Tag: 1979

Len Magee – Just For You – 1979

Here’s another artist I have never heard of who had multiple albums, a dozen to be exact. As near as I can tell his albums were only released in the U.K. so I guess I wouldn’t have heard of him being a Canadian. Now full disclaimer this is not my preferred genre but that aside Len nails the style that he does. If Christian music had a John Denver this is the man. Len has am absolutely fascinating life story which I will cover in some detail when I review his first release from 1973. So while this is a pretty mellow 70’s album it is well worth a listen. If you ever stumble on Len’s life story on YouTube take the time and give it a listen.

Tracklist
1 – Travellin Man
2 – Water Into Wine
3 – The Star Of Christmas
4 – I Feel Your Presence Everywhere
5 – Tears Of The Lonely
6 – Jonah’s Key
7 – Who Can I Turn To?
8 – Help Me Lord
9 – Just For You
10 – Kiss The Lamb
11 – Too Late

Credits
Acoustic Guitar, Electric Guitar, Slide Guitar – Mo Witham
Backing Vocals – John Pac, Sue McClellan
Bass – John Spurling*
Drums – Pete Thompson
Engineer – Dave Aston, Les Moir
Mastered By – Dennis Blackham*
Piano, Electric Piano [Rhodes], Arranged By – Dave Anfield
Plated By – Max*
Producer – John Pac
Tuba – Les Moir
Vocals – Len Magee

Companies, etc.
Phonographic Copyright ℗ – Marshall Morgan & Scott
Copyright © – Marshall Morgan & Scott
Recorded At – ICC Studios
Mixed At – ICC Studios
Mastered At – Tape One
Pressed By – Lyntone Recordings Ltd. – LYN6742
Pressed By – Lyntone Recordings Ltd. – LYN6743
Lacquer Cut At – Tape One
Published By – Copyright Control
Published By – Len Magee Music Ltd.

Wings Of Light – Wings Of Light – 1979

As near as I can figure out the Wings Of Light were the “international” wing of the Continental Singers which were an international music ministry group. I’m not really too sure of how this actually worked but that’s not really that important to listen to an album. I get hung up on the minutia of these things. Anyway this is their first of 3 albums and as I understand every album has a different sound and feel. This one has a jazzy pop feel that was certainly right for the time but it doesn’t actually age very well. Most if not all of trhe album are cover songs from other Christian artists some more mainstream than other. The highlight for me was a pretty good cover of Keith Greens “You Put This Love In My Heart”. I’m looking forward to hearing their other 2 albums and we’ll get the here for you soon.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXBO33kwWHos

Tracklist
1 – What A Difference You’ve Made In My Life – 3:50
2 – Doesn’t That Surprise You – 4:48
3 – It’s A Lamp – 2:40
4 – Daystar – 2:48
5 – He Loves You – 5:02
6 – I Can’t See Me Serving Nobody But Jesus – 2:50
7 – You Put This Love In My Heart – 3:28
8 – The Best – 3:02
9 – Pleasure Servin’ You – 3:08
10 – The Serf And The King – 3:34

Credits
Arranged By – Bob Krogstad, Clark Glassman, Terry Winch
Cover, Design [Backliner Design] – Thel Arthur
Engineer, Mixed By – Toby Foster
Executive-Producer – Cam Floria
Performer – Dave Mullins, Ed Deckard, Glenn Holmen, Jeff Taylor (20), Keith Boll, Laroy Cadiz, Larry Tardy, Leann Hendrickson, Mike Ross, Patti Grover, Steve Gabrielse
Performer, Directed By – Fred Heumann
Producer – Paul Stilwell
Producer [Assistance In Production] – Chuck Bolte

Companies, etc.
Phonographic Copyright ℗ – Good Life Records
Copyright © – Good Life Records
Distributed By – Word Records
Printed By – Gothic Press Ltd.
Recorded At – Sound Castle Recorders, Los Angeles
Mixed At – Universal Recording Studio

Mark Williamson – So Far So Good – 1979

This is the second album from Mark Williamson. It can be a little complicated to figure out Marks work as he released albums under several names. Mark Williamson And Friends, Mark Williamson Band, TRW, Bridge 2 Far, and Lyrix are all a version of Mark. Most of us in North America were introduced to him because Larry Norman released his Lyrix album but I was not aware of his catalog of work until we started this project. This is mainly because most of his albums were not even released in North America and this is one of those albums. So Far So Good has a solid seventies sound and you can start to hear a bit of a transition over to his later 80’s sound. It’s mainly an easy listening album but there’s a few Rock tracks like Join The Revolution for example which features Norman Barratt’s excellent guitar work. Of interest on this album is also that this is the first album Chris Eaton had played on and he also wrote a couple tracks.

