This is Arlen’s fourth album but you’ve probably never heard it or even heard him. Why have you never heard of him? Well it’s because his albums were never released outside of Canada. We’re not talking about someone who had one or two albums either. He had six albums in the 70’s, 80’s, and 90’s. The albums are for them main part great. Lot’s of good Rock & Roll and great lyrics. This album is no different it’s fantastic. The cover is horrible but it was his first release on label Image 7 and I have seen many times that a new label lobes to do a portrait cover for some reason. I’ve never understood it. So give this one a listen as I doubt you’ve ever heard it and it’s a great Pop Rock album.
Tracklist 1 – Hoping & Coping – 4:26 2 – Falling In Love Again – 4:11 3 – I’ve Been Hiding – 4:18 4 – Verdict – 3:46 5 – A Winner Like You – 4:13 6 – Sing Out His Name – 2:41 7 – Love Showed Us The Way – 3:19 8 – Outrageous – 3:35 9 – Let My Light Shine Bright – 3:13 10 – Rock On Which I Stand – 4:14
Unfortunately this was the last album from Giantkiller and is was only released in the UK. Their previous album was released in North America but I have read it didn’t sell well. I remember that album quite differently as It was great and we loved it and it seems to have done well in our circles. But the CCM industry was fickle and these guys seem to be just another victim of this. Anyway if you’re from North America you have likely not ever heard this album but I fully suggest you give it a listen.
Tracklist 1 – Fire Coming Down – 4:08 2 – New Jerusalem – 2:58 3 – Someone in My Life – 3:37 4 – Shadow of the Real Thing – 3:14 5 – Holding Out His Hand – 2:59 6 – Darkness in the Cities – 2:58 7 – Oh Brother Man – 3:14 8 – Valley of Decision – 3:27 9 – A Cry Within – 2:46 10 – Not Too Many Tears – 3:19 11 – The Ballad of the Toothless Lion – 3:10 12 – If We Have the Love – 1:13
Credits Bass, Backing Vocals – Alan Hiscox Drums – Steve Purton Keyboards, Backing Vocals – Paul Herbst Lead Guitar, Backing Vocals – Pete Gilgan Vocals – Richard Nicholson
I’m a little hesitant about writing this review but I feel I should be honest. This is the bands first album and they self produced and released it so I give them credit for that. They shared vocal duties which is not something I usually care for because it makes for a disjointed album and this one suffers from that. My second complaint is that the vocals don’t suit the music. This is a hard rock album but the vocals almost have a worship tone to them. I feel like I’m listening to a church band who put out a rock album. But now onto the good. There is real musical skill here. The songs are well written and tight. In fact some of them are better than some published music. Now I understand they overcame these vocal issues on their next album and I can honestly say I’m looking forward to listening to that album as there is some real talent here.
Tracklist 1 – Fightin’ The Battle – 3:54 2 – Proclaiming – 3:21 3 – Time Will Tell – 3:45 4 – Turn Around – 2:56 5 – Shining Our Light – 3:33 6 – War – 2:56 7 – We Are The People – 3:31 8 – Not Ashamed – 3:46 9 – Keeping On – 3:48 10 – Bye Bye – 4:46
Credits Matt Liffengren – rhythm and acoustic guitars Paul Liffengren – keyboards, piano, backing vocals Dewayne Holcomb – lead vocals on tracks 3 and 10, background vocals Alonzo Martinez – lead vocals on tracks 6 and 8 Christopher Midgyette – backging vocals Phil Milan – lead vocals on tracks 1, 2, 5 and 7, backing vocals Karyn Rondeau – lead vocals on tracks 4 and 9, background vocals Mark Siefert – backing vocals Robert Berry – Arranged By, Instrumentation By Mike Wible, Peter Roberts – Engineer Peter Roberts, Robert Berry – Mixed By Matt Liffengren, Paul Liffengren – Producer Kelly Husted (tracks: 9), Matt Liffengren (tracks: 1 to 10), Paul Liffengren (tracks: 1 to 10) – Written-By
Companies, etc. Recorded At – Soundtek Studios, Campbell, CA
I seriously can not find a single piece of information about Tom Karlson. I can honestly say that this is the first time I have found absolutely nothing about an artist. So all we can talk about is the album itself. It’s a seventies style light rock album with a couple real rock tunes on it. I can hear a little early Larry on a few tracks but for the main part Tom makes this album his own. The album does have help from Benny Hester and Rick Crawford so this wasn’t a completely unknown project. The jacket is horrendous and does not let you know in any way that this is a rock album. There is zero chance we would have bought this in the day with that cover unless it was promoted as a rock album. It would appear it wasn’t promoted because I’ve never heard of it and I can’t find anyone else that ever heard of it either. That said it’s a pretty good album and I fully suggest giving it a listen.
