This was one of the first Jesus music bands. They started inn 1968 and got their start by touring around California in their cliche Volkswagen van. In 1971 they went into the studio and this album was the result. They self released it but it was very popular as they had attained a strong following of christian youth. Their movement became a church of sorts and they kept reprinting this album. They did have a second album that I haven’t listened to yet but if it’s anything like I this one I can’t wait. This is a solid 70’s blues rock album and may actually be one of my favourites from that era. Fred Caban keeps the memory of the band going with a strong web presence and his own Facebook group. I’m guessing most people missed this one back in the day so give it a listen. You won’t be disappointed.
Credits Bass – John Peckhart Drums, Organ – Mike Jungkman Guitar, Vocals, Lyrics By, Music By – Fred Caban Producer – Marlin Jones Producer, Engineer – Wally Duguid
The story goes that the band while in their rehearsal hall saw an album hanging on the wall released in the early 1960s and entitled Songs of the Heart by Bob and Elsa Beckendorf. The album cover was a simple picture of the two artists. The concept was a trip down Route 66 with the couple they renamed as Bud & Irma Akendorf. They actually used the original album cover with their name as the artist. This is the concept of the album track;
Can’t Take My Eyes Off Of You – We look back to the time when Bud first fell in love with Irma
The Glory Road – Bud, now retired, takes Irma on vacation
Get Into The Bus, Aloha – The Akendorf’s witness a strange occurence at a rest stop
Evangeline – The Akendorf’s get a surprise when they visit a Faith Healer our of curiosity
Uneasy Liews The Head Of The Confidence Man – Bud and Irma discuss faith and flim-flam
The Organ Bar – Meanwhile, in L.A., we encounter a mysterious stranger
Donna Nietche And Her Super Race Of Kick Boxing Uber Parrots – The mysterious stranger offers us a questionable proposition
Our Night To Howl, Time To Go Dancing – Bud gets frisky
Sins Of The Fathers – Back home, Bud has coffee at his favorite diner and is tempted to offer some words of wisdom
Turn This Off – Bud complains about today’s music and the state of the world
Loveland – Relieved to be back home, the Akendorf’s find a better view of the world from their love seat
When Everyone Wore Hats – The Akendorf’s reminisce
My Hand To God – The mysterious stranger reappears as Bud says his last goodbye to Irma
I’m not the biggest fan of concept albums as they always seem to concentrate too hard on the concept rather than the songs but if you’re a DA fan you’re gonna like this one anyway.
There’s not much info out there on Message but it was a project by Allan Butt and Pat Merchant. It was self released and as such there aren’t many copies out there and if you have one it’s worth a fair amount of money. None of the artists involved ever did another project that I can find. This is rather surprising as it’s a really good album. It’s easily as good as most albums from the 70’s that I have listened to. But this isn’t really surprising as I’ve always thought that the record companies really were confused with what to do with music from the Jesus movement of the 70’s. If you like 70’s stuff I suspect you’ll love this one.
Tracklist 1 – I Dreamed I Saw Jesus – 2:40 2 – Highway 45 – 5:07 3 – Changing Up My Lines – 2:43 4 – Coming Soon – 2:23 5 – Should’ve Followed Jesus – 2:43 6 – Thank You Jesus – 4:22 7 – He Was A Carpenter – 4:17 8 – Crucify – 3:17 9 – It’s Hard To Be A Christian – 3:16 10 – Sailing Home – 4:31
Credits Allan Butt – Guitar, Vocals, Recorder Pat Merchant – Harp, Vocals, Lead Guitar, Slide Robin Barnett – Drums David Dealfe – Bass Rick Cagle – Backup Vocals Buddy Philen – Producer
This is volume 2 of the ¡Alarma! Chronicles. Between volume 1 and 2 of the Chronicles they switched record labels and got a new bass player. Terry Taylor’s guidance clearly held things together though. This release is peak 80s culture. It fit the model of what was happening in music at the time, even if nothing of the sort was happening in CCM outside of DA. This visionary album was on par with everything else in the scene at the time, but limited by being marketed to the CCM audience.