Tracklist
1 – Hold On Me – 3:28
2 – Living Is Easy – 4:47
3 – I Need You – 4:59
4 – Susanne – 5:00
5 – Join The Revolution – 3:09
6 – Promises – 4:31
7 – You Gotta Get Up – 2:45
8 – Stockholm Song – 4:15
9 – Keepin’ On – 3:17
10 – Favour – 5:49

Credits
Steve Richards/Spud Spurling – bass
Malcolm Garrett – drums
Pete Thompson – drums
Rick Godsall – keyboards
Colin Owen – synthesizer
Chris Eaton – acoustic piano
Tony Boyens – fender rhodes
Norman Barrett/John Smith – e.guitar
Mark Williamson – a.guitar)
Hugh Thomas – sax)
John Perry/Stu Calver/Muff Murfin/Chris Eaton/Alyson McCinnes/Sue McClellan/Mark – background vocals

Companies, etc.
Phonographic Copyright ℗ – Marshall Morgan & Scott
Recorded At – The Old Smithy Recording Studio
Mastered At – Tape One

Petra – Washes Whiter Than – 1979

Washes Whiter Than is the third studio album by Petra and would mark the beginning of the chaos that became membership in the band. First, Greg Hough and John DeGroff left the band during the previous tour for “Come and Join Us” so Bob Hartman brought in Rob Frazier as a guitarist and vocalist. Then as they were starting to record this album drummer Bill Glover also left. Bob now invited Greg X. Volz who had been entertaining an offer from REO Speedwagon but decided Petra was for him. So the root of the band for this album was Bob Hartman, Rob Frazier, and Greg X. Volz while studio musicians rounded out the band for this recording. During all this chaos the band had taken a 9 month sabbatical to ponder their future. The band actually started recording this album while not even having a record deal in place. While recording and touring they were able to secure a record deal from Star Song Records. Now we’re not really too sure if it was Star Song or the band but the album took a mellow turn. It wasn’t an entirely mellow album but much more mellow than their previous 2 albums. I’ll be honest here that this is probably my least liked Petra album because of this turn. Even though this album had some great tracks it generally sat on the shelf in our listening room. The album did have 2 successful singles. “Why Should the Father Bother” made it to #3 on the CCM AC charts and stayed on the charts for 25 weeks while “Yahweh Love” made it to #20 on the CCM AC charts and stayed on the charts for 4 weeks. As usual for the CCM charts these were probably my 2 most disliked tracks. While Greg and Rob were sharing the lead vocal duties there is little doubt that Greg had the better tracks. That said I kind of like Rob’s vocals and it would have been interesting to see what direction he would have taken the band in. But anyway, Greg ended up with the vocalist job and Petra history would have him at the forefront until John Schlitt would take over in 1986. So that’s the interesting story behind this album making it historically one of the great story behind the album stories in CCM music.

Tracklist
1 – I’m Thankful – 2:41
2 – Why Should The Father Bother? – 3:46
3 – Morning Star – 4:47
4 – Magic Mirror – 3:27
5 – Mary’s Song – 4:00
6 – Yahweh Love – 5:38
7 – (Couldn’t Find Love) Without You – 4:19
8 – Taste And See – 3:23
9 – Magic Words – 3:31
10 – Deep Love – 3:57

Credits
Arranged By – George Atwell, Bob Hartman, Robert Frazier
Bass – Chip Meyers
Design, Artwork – George Werth
Drums, Percussion – Randy Nichols
Engineer – Andy deGanahl
Guitar – Gerald “Jit” Byron, Joel Balin
Guitar, Keyboards, Vocals – Robert Frazier
Keyboards – George Atwell
Lead Guitar, Rhythm Guitar, Vocals – Bob Hartman
Lead Vocals – Greg X. Volz (tracks: 1, 4, 6, 8), Rob Frazier (tracks: 1 to 3, 5 to 7, 9, 10)
Management, Booking – Dan Brock Associates
Mastered By – Allen Zentz Recording
Musician [“The Crown Of Sound”] – Bob Prince
Producer – George Atwell, Dan R. Brock

Companies, etc.
Phonographic Copyright (p) Star Song Records
Copyright (c) Star Song Records
Manufactured By Word, Inc.
Distributed By Word, Inc.
Published By Dawn Treader Music
Recorded At Bee Jay Recording Studio
Mastered At Future Disc

Heirborn – Heirborn – 1979

Here’s a great 5 man band out of Spokane WA. This is their first of two albums. It was Originally self released but was picked up by Praise records for their New Born label. The band has a great 70’s sound that leaned more Light Rock but the track Devil’s Friend was a real rocker. Not really much else I can tell you about them as they are a rather obscure band that I didn’t hear of back in the day even though they were on a label we followed closely. My best guess is that the label didn’t do much distribution on the album.

