Track Listing:
1 – Excuses (Really?) – 3:12
2 – Behold – 2:41
3 – How Long? – 7:23
4 – Wo Wo Wo – 3:17
5 – The Fighter – 3:10
6 – Tell Me What You See – 2:25

Credits:
Bass – Craig Gillings
Cover – Sue Houden
Drums – Todd Gillings
Engineer – John Press (2)
Guitar – Jim Chevalier
Keyboards – Scott Douglas
Marimba – Scott Douglas
Performer [Level Heads Is] – Craig Gillings, Jim Chevalier, Scott Douglas, Todd Gillings
Producer – Gamiel Shabawda, Level Heads
Vocals – Craig Gillings, Jim Chevalier

Larry Norman – bARCHAEOLOGY / Labor of Love – 1984

The songs on Labor of Love are a refreshingly different sound to hear from Larry Norman. They are far less brooding, and much less singer-songwriter or blues artist approach to songs. The reason? These songs are written by Tom Howard.

Labor of Love is one of 3 records included in the bARCHAEOLOGY boxed set released in 1984. Labor, and Letter of the Law, another of the 3 records in the set are comprised mainly of songs written by Tom Howard. There was also an album released called Quiet Night, under the name “Larry Norman & The Young Lions” although there is no evidence that the Young Lions were anyone other than Larry and his brother Charly. Actually that’s a pretty credible theory.

Larry was promoting Tom Howard on the Solid Rock label, and produced one album for him. Apparently at one point Larry decided that if he recorded some of Tom’s songs, they would be easier to promote, and it would result in better album sales for Tom.

There isn’t any evidence that this was a big boost for Tom Howard’s career, but he did have a few albums out on his own, including the one on Solid Rock Records.

There are a couple of “L’Etudes” tracks here, which are the only pieces written by Larry on this record. They serve as interludes between some of the songs.

Track Listing:
1 – Where His Love Touches Down
2 – Let The Master Make It Right
3 – Stairway L’Etudes
4 – Farther On
5 – Come On In
6 – Piano L’Etudes
7 – Mansion On The Sand
8 – Twilight L’Etudes
9 – Higher Calling
10 – Jesus Is The Song
11 – Drum L’Etudes
12 – One More Reason

Daniel Band – Run From The Darkness – 1984

Great rock’n’roll out of Canada! This is Daniel Band’s third album and by this time they had everything going. They had the sound, they had the energy, and they had the clear response to all those 666 t-shirts the rock fans in the 80s were wearing.

The 1980s high school uniform for a while was one of those baseball style 3/4 sleeve shirts done in black and white with an upside down cross, a bat, some blood, and a 666 on it.

Daniel Band took that 666 and drew a circle around it and put a line through it. They found a way to embrace the genre without embracing the wrong message and it really took for them.

Track Listing:
1 – Don’t Give Up – 3:51
2 – Run From Darkness – 4:41
3 – Walk On The Water – 3:38
4 – Never Gonna Die – 3:42
5 – Sixteen – 3:07
6 – Live Connection – 2:50
7 – Let’s Get Ready – 4:19
8 – Walls – 3:52
9 – It’s Over – 4:15

Credits:
Drums, Percussion – Matt DelDuca
Lead Guitar, Rhythm Guitar, Lead Vocals – Tony Rossi
Lead Vocals, Bass Guitar, Keyboards – Dan McCabe
Mastered By – George Graves
Mixed By, Recorded By – Mark Wright (3)
Rhythm Guitar – Bill Findlay

Resurrection Band – Awaiting Your Reply – 1978

Awaiting Your Reply was the first commercial release of Resurrection Band.

The hard rock, blues sound would become the signature sound for Resurrection band. The album was controversial for its time and was often sold from under the counter.

Word of mouth, however made the album very popular and paved the way for future releases to be on the racks instead of being hidden.

Trivia point for the album is that it was recorded on a budget of $8000, a tiny amount given the quality of the recording.