Tracklist 1 – Hollow Man – – 2:15 2 – Mall (All Over The World) – 3:13 3 – Real Girls – 2:57 4 – New Car! – 2:00 5 – Do Big Boys Cry – 2:05 6 – Youth With A Machine – 2:42 7 – The Double – 3:50 8 – Distance And Direction – 2:48 9 – Memory Lane – 3:48 10 – Angels Tuck You In – 2:38 11 – Little Crosses – 2:35 12 – Autographs For The Sick – 1:40 13 – I Didn’t Build It For Me – 2:48 14 – Here I Am – 3:18 15 – Hollow Man (Reprise) – 0:43
Credits Arranged By [Keyboards] – Jerry Chamberlain, Terry Taylor, Tom Howard Backing Vocals – Ed McTaggart, Jerry Chamberlain, Terry Taylor, Tim Chandler Backing Vocals [Occasional] – Derald Daugherty, Dori “Game Show Girl” Howard, Emelia Emulator, Janet McTaggart, Mark Cook (2), Randy Stonehill, The Three Women From Istanbul, Tom Howard Bass Guitar – Marty Dieckmeyer (tracks: 1), Tim Chandler Bass Guitar [8-string] – Tim Chandler Bass Guitar [Fretless] – Tim Chandler Drums [Skins, Tubs, Traps] – Ed McTaggart Engineer – Thom Roy Engineer [Second] – Derald Daugherty* Keyboards – Jeff Lams (tracks: 3,13), Mark Cook (2) (tracks: 8), Marty Dieckmeyer (tracks: 1), Rob Watson (tracks: 2,3,5 to 7,14), Tom Howard (tracks: 4,7,9 to 11,14) Lead Guitar – Jerry Chamberlain Lead Vocals – Jerry Chamberlain (tracks: 11), Terry Taylor Mastered By – Steve Hall Percussion – Alex MacDougall, Ed McTaggart, Jerry Chamberlain, Terry Taylor, Tim Chandler Performer [Da Is] – Ed McTaggart, Jerry Chamberlain, Terry Taylor, Tim Chandler Producer – Jerry Chamberlain, Terry Taylor Remastered By – Doug Doyle Rhythm Guitar – Terry Taylor Saxophone – Bill Colton
One of my favourite parts of this project is that sometimes I am introduced to artists I didn’t know anything about and this is one of those artists. The reason I have never heard of him is because his 5 albums were only released in the U.K. I have no idea why his albums weren’t picked up by a North American label but they weren’t. It was insinuated to me that this was due to ICC Records not playing nicely with others but I don’t know if that’s true. Anyway this is a great album. It has a solid 80’s feel and I quite enjoyed it. Unfortunately it was released in 1991 which leaves it a little late for it’s style but that wasn’t that important in the CCM genre. If you only have time for one track listen to “Battle Lines” which is actually a pretty good Rock & Roll track.
Tracklist 1 – Hold On To The Love – 5:13 2 – Runnin’ Hard Tonight – 3:45 3 – Hardened Heart – 4:12 4 – Must Be More – 4:19 5 – The Call Home – 5:25 6 – The Master’s Voice – 4:41 7 – Be My Guide – 4:24 8 – Only To Be My Servant – 4:38 9 – Small Price To Pay – 4:11 10 – Battle Lines – 4:14
Credits Coordinator [Project] – Peter Martin Engineer, Mixed By, Sampler – Matthias Kaufmann Producer [Assistant], Engineer, Organ [Lezly Speaker Operation], Sampler – Mike Newbon Producer, Guitar, Keyboards, Sequencer, Drum Programming, Sampler – Johnny Markin
After Larry was convinced to close Solid Rock Records he made his way to England with his father and started Phydeaux records. This was either the first or second album he released on that label. It’s a live album but were not really too sure where or when it was recorded and I don’t think even Larry knew. He printed on the album cover “This album contains ten songs from a three hour concert. It is reproduced exactly as the audience heard it, with no studio overdubs, no stereo enhancement, noise gates, etc. It is raw, real, and electronically unretouched.” As much as he tries to make the lack of production a selling point for the album I sincerely doubt the source material was capable of being remixed. I’m willing to bet it was a single track recorded right out of the mixing board. Anyway this is a great opportunity for us to hear some early Larry in his live environment.
