Most of us know of Ken from Eternity Express but there’s much more to the story. In 1957 Ken and his family hit the road as a travelling tent ministry. When Ken would appear in a town his revival meetings would feature the Ken Gaub Family Singers but in the afternoons Eternity Express would hit the high schools at lunch and play their brand of Christian rock. This album however is a few moments of his ministry preaching. It is very strong on the humour and shows us that Ken had a great ministry voice. Unfortunately Ken passed away in 2023 so thankfully were left with this album so we can listen to his speaking talent. This album was released on a Canadian label so many of you may not have heard it before.
There is very little info on this album out there but I have put together a few things. The band included husband and wife team John & Sue Ritter. They went on to record another album in 1994 that included a couple tracks from this album. Unfortunately it is even more obscure than this album. Sue was a prolific writer in the 80’s and 90’s having written several Christian books. As for the album it’s kind of a mix of styles including some Ska and some new wave. I hear a lot of talent here and I wish they would have recorded another album which this lineup. The album was produced by Mark Williamson (Mark Williamson Band/Lyrix) but this was relatively early in his career and I don’t think he was a strong producer at this point. Maybe a more experienced producer could have lead this band to a more consistent album. That aside I actually really like this album for some reason. I definitely hear some things I like here.
Tracklist 1 – Laugh – 2:33 2 – Someone’s Hero – 3:41 3 – Face To Face – 3:01 4 – One Way Love – 3:47 5 – Bad Boy At School – 3:24 6 – Second Time Around – 3:10 7 – Shadows Falling – 3:13 8 – Rebel – 3:03 9 – The Moon Shines Red – 3:50 10 – Movin’ On – 2:17
Credits John Ritter = Lead Vocals, Guitar, Writter Sue Ritter = Lead Vocals, Keyboard, Writter Andy Clark = Guitar, Vocals. Paul Raper = Bass, Vocals. Jo Stephens = Drums, Vocals. Mark Williamson – Produce, Engineer Vladimir Vanazzawith & Max Waxahotti – Mix Wesley Mahan & Quest Graphics – Album Art
Companies, etc. All songs published through Thankyou Music. Kingsway Music record company
This is the second album from Billy. It is a little more pop oriented than his first album and while not as successful it is a better album. While it had 2 CCM charting singles Out Of The Blue only made it to #31 but A Heart Like Mine made it to #3. Strangely the two tracks are almost identical and I really question what Billy was thinking as he is a fantastic song writer. Did he not hear how close these 2 songs are? Anyway those aren’t the best tracks on the album anyway, just the 2 that CCM charts liked and really they had no idea about music. Most of the rest of the album is good quality Pop songs but my favourite track is Invisible Hand in which I can almost hear David Edwards, such a great song.
Tracklist 1 – Rock the Planet – 3:30 2 – Love Has No Eyes – 4:38 3 – YMISIM – 4:51 4 – A Heart Like Mine – 3:44 5 – Invisible Hand – 4:13 6 – Phantom Living – 4:36 7 – Out of the Blue – 3:47 8 – Centered on You – 4:07 9 – Better Days – 4:52
The story of Fred Rerun Berry is actually quite interesting. Born Fred Allen Berry Fred actually officially changed his name to Fred Rerun Berry. This is because he was well known for his appearance as a supporting cast member on the TV show “What’s Happening!!”. He actually had a career before the show having appeared on both Saturday Night Live and Soul Train as a dancer with the Los Angeles–based dance troupe The Lockers. Unfortunately Fred struggled with alcohol and drug addiction throughout the late 80’s but in 1991 had an awakening and embraced Christianity in fact becoming a Baptist minister. He took time the same year to actually record an album. The album is a great Soul Pop album and I was actually quite surprised how good it was considering Fred wasn’t previously known as a singer. Unfortunately Fred passed away in 2003 and this was the only album we ever got from him. Interesting piece of trivia form the album is that Rex Carroll (Whitecross) played guitar on the album. Certainly a departure from his usually hard rock sound. I fully suggest giving this one a listen, it’s a nice piece of little known CCM history.