Tracklist 1 – Take ‘Em – 3:52 2 – Questions – 3:53 3 – Look For Love – 4:07 4 – Yesterday, Today, Forever – 4:54 5 – Living On The Edge – 3:40 6 – Service To The Son – 3:24 7 – Dead End Street – 3:55 8 – If I Love You – 3:18 9 – Right Thru The Heart – 3:21
Credits Gary Arthur – Bass Bubba Chambers – Background Vocals Rick Crawford – Background Vocals Benny Hester – Arrangements, Background Vocals Greg Jerden – Engineer Tom Karlson – Songwriter, Acoustic Guitar, Vocals Jeff Lams – Keyboards Jerry McPherson – Electric Guitar Paul Mills – Assistant Engineer, Synthesizer John Parenti – Percussion Brian Tankersley – Producer, Engineer, Electric Guitar, Background Vocals Rick Thigpen – Assistant Engineer Bobby Walzel – Saxaphone John Wickham – Electric Guitar
Well it’s time for another fantastic Kenny Marks album. Unfortunately by the time this album came out I had already abandoned the Christian music genre. Boy did I miss a great album. The album did fairly well on the CCM charts with “I’ll Be A Friend To You” making it to #5. Strangely it also has an excellent cover of Steve Forbert’s “Running On Love” and it may actually be better than the original. The best cut on the album though is the Rock track “Nobody Else But Jesus” which is strongly in the spirit of The Boss. The album includes part 3 of the “Jeannie and Johnny” tetralogy. Unfortunately in this chapter Johnny has abandoned Jeannie and his child and as such it’s a pretty sad song but it did make it to #25. All in all another great album from Kenny.
Tracklist 1 – Running On Love – 3:41 2 – Whisperin’ A Prayer – 3:40 3 – Hope For A Broken Heart – 4:22 4 – I’ll Be A Friend To You – 3:10 5 – Next Time You See Johnny – 5:51 6 – Nobody Else But Jesus – 4:37 7 – Graduation Day – 4:53 8 – Threshold Of Regret – 3:47 9 – Somebody Loves You – 4:12 10 – You Made A Difference For Me – 3:53
Credits Arranged By – Phil Madeira Art Direction, Design – Jackson Design Backing Vocals – Chris Harris, Mark Heimermann, Michael Black Bass – David Hungate, Randy Moore Cover [Coordination] – Amy Linde Drums – Doug Dimmel, Larrie Londin Electric Guitar – Kenny Greenberg Electric Guitar, Twelve-String Guitar, Acoustic Guitar – George Cocchini Engineer [Assistant] – John Kunz Executive-Producer – Lynn Keesecker Harmonica – Buddy Greene Keyboards – Phil Madeira, Phil Naish Mastered By – Hank Williams Mixed By – Marc DeSisto Mixed By [Assistant] – Dave Parker, David Boyer Organ [Hammond B-3] – Phil Kristianson Percussion – Eric Darken Photography By – Mark Tucker Producer – Bubba Smith Recorded By, Tracking By [Overdubs] – James Kenneth (JB) Baird Saxophone [Saxophones], Electronic Wind Instrument [Ewi] – Mark Douthit Tracking By [Overdubs] – Brent King, Doug Sarrett, Greg Parker Twelve-String Guitar, Acoustic Guitar – Jon Goin
Companies, etc. Recorded At – Digital Recorders Recorded At – Recording Arts Recorded At – Downstage Studio Recorded At – Mastermix Recorded At – Quad Studios Mixed At – Sound Stage Studios Mastered At – Mastermix
This is an interesting album that swirled just outside the periphery of Christian music in the late 80’s. We carried it at Maranatha Village and several Christian music publications positively reviewed it and ran stories on Forbert. A brilliant singer/songwriter, Steve Forbert started his lengthy career in the late 70’s recording his only real radio hit, “Romeo Tune” on his second release in 1979, “Jackrabbit Slim.” (Highly recommend) But with “Streets of this Town,” The Christian market began to take notice. Songs like “Hope, Faith and Love,” “As We Live and Breathe” and “Search Your Heart” seemed to deal honestly with spiritual ideas and faith questions. One song from this album was covered by a pretty major CCM artist at the time (bonus points if you know the artist and song). Forberts easy going Americana Rock style is immediately likeable and would appeal to fans of John Hiatt, Jackson Browne, Julie Miller, etc.