Tracklist 1 – Jonny’s Blues – 3:03 2 – Why Don’t You Look Into Jesus – 4:53 3 – The Rock That Doesn’t Roll – 3:28 4 – I’ve Seached All Around The World – 3:34 5 – Watch What You’re Doing – 6:31 6 – Soul On Fire – 6:33 7 – Shot Down – 1:56 8 – Song For A Small Circle Of Friends – 3:09 9 – Why Should The Devil Have All The Good Music – 2:51 10 – Let That Tape Keep Rolling – 5:24 11 – I Wish We’d All Been Ready – 5:45
Credits Bass Guitar – Dave Coy Drums – Alex McDougall Electric Guitar – Jon Linn Guitar – Mark Heard Piano – Tom Howard Vocals, Written-By – Larry Norman
This album was released in 1988 as a 6 song live EP recorded at the Wang Center for the Performing Arts in Boston on April 26, 1988. There had been a lag in the bands popularity so some record executive though the answer would be a live EP. I don’t quite understand why they didn’t just release a full length concert album but more on that later. The EP did not have any of their early hits and had songs that the public were probably less familiar with. Strangely a 2000 re-release had 14 tracks from the concert. Re-issues before and after this one are only the 6 original tracks. We have uploaded the full 14 track version for you to enjoy here. Live is where The Alarm really shined and while the album did not do that well I think it is some of their best work.
Tracklist 1 – Strength – 6:41 2 – Knife Edge – 4:54 3 – Newtown Jericho – 5:17 4 – Permanence In Change -5:08 5 – Dawn Chorus – 6:48 6 – Blaze Of Glory – 5:02 7 – Bound For Glory – 3:23 8 – Hallowed Ground – 3:52 9 – One Step Closer To Home – 5:34 10 – Shelter – 3:30 11 – Rain In The Summertime – 6:05 12 – Rescue Me – 8:35 13 – Spirit Of ’76 – 8:42 14 – We Are The Light – 3:44
Credits Art Direction – Nick Egan Bass – Eddie MacDonald Design – Tracy Veal Drums – Nigel Twist Guitar – Dave Sharp Keyboards – Mark Taylor Mixed By, Engineer – Elliot Scheiner Photography By – Cary Lander, Ebet Roberts Producer – Gary Katz Vocals – Mike Peters
This album was recorded right when Haworth started worked with the SW London Vineyard developing their worship and prison ministry. I always consider artists who do prison ministry to be one notch above others. Prison ministry is very difficult and just getting into a prison to play music is very labour intensive and requires a level of dedication few artists have. As for the album well it can best be classified as a rock album with some blues tracks but Haworth is really one of those artists that is difficult to pigeon hole into a genre. The album may also have the best version ever of Joy, Joy, Joy. Yes the one from Sunday School. The album was released on Edge records but strangely it was picked up and re-released by Refuge Records in 1991.