Tracklist 1 – Surrender – 3:42 2 – The Lord Is My Rock – 3:38 3 – Always On Time – 3:12 4 – Pray On It – 4:57 5 – Let God Save The City – 5:49 6 – I’ve Got The Victory – 3:03 7 – Lay Your Hands On Me Lord – 3:55 8 – Stop This World – 2:41 9 – Tough Love – 4:06 10 – Forever – 4:58 11 – Always On Time (Reprise) – 0:48
Credits Arranged By [Horn] – Dave Kneupper Arranged By [Percussion] – Dave Kneupper Drum Programming [Additional] – John Miceli Drums, Drum Programming, Guitar, Backing Vocals – Tony Miceli Executive-Producer – Kevin J. Wessner, Rick Brockner Guitar – Rex Carroll Lead Vocals – Fred Rerun Berry* Mixed By – John Miceli, Tony Miceli Producer – Tony Miceli Programmed By [Synclavier] – Dave Kneupper, John Miceli, Tony Miceli Saxophone, Flute – John Amato
Companies, etc. Distributed By – Spectra, Inc. Distributed By – Christian Marketing Canada, Ltd. Made By – U.S. Optical Disc Recorded At – Starke Lake Studios
After the split of Barren Cross in 1994 Mike Lee got together with Kai Reiss. I can’t find any work by Kai before this project but I suspect he was involved in the technical side of the industry at the time. On the CD cover bass and drums were credited to fake names with images of a dog. The album has several dog references both in the artwork and in the music. It doesn’t really come off that good but I have always hated albums with gimmicks. The album sound has a hard rock 90’s feel without getting to close to grunge (thank god) and Mike’s vocals are on full display. He really is a great vocalist. Anyway this would be a one off project which is too bad because it’s pretty good and I would have liked to have heard more.
Tracklist 1 – Ugly – 4:21 2 – Wanna-maker – 3:04 3 – I Got My Head Stuck In The Cupboard – 3:37 4 – Row Your Boat – 4:03 5 – Fleas Of A Thousand Camels – 3:06 6 – To Die For – 3:42 7 – Turn Back Time – 4:23 8 – Home On The Rage – 3:28 9 – Slow Melt – 5:15 10 – Icebone – 4:40 11 – Andre’s Song – 5:20 12 – Wingless Plane – 2:47 13 – Untitled Bonus Track – 2:13
Credits Electric Guitar, Acoustic Guitar, Drums, Bass, Keyboards – Kai Reiss Lead Vocals, Acoustic Guitar – Mike Lee Bass [Additional] – Mark Williams Design Concept [Cover Concept] – Mike Lee Engineer [Assistant] – David Reiss, Jason S. Schusster*, Mike Lee Graphics, Design – T Vasabhuti Illustration – Carolyn Kunkel Mastered By – Doug Doyle Photography By – Darleen Dils Producer [Produced By], Engineer [Engineered By] – Kai Reiss
To say this album was not well received would be an understatement. Guardian had garnered a strong following of their Metal/Hard Rock sound. I really don’t understand what either the band or the Elefante brothers were thinking. I feel sorry for their fans thinking they were buying a hard rock album and they got this instead. Now it should be said the band were successful with this sound and had many more albums with what I assume were new fans of the band. Personally I don’t mind when a band evolves but in this case they changed not evolved. As for the album it’s actually pretty good as the band avoided the grunge sound that was becoming popular but instead went with a pop sound. As I was never a fan of either of the bands styles I can enjoy both sounds equally but wow, it really was a slap in the face to their hard rock roots.
Tracklist 1 – The Way Home Back – 4:31 2 – Endless Summer – 4:32 3 – C’mon Everyone – 4:48 4 – Like The Sun – 5:19 5 – Rich Man Over The Line – 4:03 6 – Your Love – 4:47 7 – Don’t Say That It’s Over – 4:47 8 – See You In Heaven – 4:39 9 – Let The Whole World – 5:02 10 – Preacher And The Bear – 3:15 11 – Still On My Mind – 3:45 12 – Why Don’t We – 1:28
Credits A&R – Mark Maxwell Arranged By, Directed By – Tom Howard Art Direction, Design – Diana Barnes Band [Guardian Is], Bass, Vocals – David Bach Band [Guardian Is], Drums, Vocals – Karl Ney Band [Guardian Is], Guitar, Vocals – Tony Palacios Band [Guardian Is], Lead Vocals – Jamie Rowe Bass [Additional], Guitar [Additional Nashville Guitar] – J.R. McNeely Clarinet – Matt Davich Design – David Bach Drums [Additional] – Jon Knox Drums [Additional], Mellotron, Keyboards [Assorted Digital Claviers] – John Elefante Engineer, Mixed By – J.R. McNeely Management – Marc Whitmore Mastered By – Ken Love Photography By – Michael Wilson Piano – Michael W. Smith Producer – Dino Elefante, John Elefante Strings – The Nashville String Machine Trombone – Bill Huber Trumpet – David Balph
History as a rule is not kind to 80’s CCM bands. Not that history remembers them poorly, instead history just doesn’t remember them at all and Idea is a great example of this. If you search for info on them almost all the information comes from the band themselves. History shows one album, one EP, and a few singles released in the 80’s. What history has forgotten about Idea is that toured Australia extensively and opened for the biggest CCM names and the band was very well known by Australian Christian music listeners. As for the album history does remember that the band did get backing to cut 2 tracks in the studio, “Turn Up The Tapes”, and “Eve Of Destruction”. Strangely they didn’t put “Turn Up The Tapes” on the album which kind of confuses me but hey it’s their album. “Eve of Destruction” did make it onto the album and is a pretty darn good cover. The rest of the album was, and I’m quoting the band here “so we hired an extra mixer desk, plenty of FX modules, some good fold-back speakers and with our normal onstage gear, we set them all up in Darryl and Lyn’s lounge room rental house in Menai and recorded live in one take onto a Revox stereo 1/4” tape machine”. Well they did a pretty good job because it sounds great. Note that the cassette release got a bonus track “Ambushed”. Anyway I think history should be kinder to Idea but unfortunately this is an industry where these great 80’s artists have just been forgotten about. Give this one a listen you won’t be disappointed and quite frankly we should have all heard this one in 1985 but for some reason us in America just weren’t allowed to.
