As near as I can find this was the last album from The Watchmen aka Abraham & The Watchmen Band, aka Abraham. Their last 2 albums are self released and in my humble opinion their best 2 albums. I simply don’t understand how a respected recorded band with a strong history couldn’t get these 2 albums released on a proper label. There’s probably more to the story but it is what it is. While I think I prefer “Anti-Sin” I really really like this one too. Unfortunately our copy of this album simply isn’t the best and I really wish I could get my hands on the original tracks so I could give it a modern professional remaster. Hint hint guys. As for the album it has a pop rock feel with some tracks leaning a little more synth oriented and some leaning more Rock oriented. All around this is a great album for 1987 and probably would have sold well.
Tracklist 1 – Choose To Refuse – 3:18 2 – Think About Me – 3:05 3 – Never Give Up – 4:55 4 – Fightin’ Against The Tide – 4:05 5 – Overture – 1:14 6 – Can’t Wait – 2:25 7 – I Am Not Ashamed – 3:49 8 – Freedom In Jesus – 3:52 9 – If You Could Only See My Heart – 3:39
Credits Bass Guitar, Vocals – Loren Greene Drums – Ken Abraham Lead Guitar – Pete Strayer Lead Vocals, Guitar – Skip Addington Producer – Dave Wagner, Stan Arthur, Tink Abraham Technician, Sound Designer – Eric Abraham Vocals, Keyboards – Tink Abraham Vocals, Percussion – John Abraham
I previously referred to this album as a sampler but it’s not really a traditional sampler. It is not a sampler of songs but instead a sampler of artists. Myrhh brought some of their best artists into Pakaderm Studios to record this album and almost all of these tracks are unreleased elsewhere even today. That makes this album a much listened to album from the day. The odd artist on the album is Tata Vega who was a secular artist but she did tons of work on several Christian albums of the period. This is a must listen to album of almost secret tracks from some of your favorite artists.
Tracklist
1 – Tata Vega – In Your Light – 3:50
2 – Bob Carlisle – Heaven Is Waiting – 4:29
3 – Bryan Duncan – Come As You Are – 4:32
4 – Matthew Ward – Light Of The World – 4:30
5 – Howard McCrary – In Your Presence – 4:23
6 – Kim Boyce, John Elefante – Helpless – 3:28
7 – Rick Riso – Heaven Must Have Sent You – 3:48
8 – Bob Carlisle – Teach Me How – 4:29
9 – Benny Hester – Then You Call My Name – 3:19
10 – Tommy Funderburk – Lift Up My Voice – 4:14
Credits Arranged By – John Schreiner Arranged By [Backing Vocals], Backing Vocals – Bob Carlisle Arranged By [Strings] – John Andrew Schreiner Art Direction, Design – Rhonda Jesson Bass – John Pierce, Michael Hodge Drum Programming, Overdubbed By – Mannie, Mike Mierau, Rick Thomson Drums – Rick Thomson Engineer [Assistant] – Mannie, Paul Abajan Guitar – Dino Elefante, Michael Hodge, Randy Thomas, Terrance Elliot Guitar [Solo] – Randy Thomas, Terrance Elliot Horns – The Martin Brothers Keyboards – James Raymond, John Andrew Schreiner, John Elefante, Tim Heintz Mastered By – Doug Sax Mixed By – Dino Elefante, Mike Mierau, Steve Ford Orchestrated By, Conductor – Bill Kilpatrick Producer – John Elefante, Mike Mierau, Rick Thomson Recorded By – Mike Mierau Saxophone – David Hlebo, Warren Ham Strings – Andrew Byers, Liane Mautner, Marilyn Hutz, Steve Seharf Synth [Bass] – John Andrew Schreiner
This is the one and only album using the TRB (Toni Rossi Band) moniker. After Daniel band Toni Rossi did a few projects and all of them were excellent. I’ve not heard anything from him I didn’t like and this album is no exception. While in a way it’s typical Toni on the other hand it is somewhat distinctive. I don’t really know who was involved in the project other than Frank Catrambone on drums. Frank was also involved with the obscure Canadian Christian band Ammi who had 2 singles neither of which I can find but I hear they are good. Anyway as I said, other than Frank I don’t know who was helping out with this project but they were pretty tight and the album meshed really really well. The album is the typical Rossi hard rock and is probably my favourite work from him outside of Daniel Band.