Contributor David Lowman – https://legacyccmsgreatestalbums.wordpress.com/
Tracklist 1 – Running On Love – 3:32 2 – Don’t Tell Me (I Know) – 3:33 3 – I Blinked Once – 4:45 4 – Mexico – 3:30 5 – As We Live And Breathe – 3:18 6 – On The Streets Of This Town – 3:39 7 – Hope, Faith And Love – 3:41 8 – Perfect Stranger – 3:33 9 – Wait A Little Longer – 3:45 10 – Search Your Heart – 4:38
Credits Bass – Danny Counts Coordinator – Tom Zutaut Design – Jeff Morris Drums, Percussion, Backing Vocals – Bobby Lloyd Hicks Keyboards, Backing Vocals – Paul Errico Lead Guitar, Backing Vocals – Clay Barnes Management – Praxis International Mastered By – George Marino Mixed By – Michael Frondelli Mixed By [Assisted] – Gary Solomon Photography By – Jeff Morris, Lee Thomas Producer – Garry Tallent Recorded By – Jan Topoleski Songwriter [All Songs] – Steve Forbert Vocals, Acoustic Guitar, Harmonica – Steve Forbert
Iva, whose real name is Ivor was in After The Fire from 1978 until some point in 1980. This is his first album after ATF. He had an album before he joined ATF but I warn you know it is a completely different style than what he’s known for. Anyway this album has a lot of similarities to ATF stuff and quite frankly it’s fantastic. It has this spy/secret service/CIA theme going on which is pretty cool. The single was “Secret Service” which I personally believe would have been a great radio single but unfortunately the album was on an unknown label. I know that Ivor and ATF as a whole always had label problems and it’s sad because they were all very very talented. Interestingly the only person Ivor brought into the project that had any interesting history was the drummer Nick Brotherwood from The Alwyn Wall Band. Anyway this one is must listen and I doubt many people have heard it as it was on an obscure label and only released in the U.K.
Tracklist 01 – No Good At All – 2:14 02 – Some People – 2:28 03 – The Dance Has Just Begun – 2:38 04 – I Guess I’ll Always Be (Someone Like Me) – 3:12 05 – King Of Hearts – 2:43 06 – Part Time Hero – 2:39 07 – Cold War – 3:49 08 – Secret Service – 2:27 09 – I Surrender – 2:27 10 – CIA And The KGB – 2:32 11 – Independence – 1:59 12 – Resting In Your Love – 2:47 13 – Save Me – 2:26 14 – Cover Me – 3:35 15 – Don’t Be Afraid – 1:45
Credits Acoustic Guitar – John McNaughton Arranged By – Iva Twydell Bass – Tony Hudson Drums – Nick Brotherwood Lead Guitar, Vocals – Andy Balmer Organ, Piano, Strings – Graham Noon Saxophone – Derek Williams Sleeve, Design – Steve Bamford Triangle – Marianda Twydell Violin – Phil Henderson Vocals, Acoustic Guitar, Electric Guitar, Flute, Synthesizer, Percussion – Iva Twydell Vocals, Noises – Dave Balmer, Kieran McGrath Vocals, Percussion – Tim Burgess
The band was formed in 1966 by musicians Don Lower and Steve Nelson in the Sacramento area of California. They were joined by Dennis Sullivan and Michael Welch and hit the studio in 1969. They were still using the name “Help” but changed it to Azitis (pronounced “as it is”) before completing their album as there was a conflict with a British Band of the same name. Now this is where the story gets a little foggy. One version of the story is that while recording the album Dennis Sullivan fled the project which caused great distress for the record company, Elco Records, and ended up bankrupting said record company. Dennis disputes this story and quite frankly I believe him. I can’t see a label going bankrupt because a musician stepped away, it doesn’t make sense. Anyway what we have here is a “Psychedelic” 70’s album that the band envisioned as a Rock Opera and apparently the band was disappointed that the album was produced with breaks in between the tracks. It’s pretty good and many hold it out to be spectacular. I don’t get a spectacular feeling form it but it is very very good. Luckily MODO Publishing acquired the rights to the album and re-released it in 2000 with 2 bonus tracks. We have included those tracks in our playlist.