Track Listing:
1 – Waves
2 – Awaiting Your Reply
3 – Broken Promises
4 – Golden Road
5 – Lightshine
6 – Ananias & Sapphire
7 – The Death Of The Dying
8 – Irish Garden
9 – The Return

Credits:
Bass – Jim Denton
Drums – John Herrin
Harmonica – Tom Cameron
Lead Guitar, Piano, Synthesizer – Stu Heiss
Percussion – Roger Heiss
Saxophone, Flute – Kenny Soderblom*
Vocals – Wendi Kaiser
Vocals, Rhythm Guitar, Dulcimer – Glenn Kaiser

The Lifters – What Love’s All About – 1985

The Lifters return after their successful EP release.

This regular length album is more of the same Rockabilly sound. There was one track carry over from the EP “Eternity Bop” which is very slightly altered. If you had to pick a “single” that would be it, but personally I suggest “C’mon Back” Bottom line is that this is a fun sounding album that should keep your toes tapping.

Track Listing:
1 – Be Like You – 2:10
2 – Operator – 2:45
3 – Scream and Shout – 2:41
4 – I’m Goin’ to Heaven – 3:01
5 – Front Slidder – 1:49
6 – No Middle Ground – 3:13
7 – What Love’s All About – 2:24
8 – Do What I Do – 2:48
9 – Eternity Bop – 2:21
10 – C’mon Back – 3:13
11 – My Love For You Will Stay – 4:04

Credits:
Albert Berry – Background Vocal
Chris Brigandi – Producer, Songwriter, Guitars, Lead Vocals
Lucky Chuck – Background Vocals
Derri Daugherty – Engineered, Mixed
Stan Endicott – Over Dub Production
Rex Harvey – Songwriter, Guitars, Background Vocals
Dave Kaplowitz – Sax
Kass – Bass, Background Vocals
Mark Kirschak – Songwriter
Joey Mitchell – Drums, Background Vocals
Kathy Perry – Background Vocals
Brian Ray – Drums
Joanne Saundenberg – Background Vocals
Marnie Saundenberg – Duet Vocal, Background Vocal
William Spivery – Songwriter
Adrian Tapia – Sax, Clarinet
Joe Van Gilder – Piano

Larry Norman – Something New Under the Son – 1981

This album is probably Larry’s best straight out Rock and Roll album.

Recorded in 1977 it didn’t get released until 1981 due in part to difficulty with Word Records. In fact Word censored “Watch What You’re Doing”. Given these difficulties, this album was the end of Larry’s distribution agreement with Word Records. It was also his last release on Solid Rock Records, which was actually shut down before this album was released.

As a teen I remember loving “Watch What You’re Doing” though now I can enjoy all of the album with more years of life experience under my belt.

Track Listing:
1 – Hard Luck Bad News
2 – Feeling So Bad
3 – I Feel Like Dying
4 – Born To Be Unlucky
5 – Watch What You’re Doing
6 – Leaving The Past Behind
7 – Put Your Life In His Hands
8 – Larry Norman’s 97th Nightmare
9 – Let That Tape Keep Rolling (C:12/L:6)

Credits:
Bass – Billy (Shazam) Batstone*, Dave Coy, Tim Jaquette
Drums – Alex MacDougall, Peter Johnson (3)
Guitar, Slide Guitar – Jon Linn
Producer, Arranged By, Written-By – Larry Norman
Vocals, Guitar, Drums, Bass, Piano, Harmonica, Saxophone, Harmony Vocals, Photography By, Artwork – L.N.*

Steve Camp – One on One – 1986

This 4th offering from Steve Camp was more of the same.

This album has a distinctly 80’s sound and is slightly more up tempo than previous ones. If I had to pick one track to listen to it would be “Foolish Things”.