Tracklist 1 – Edge-U-Cate – 4:00 2 – Are You Listening – 3:34 3 – End Of Time – 3:42 4 – Love Survives – 4:27 5 – It’s Who You Know – 3:51 6 – Son Comes Down – 4:30 7 – The Answer – 4:05 8 – Take It – 4:27 9 – Chickens – 0:20 10 – Down By The River – 4:24 11 – Stay – 5:04
Credits Drums – Frank Catrambone Guitar, Mandolin, Lead Vocals, Backing Vocals, Producer, Composed By – Toni Rossi
This was the first album from Swedish Metal band Leviticus. It was originally released in Sweden in Swedish in 1983. The band redid the album in English for a European and North American Release. Leviticus played the Greenbelt festival in England in 1984, and 1985 in support of this album. This album has a bit of a symphonic feel that disappeared in the bands later releases. The engineering on this album was not the best in my opinion as it appeared the producer/engineer were going for the “wall of sound” feel which never works well on a Metal album again in my opinion. The album was re-released in 2000 on CD with bonus material.
Tracklist
1 – I Shall Conquer
2 – Let Me Fight
3 – He’s My Life
4 – Doubt
5 – Action More Than Words
6 – All Is Calm
7 – Day By Day
8 – Strive Forwards
9 – Psalm 23
Credits
Bass – Håkan Andersson
Drums – Kjell Andersson
Guitar – Björn Stigsson
Lead Vocals – Håkan Andersson
Percussion – Kjell Andersson
Vocals – Björn Stigsson
Leviticus formed in 1981 when cousins Kjell and Håkan Andersson grouped up with Bjorn Stigsson. I really can’t find much information on their early years but they ended up releasing the Swedish version of this album in 1983. The band headed back into the studio to record the English version a little later. While the Swedish version wasn’t released outside of Sweden the English version was picked up by Refuge records and released in the U.S. on their Shadow Records label. I believe the English of the version of the album used the original music tracks with just new vocals. Leviticus played the Greenbelt festival in England in 1984, and 1985 in support of this album. This album has a bit of a symphonic feel that disappeared in the bands later releases. The engineering on this album was not the best in my opinion as it appeared the producer/engineer were going for the “wall of sound” feel which never works well on a Metal album again in my opinion. At the time of this album I was a huge fan of Jerusalem so I’m thinking I would probably been a huge fan of these guys but this album was never released in Canada. Luckily however both Swedish and English versions of this album have had several re-releases over the years.
Tracklist 1 – Jag Skall Segra – 4:12 2 – Låt Mig Strida – 3:17 3 – Han Är Livet – 4:08 4 – Tvivel – 4:18 5 – Handling Mer Än Ord – 4:06 6 – Allt Är Lugnt – 5:28 7 – Dag För Dag – 5:57 8 – Sträva Framåt – 3:38 9 – Ps. 23 – 4:17
Credits Artwork [Front Cover Art By] – Inge Vidare Drums, Percussion, Vocals – Kjell Andersson Guitar [All Guitars], Synthesizer, Pedalboard [Bass Pedal], Organ, Vocals – Björn Stigsson Lead Vocals, Bass, Pedalboard [Bass Pedal], Synthesizer – Håkan Andersson Photography By [Foto] – Lars Lindgren Producer [Produced By], Mixed By – Leviticus Recorded By – Bernard Löhr Songwriter [All Songs By] – Björn Stigsson
This is John’s first album and I’ll admit I had no idea he went this far back. His Dark Horse album is a personal favorite and I thought he was a late 70’s/80’s artist. I had no idea he was actually a late 60’s artist. In fact this album came our before Larry Norman’s MGM release of Upon This Rock. John was born in Pasadena, California and attended Wheaton College in Wheaton, Illinois. John had been writing and performing music while in College and somehow got noticed by Catholic music label F.E.L. Records. John started recording the album right after graduation and it was released in Oct 1969. The producer and musicians on this album were all from the Old Towne School of Folk Music in Chicago. The album is a perfect bridge from the 60’s style of music to the Jesus Music of the 70’s. The title track is a fantastic track and you should definitely listen to it if you enjoy music form this era. To sum up this album was a pleasant surprise for me and I found it a perfect representation of CCM music of the period.