Tracklist 1 – (Creation) Lord I Saw You Cry – 6:06 2 – There Is An Answer – 3:44 3 – Who Will Be – 3:20 4 – The Prophet – 6:06 5 – Time Has Passed – 4:56 6 – From This Place – 3:24 7 – Hope To Save – 3:59 8 – Judgement Day – 4:46 Bonus Tracks 9 – Life Worth Living – 5:08 10 – Questions Why – 3:02
Credits Artwork – James Gardner Bass Guitar – Donald Lower Design – Dennis Sullivan, Donald Lower, Michael Welch, Steve Nelson Engineer – LaMont Bench, R.S. Owens Guitar, Flute – Michael Welch Organ, Piano – Dennis Sullivan Percussion – Steve Nelson Photography By – Randall Thornton Producer, Liner Notes – John W. Cole Supervised By – Roger Hamilton Spotts
Apparently After The Fire played 3 years in a row at the BBC Paris Theatre, London, England. Luckily these appearances were recorded but they stayed on a shelf somewhere until Angel Air Records released them in 2009. You can buy the CD on their website below. ATF were an excellent live band and this is a great release. Thank you Angel Air Records.
1 – Joy – 3:17 2 – A Little Sun, A Little Rain – 3:11 3 – Laser Love – 3:05 4 – Time To Think – 3:31 5 – One Rule For You – 3:15 6 – Suspended Animation – 4:52 7 – Check It Out – 3:06 8 – Like The Power Of A Jet – 2:50 1980 In Concert 9 – Laser Love – 3:26 10 – Life In The City – 4:04 11 – Can You Face It? – 3:50 12 – Who’s Gonna Love You? – 4:14 13 – Billy Billy – 6:07 1981 In Concert 14 – Frozen Rivers – 4:06 15 – Dancing In The Shadows – 2:53 16 – Sailing Ship – 3:39 17 – Bright Lights – 4:09 18 – Take Me Higher – 7:06 19 – Starlight – 5:03
Angie set out to have a career in music and this, her first album, is the result of that work. After high school she enrolled at the University of South Alabama as a vocal performance major and graduated with a Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance. She moved to Nashville after college and soon captured the attention of Power Discs/Benson and recorded this EP. It was an immediate success and the track “Silent Weeper” climbed to #6 on the CCM charts. The album is full of great talent including Steve Taylor. It was produced by Billy Smiley of White Heart and he really nailed it in my opinion. If you like female pop music this album is a must listen. Even though this isn’t my favourite genre of music I really liked this album and listened to it a few times.
Tracklist 1 – Heartdance – 3:10 2 – Lonely Warrior – 4:16 3 – O Lord Your Love – 4:58 4 – Silent Weeper – 5:43 5 – High Rise – 3:47 6 – Be Still – 3:13
Credits Jeff Balding – Recorded, Mixed Mike Brignardello – Bass Jackie Cusic – Background Vocals Mark Gersmehl – Songwriter, Arrangements Mark Hammond – Drums Gary Janney – Background Vocals Greg Jennings – Guitars Bonnie Keen – Background Vocals Shane Keister – Synthesizers, Percussion, Vocoder Gordon Kennedy – Guitar Solos Brent King – Recorded, Mixed Angie Lewis – Songwriter, Vocals Gary Lunn – Bass Donna McElroy – Background Vocals Farrell Morris – Percussion Phil Naish – Keyboards, Synthesizer Gary Pigg – Background Vocals Brent Rowan – Guitars Billy Smiley – Producer, Songwriter, Arrangements James Stroud – Drums Steve Taylor – Arrangements, Background Vocals Hank Williams – Mastered