Tracklist
1 – Foolish Things
2 – Other Side Of The World
3 – Judgement Begins With The House Of God
4 – One On One
5 – He Covers Me
6 – Cheap Grace
7 – Mr. Brokenhearted
8 – Threshing Floor
9 – He’s All You Need

Credits
Backing Vocals – Bill Champlin, Bob Carlisle (2), Jason Scheff, Steve Lively, Tamara Champlin, Tommy Funderburk
Bass – Lee Sklar*
Drums – Jeff Porcaro
Engineer [Additional] – Dan Garcia, David Schober, Mike Ross*, Peter Hayden
Engineer [Rhythm Tracks] – Dennis Mackay
English Horn – Jon Clarke
Keyboards – Smitty Price
Mixed By – Bill Schnee
Percussion – Dan Greco*
Producer, Arranged By, Drum Programming [SP-12 Drum Machine Programming] – Steve Camp
Producer, Arranged By, Orchestrated By – John Rosasco
Rhythm Guitar – Michael Landau
Rhythm Guitar, Lead Guitar – Dann Huff
Vocals [Female Vocal, Duet] – Margaret Becker (tracks: A4)

Steve Taylor – Meltdown – 1984

This album was a followup to Steve Taylor’s EP “I Want to Be a Clone”. It is slightly more refined, but for the main part it followed the new wave sound of the previous EP.

The album features some strong “political” messages, something Steve Taylor was well known for. The album did well commercially, reaching the No. 10 spot on Billboard’s Top Contemporary Christian chart and No. 18 in the 2001 book CCM Presents: The 100 Greatest Albums in Christian Music.

The single was “Meltdown” though I preferred “Am I in Sync?”

Track Listing:
1 – Meltdown (At Madame Tussaud’s) – 4:26
2 – We Don’t Need No Colour Code – 2:43
3 – Am I In Sync? – 4:32
4 – Meat The Press – 3:48
5 – Over My Dead Body – 5:21
6 – Sin For A Season – 4:14
7 – Guilty By Association – 3:21
8 – Hero – 3:40
9 – Jenny – 4:04
10 – Baby Doe – 3:51

Credits:
Arranged By – Steve Taylor
Bass – Chris Richards
Cover – The Graphics Studio
Cover [Coordination] – B. Charlyne Hinesley
Drums – Cactus Moser
Engineer – Jonathan David Brown
Guitar – Kerry Conner
Keyboards – Woody Waddell
Management – Rob Marshall
Photography By – Greg Wigler
Producer – Jonathan David Brown
Saxophone – Dave Thrush
Vocals, Other [Anything Else That Requires No Talent] – Steve Taylor
Written-By – Steve Taylor

Gentle Faith – (self titled) – 1976

Gentle Faith was Darrell Mansfield’s first band and they released their only album in 1976.

This album varies greatly in style as there are some light rock 70’s style tunes, a few bluegrass songs, and one good solid rock song. Most of the other band members from Gentle Faith worked with Darrell in future projects.

While this album is all over the place it should be listened to for the sake of hearing where Darrell came from.

Tracklist
1 – Simple Song
2 – Living In The Sonshine
3 – The Whole Lump Of Dough
4 – It’s So Good To Know
5 – Jerusalem
6 – Noah
7 – My Love For You
8 – Goin’ Back Home
9 – Turnaround
10 – Home

Credits
Acoustic Guitar, Banjo, Mandolin, Vocals – Don Gerber
Art Direction – Neal Buchanan
Artwork [Embroidery] – Nona Cutrona
Backing Vocals – Virgil Beckham
Bass, Lead Vocals, Acoustic Guitar – Henry Cutrona
Co-producer [Production Assistance] – Al Perkins
Drums, Percussion – Paul Angers
Electric Guitar, Bass, Mandolin, Vocals – Steve Kara
Engineer, Mixed By – Jonathan Brown*
Fiddle – Fred Field
Keyboards, Saxophone – Dave Garland*
Lead Vocals, Harmonica – Darrell Mansfield
Photography By – George Fortner, Scott Lockwood
Producer – Virgil Beckham
Resonator Guitar [Dobro] – Leroy McNee*
Strings – Dave Garland* (tracks: B5), Jim Stipech (tracks: A1)