Tracklist 1 – The Cold Cathedral – 2:55 2 – The Road Of Life – 3:05 3 – See The Lilies – 3:08 4 – Born To Die – 2:25 5 – Open Up! – 2:07 6 – Got To Shout About It – 2:30 7 – Allelula! – 2:50 8 – Death In The City – 2:52 9 – Look All Around You – 2:25 10 – Hard Feeling To Explain – 2:20 11 – No Vacancy – 2:43 12 – The Lord’s Prayer – 2:32
Credits A&R – James E. Schaefer Arranged By – Al Porth, Ray Tate Design [Album] – Mark Burnett Engineer – Al Handler Illustration [Album] – George Lawlor Liner Notes [Jacket Notes] – Robert Hughes Mitchell Producer [Music Production] – Ray Tate Written-By – John Fischer
I am willing to guess that almost all fans of 80’s CCM have heard Lisa. We may not have known her name until this introductory album but her vocals were all over the industry. I’m not going to even bother with a list but she sang backup for a lot of our favourite 80’s artists. For those of you who liked the Prism albums she made an appearance on Blue and Red. Anyway this album started out her solo career but yet I don’t find many people talking about this album. I see more discussion of her later albums but quite frankly I think this is a great album. With Brown Bannister pulling the purse strings and Chris Harris and Mark Heimermann producing it I knew this would be a great album. Now I readily admit this album isn’t exactly my style but I always enjoy a great album and this album falls in that category. It has a fun 90’s hip hop pop feel and also has a great music video for the single “Chaperone”. That video also features DC Talk’s Toby Mac and was nominated Video of the Year at the 1993 Dove Awards. Regarding the “single” it seems like originally the single was “Place In The Sun” but they decided to cut a video for “Chaperone”. Now singles aside the album did produce 2 top 10 songs on the CCM charts. “My Freedom” made it to #4 and “Alone In Love” made it to #9. The album also did very well on Christian radio and I read somewhere that both “My Freedom” and “Place in the Sun” made it to #1. Hopefully Jay Whitehurst will chime in and confirm that. Anyway give the album a listen if you missed it back in the day especially if hip hop dance stuff is what you like.
Tracklist 1 – Chaperone – 4:43 2 – It’s Gonna Worth It – 3:47 3 – Falling Off The Face Of The Earth – 4:32 4 – Love Oughta Be – 3:56 5 – My Freedom – 4:31 6 – Place In The Sun – 4:02 7 – Second Chance – 4:41 8 – Alone In Love – 4:28 9 – I Took A Tumble – 3:32 10 – Shirley (Keep It To Yourself) – 5:31
Credits Lisa Bevill – Songwriter, Vocals Carolyn Arends – Songwriter Paula Carpenter – Songwriter John Catchings – Strings George Cocchini – Guitars David Davidson – Strings Mark Douthit – Sax Julius Drummin – Songwriter, Drums Chris Eaton – Vocals Mark Hammond – Drums Chris Harris – Producer, Songwriter, Vocals Mike Haynes – Brass Mark Heimermann – Producer, Songwriter, Keyboards, Drums, Vocals Joe Hogue – Drums, Vocals Wayne Kirkpatrick – Songwriter Sam Levine – Sax Gary Lunn – Bass, Drums Chris McDonald – Brass Toby McKeehan – Songwriter, Vocals Jerry McPherson – Guitars Tommy Sims – Songwriter, Keyboards, Bass, Drums Pam Sixfin – Strings Jackie Street – Bass Kristen Wilkinson – Strings
This is one of those odd situations when a band actually put out a demo after they had already released a successful album. Maybe the album wasn’t as successful as I think it was but anyway Reunion Records didn’t sign them for a follow up so the band got together and released a demo themselves. Personally I loved their album Things Break but I wasn’t aware of this album. Because of this I was pretty excited to hear it and I wasn’t disappointed. While it follows in the footsteps of their first album it definitely had an updated more 90’s sound. I don’t understand how this album didn’t get picked up by a label. It’s got excellent production and the band had already paid for the production so this was a freebie for some label. Anyway it wasn’t so many of you probably never heard but it’s a great listen with an updated 90’s feel that you should hear.
Tracklist 1 – Terry And The Pirates – 3:53 2 – Woman – 3:39 3 – A Silent Dove In A Distant Land – 4:53 4 – You And Me – 3:02 5 – Let It Thrive – 3:19 6 – Too Much Of A Good Thing – 4:38 7 – Found My Way Again – 4:56
Continuing on my quest for the “first” here is another very early Christian rock album. I knew nothing of this album until a few months ago when it came across my desk and I’ll admit the cover didn’t make me rush to listen to it. You think I would know at this point that album covers mean nothing. This is without a doubt one of the best Christian rock albums I have ever heard. The band were led by keyboard player Joy Webb and got their start when they were featured on the BBC Tonight television show. The band mainly consisted of Salvation Army singers from the William Booth Memorial Training College, Denmark Hill in London. After appearing on TV they got a record deal and released a couple singles with great success. “It’s An Open Secret” made it to #32 and “A Starry Night” made it to #34 on the British charts. This is their first of 2 full length album and it’s a rather oddly structured album with Side A being all original tunes and Side B being Christmas carols. The album has 16 tracks which was great value for money at the time, something that would disappear until CD’s many years later. The album was picked up by Epic Records for U.S. release in 1967 but alas the album didn’t do as well in the U.S. If for no other reason you listen to this album you HAVE to listen to their rendition of “O Little Town Of Bethlehem” set to the music of The House of the Rising Sun. It is without a doubt one of the greatest moments of Christian music that no one ever heard.