Tracklist 1 – We’re All One (’89) – 4:04 2 – Cover For Me – 3:26 3 – I Serve A Risen Saviour – 3:27 4 – Two Worlds – 4:11 5 – Give Me Your Heart – 5:04 6 – Joy, Joy, Joy – 3:27 7 – Word Of Our God – 4:24 8 – Waiting – 4:18 9 – Is This Love ? – 4:45 10 – Hurt People – 4:25 11 – Love, Acceptance And Forgiveness – 6:29
This was the second album from Adrian and it picks up right up where the last one left off. Adrian was a solid performer of worship / easy listening at this point in his career and few others did it as well as him. Now to be clear this is not my style of music but I know good music when I hear it and this is going to lead to my rant. How on gods green earth did Adrian never have a CCM charting single. He had 23 albums of which I’ve heard several now and I am completely dumbfounded at how he never had a song on the charts. I know I have ranted about the charts being very selective before but this has to be one of the best examples of people being blacklisted from the charts. I have no idea why Adrian was blacklisted but honestly it’s rather obvious that he was. Anyway this is an excellent 70’s vibe worship album and if that’s your style I’m sure you will agree with me that this is an excellent album.
Tracklist 1 – Prelude – 4:25 2 – This Land – 2:47 3 – By The Waters Of Babylon (Psalm 137) – 4:54 4 – Father, Saviour, Lord – 3:32 5 – City Bound – 2:50 6 – Goodbye October – 4:30 7 – Summer Song – 2:52 8 – Jesus, I’m Alone – 3:22 9 – Jesus Is My Song – 2:45 10 – And In The Morning – 3:25
Credits Art Direction – Phil Thomson Bass Guitar, Mandolin, Voice [Heathen Shouts], Handclaps – Gerry Page Clarinet, Flute, Soprano Saxophone, Alto Saxophone – Ken Parr Design Concept [Sleeve Concept By], Illustration – Eugene Press Drums, Percussion – Bernard Shaw, Keith Entwistle Engineer – Andy Kidd, Dave Cooke, Helmut Kaufmann French Horn – Gordon Carr Lyrics By – Adrian Snell Music By – Adrian Snell Photography By – David McQuitty Piano, Electric Guitar, Guitar, Twelve-String Guitar, Keyboards [Elka Rhapsody], Synthesizer [String & Moog Synthesizers], Arranged By – Joe King Piano, Electric Piano, Guitar, Twelve-String Guitar, Classical Guitar, Keyboards [Elka Rhapsody], Synthesizer [String & Moog Synthesizers], Percussion [Jawbone], Vocals – Adrian Snell Producer – John Pantry Vocals [Female Vocals] – Elisabeth Kaufmann
Companies, etc. Record Company – Dove Records Recorded At – ICC Studios Made By – Robert Stace Printed By – Robert Stace Published By – Thankyou Music Lacquer Cut At – Pye Studios
I completely missed the Newsboys era in CCM music so every time I post one of their albums it is the first time I have heard it. I really enjoyed this album when I listened to it. It has a solid sound and my only criticism is that it kind of switches from Pop to New Wave to Rock so it’s a little inconsistent but that’s a weak criticism because the album is well done. Strangely this album didn’t do very good. In fact it would be a few more albums before the band would become the powerhouse they are known as. I subconsciously considered Newboys the New Kids On The Block of CCM but that’s entirely not true. These guys had some talent and I would have really liked them back in the late 80’s early 90’s.
Tracklist 1 – Stand Up For Jesus – 3:47 2 – In The End – 3:14 3 – Simple Man – 3:43 4 – All I Can See – 4:51 5 – Ten Thousand Miles – 3:54 6 – Somethin’s Missing – 2:45 7 – Get Up For Love – 3:15 8 – Sea Of Love – 3:13 9 – Love You Tomorrow – 3:33 10 – Victory – 4:16
Credits Acoustic Guitar, Electric Guitar – Sonny Lallerstedt Bass – Sean Taylor Drums, Vocals – Peter Furler Executive-Producer – Dez Dickerson, Jeff Moseley Guitar – Jonathan Geange Keyboards, Backing Vocals – Michael Gleason Lead Vocals – John James Mastered By – Denny Purcell Other [L.D., A.D., Koala Caller] – Steve Campbell Producer – Michael Gleason Recorded By – Sonny Lallerstedt Technician [Drum Tech] – David Perdikis Written-By – Newsboys
