This was In The Silence’s first album. They had released a single before this called “Reaching” that eventually appeared om the Star Song Records 1991 Brave New Music compilation album. This album was self released in 1987 and is really really well put together. Production is really good and the engineering is good too. I really haven’t found out much more about this band so I am going to refer you to Frank Axel Rasenberger’s review of the bands next album to learn a little more about the band.
As for this album it’s a little rawer than their subsequent work but has a great New Wave feel. The quality of musicianship is excellent and this is yet another band that should have had an album deal but they are from Australia and it was 1987. The industry was starting a transition that really abandoned many Australian artists unfortunately. So much great music to be heard and it was essentially hidden from us.
Tracklist 1 – Who Am I – 5:57 2 – Are You Satisfied – 3:13 3 – Draw Me Nearer – 4:51 4 – In My Life – 4:40 5 – I’m So in Love – 5:03 6 – The State of Your Heart – 4:58 7 – Why’d You Never Tell Me? – 4:23
Credits Bass – Angus McLeay Drums – Jacques Zeelie Lead Vocals – John Dickson Guitar, Backing Vocals – Ben Shaw Engineer, Mixed By, Produced by – Jeff Todd Produced by, Engineer – Bill Hurst
Companies, etc. Recorded at – Windwood Studios, Black Inc. Studios
Birthed in 1982 as a rock side project for many members of the Bill Gaither Vocal Band, White Heart went on to be one of the most influential and successful artists of the 80’s and 90’s. Early releases featured inspirational icon Steve Green on lead vocals followed by Scott Douglas (on albums two and three) who would later be convicted of sexual assault. This would have killed most bands, but hidden amongst the bands roadies was young aspiring vocalist named Rick Florian. Florian made his band debut on “Don’t Wait for the Movie” and took the band to a whole new level of success. The Toto pop and inspirational “safe” ballads that populated the first three albums was replaced with a more Journey, REO Speedwagon rock sound. It also marked an “escape” from Home Sweet Home records to Sparrow. Initially the album received some pretty strong negative reviews and reception. Over time the position softened and now the album is considered one of the most important rock releases of the era along side the better works of Petra, Servant and AD. Though not as critically admired as Freedom or Redemption. it remains one of the most successful and cherished albums in the bands career. It also marked the bands first overwhelming reception on Christian rock and CHR radio. Fly Eagle Fly and How Many Times became Christian radio staples well past the shelf life of the album.
Contributor David Lowman – https://legacyccmsgreatestalbums.wordpress.com
Tracklist
1 – Read The Book (Don’t Wait For The Movie) – 4:51
2 – Holy Ground – 4:42
3 – Beat Of A Different Drum – 4:17
4 – Fly Eagle Fly – 4:41
5 – Convertibles – 3:43
6 – Let The Children Play (Instrumental) – 1:32
7 – King George – 4:20
8 – No Apology – 4:22
9 – Maybe Today – 4:25
10 – Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Christian – 4:40
11 – How Many Times (Seventy Times Seven) – 4:27
Credits Art Direction – Buddy Jackson Artwork By [Hand Tinting] – Mike Drake Bass, Drum Programming [Linn Programming] – Gary Lunn Design [Lyric Sheet] – Jim Shanman Drums, Percussion – Chris McHugh Edited By – Billy Smiley, Ken Love Engineer – Brent King Engineer [Second] – David Pierce Guitar, Lead Guitar, Sitar, Vocals – Gordon Kennedy Keyboards, Vocals, Trombone – Mark Gersmehl Lead Vocals – Ric Florian Mastered By – Hank Williams Photography By – Mark Tucker Producer – Billy Smiley, White Heart Programmed By [Keyboard Programming] – Tommy Greer Vocals, Keyboards, Guitar, Trumpet – Billy Smiley
Companies, etc. Phonographic Copyright (p) – The Sparrow Corporation Recorded At – Center Stage Studio Overdubbed At – Center Stage Studio Mixed At – Mastermix Mastered At – Mastermix Published By – Word Music, Hall-Clement Publications, Yellow Jacket Music, Inc., Welk Music Group, Birdwing Music, Kid And The Squid Music, White Heart Publishing
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.
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
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 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.
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
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
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
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
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