Tracklist 1 – Keep Me In Your Love – 2:36 2 – He Is Near – 2:46 3 – No Time To Lose – 2:43 4 – Where Will It End – 2:24 5 – Long Lost Cause – 3:01 6 – Friend For You – 2:32 7 – There Will Be God – 3:00 8 – Love That’s All Around – 2:31 9 – We Three Kings Of Orient Are – 2:28 10 – Silent Night, Holy Night – 2:31 11 – The Little King Jesus – 2:42 12 – O Little Town Of Bethlehem – 3:31 13 – Away In A Manger – 2:27 14 – Mary’s Boy Child – 2:37 15 – Do You Hear What I Hear? – 3:23 16 – The Holly And The Ivy – 1:31
Credits Joy Webb – guitar, keyboards, vocals Peter Dalziel – guitar, bass, vocals Bill Davidson – guitar Wycliffe Noble – drums Sylvia Gair – tambourine, vocals
Companies, etc. Manufactured By – Epic Records Manufactured By – CBS Inc. Pressed By – Columbia Records Pressing Plant, Pitman
Possibly no album or album title personifies it’s creator quite like Keith Green’s, “No Compromise.” A trite slogan in the hands of many artists this phrase is the ultimate adjective qualifier for the man. As uncomfortable his words and music may have been for many, it was never a feeling that he was pointing a finger without also pointing it at himself. But this is a review of great albums, not great men or personalities. And given the latter, the album is simply fantastic! Like the predecessor, For Him Who Has Ears To hear, No Compromise combines Elton John type funky piano driven tunes and soaring and emotional ballads. Lyrically things are similar as well with a combination of rebuking and exhortive, prophetic declarations mixed with repentant and confessional compositions. There’s even another song about the Devil! It may be simply perception, but No Compromise seems more serious and “mellower” than many other albums from Green, especially in comparison to FHWHETH. Perhaps it just related to the fact that the most popular and memorable songs from the album are the ballads. Make My Life a Prayer, How Can They Live Without Jesus, Asleep in the Light, My Eyes Are Dry and To Obey Is Better than sacrifice all remain classics in the truest sense of the word. Asleep in the Light may go down as the most convicting song in CCM history with the line “Jesus raised from the dead…and you can’t even get out of bed!” Ouch! Two years before the release of No Compromise Tommy James (Shondells) would record “Don’t Wanna Fall Away From You” on a solo project. For years after its release the songs No Compromise contained would haunt, exhort and uplift millions.
Contributor David Lowman – https://legacyccmsgreatestalbums.wordpress.com
Tracklist 1 – Soften Your Heart – 2:48 2 – Make My Life A Prayer To You – 3:21 3 – Dear John Letter (To The Devil) – 3:20 4 – How Can They Live Without Jesus? – 3:03 5 – Asleep In The Light – 4:25 6 – My Eyes Are Dry – 1:57 7 – You! – 3:33 8 – I Don’t Wanna Fall Away From You – 3:07 9 – Stained Glass – 2:45 10 – To Obey Is Better Than Sacrifice – 3:17 11 – The Victor – 4:20 12 – Altar Call – 3:34
Credits Acoustic Guitar – Al Perkins, Hadley Hockensmith, Jay Leach, Mike Deasy Arranged By [Strings] – Lennart Sjöholm Backing Vocals – Danniebelle Hall, James Felix, Keith Green, Matthew Ward Choir – Annie Herring, Chris Beatty, Jamie Owens-Collins, Keith Green, Matthew Ward, Melody Green, Nelly Greisen, Steve Greisen, Tommy Funderburk Congas – Lee Pastora Electric Guitar – Hadley Hockensmith, Mike Deasy Guitar – Hadley Hockensmith, Mike Deasy Marimba – Mark Z. Stevens Organ – Harlan Rogers Piano [Fender Rhodes] – Harlan Rogers, Keith Green Producer – Bill Maxwell, Keith Green Recorded By – Peter Granet Steel Guitar – Al Perkins Tambourine – Bill Maxwell Triangle – Lee Pastora