Tracklist 1 – Lucky One – 3:24 2 – Voice Crying In The Wilderness – 3:32 3 – Now That We Found Out – 3:12 4 – Daring – 3:07 5 – Light The Light – 3:54 6 – As The World Turns – 5:44 7 – Eve Of Destruction – 3:56 8 – Ambushed – 3:28
Credits Design – Brian Livingston Clark Guitar, Synthesizer, Vocals – Darryl Thompson Keyboards, Vocals – Billy Nielson Percussion, Vocals – Steve Lyne Photography By – Richard Peake Vocals – Rod Boucher
In 1993 Mike Lee put out this acoustic album. I want to straight up say that I think Mike is a fantastic vocalist unfortunately this album just doesn’t seem to work. The album was self produced so maybe this is the stumbling block. It doesn’t sound like Mike had the skill set to release an acoustic album all on his own. Acoustic albums are harder to put together than most artists think. That said Mike’s vocals are good but the guitar playing suffers a little bit. Strangely this album was initially released using the name Mike Lee on cassette. When a CD veriso0n was released later the same year he called himself Michael D.R.I.V.E. I’m not really too sure why this was done but Michael D.R.I.V.E. is a great stage name.
Tracklist 1 – True Love – 3:42 2 – Time For Love – 4:14 3 – Don’t Say Goodnight – 4:21 4 – Goodbye – 4:07 5 – Johnny Lost – 4:03 6 – Too Late For Never – 3:55
Pakaderm Records strikes again. This is sort of a compilation album of artists singing rockified hymns. Now I’ll be straight up here. When rock artists try to interpret a hymn it rarely if ever works for me. Usually this is because the arrangements basically suck. It’s not as easy as people think to take and old Hymn and turn it into a rock song. That aside the Elefante brothers wrote the arrangements for these tracks and they know what they are doing. As a result this is hands down the absolute best collection of rockified hymns that has been produced. What’s even more impressive on this album as that some of the vocalists are actually Maranatha singers who certainly are not known for Rock & Roll. Case in point is Sara Tennison covering A Mighty Fortress Is Our God which she absolutely nails and Mike Hadley’s Amazing Grace. This album is an absolute must listen. Where others have failed the Elefante brothers have succeeded.
Tracklist 1 – The Old Rugged Cross – 4:48 2 – He’ Got The Whole World In His Hands – 4:40 3 – A Mighty Fortress Is Our God – 4:19 4 – We Need Jesus – 4:49 5 – Holy, Holy, Holy – 4:00 6 – Nothing But The Blood Of Jesus – 3:21 7 – Amazing Grace – 4:02 8 – Go, Tell It On A Mountain – 4:27 9 – When We All Get To Heaven – 3:38 10 – I Have Decided (To Follow Jesus) – 4:41
Credits Arranged By – Dino Elefante, John Elefante Backing Vocals – Barney Dunn (2), Gregg Lancer, Sara Tennison, Terry Stratton Bass – Ba-Ba Drums – Artemus Crowe, Jack Mac Guitar – Rock Lobster, T-Mex Keyboards – Jack Mac, John Andrew Schreiner, John Elefante Lead Vocals – Gregg Lancer, Jamie Rowe, John Elefante, Sara Tennison, Scott Springer, Mike Lee, Mike Hadley, Russell Painter Producer – Dino Elefante, John Elefante Saxophone – Greg Vail
Companies, etc. Manufactured By – Word, Inc. Distributed By – Word, Inc. Pressed By – Disctronics USA
This was the first album form Priority Paid. I still can’t find much info on this Australian band but I’m still enjoying their work. The album is a great 80’s Pop album with above average lyrics in my opinion. As this was only released in Australia many of you haven’t heard it so here’s your chance to catch up on an 80’s rarity.
Tracklist 1 – Night After Night – 5:11 2 – Can You Come Over Tonight – 4:50 3 – Going Home – 5:07 4 – Forever – 5:20 5 – Robin Hood – 3:20 6 – Do You Know – 4:17 7 – Voice – 4:00 8 – Shut Up And Dance – 3:03 9 – In Your Image – 4:03
Credits Acoustic Guitar, Vocals – Peter Downey Bass, Vocals – Owen Craig Drums, Vocals – Rik Petereit Electric Guitar – Iain McDonald Percussion, Vocals – Bill Marsden Vocals, Keyboards – John Burns
Companies, etc. Engineered At – Rich Studios Engineered At – Silver Wood Studios