Tracklist
1 – Long Long Way
2 – How Long
3 – Pretty Lady
4 – One Nighter
5 – Good Samaritan
6 – Pearly Gates
7 – Devil’s Friend
8 – Walkin’ In Darkness
9 – Comin’ Home
10 – Soul’s Desire
11 – Heirborn

Credits
Rob Neuschwander – Drums, Vocals, Percussion
Dave Wold – Fender Rhodes, Piano, A.R.P., Vocals
Ben Mayo – Fender Bass, Vocals
Michael Lehnen – Electric & Acoustic Guitar, Vocals, A.R.P., Percussion
Dick Ellis – Engineer, Mixdown
Mike Dwyer – Mixdown

Companies, etc.
Recorded and Mixed at – Sounds Unlimited Studios
Mastered at – KM Records Burbank, California

Tradewind – Until The Storm Is Past – 1979

Here we have another self released CCM album that I never heard or heard of before. Tradewind was two sets of brothers joined by another friend on drums. There isn’t much info on the band out there but they were together for a few years and were able to get this album out there. The album leans more to 70’s light rock but Radio Man turns it up a notch and is a pretty good Rock track. It has an obligatory country track which was a required on any Jesus music album of the period. The real stand out of this album was the quality of the mix and the production. Greg Thompson was credited with assistant Producer and Engineer credits and while he may not be household name he worked on some really good projects in this era. When you hear this one it’s as good as anything that was on Word or Sparrow at the time and really with this quality of production this album should have been picked up by a label for distribution. It had everything they were looking for. Mike Pearsall and Dave Robbins continued on to record as Burton & Logan and we’re actively looking for a copy of their album for you.

Tracklist
1 – Until The Storm Is Past – 4:02
2 – Yours To Stay – 4:19
3 – My Heart Belongs To You – 4:04
4 – Perfect Love – 2:46
5 – Radio Man – 4:13
6 – There Won’t Be A Better Time – 2:19
7 – Puppet – 04:09
8 – Psalm 40 – 3:30
9 – As For Me And My House – 3:25
10 – Look Beyond Today – 3:26

Credits
Guitars, Vocals – Rob Robbins
Keyboards, Vocals – Dave Robbins
Guitars, Drums, Percussion, Vocals – Rob Pearsall
Bass, Vocals – Mike Pearsall
Drums, Percussion – Keny Baiza
Pedal Steel Guitar – Ismael Garcia
Executive Producer – Tom Murphy
Produced by – Rob Pearsall & Greg Thompson
Arranged by – Tradewind
Orchestrated by – Rob Pearsall
Recorded & Mixed – Greg Thompson
Mastered by – Steve Hall
Cover Design and Artwork – Thel Arthur
Photography – David Pavol, Eric Simonson

Jim Thomson II + Preflyte – Message at 33⅓ – 1979

Jim Thomson is one of the most prolific artists you never heard of. He claims to have over “100 releases and production or writing credits for about 30 other artists”. I don’t know if he means 100 songs or albums but he has way over 100 songs so he must mean albums. Anyway this is where it started for him and what a start it was. It was a self released effort released in his own country of Canada but he had a great group of studio musicians to augment his own band. The album was produced and engineered by Ron Moore and the production has more of an early 70’s sound than 79. Ron heavily split up the instruments heavily to left or right sides of the stereo track. This kind of production was more common during the origins of stereo but by 1979 was more rare. Anyway it works really well and really accentuates the seventies sound of the album. Point of trivia is that this is one of the earliest albums featuring John Lawry (Petra). This is a great 70’s album with very limited distribution so if you like 70’s style music this one is for you. If you only have time for one track head down to track 9 “Oh Lord” which is my choice for best track.

Tracklist
1 – Be My Song – 0:42
2 – I’ve Got Jesus – 3:09
3 – Lonely One – 2:58
4 – New Song – 1:56
5 – Blend – 4:19
6 – Train For Thought – 2:54
7 – Eternal Light Brigade – 5:12
8 – Come Follow – 3:34
9 – Oh Lord – 2:55
10 – Showdown – 2:18
11 – You Are The Song – 2:21
12 – Be My Song (Reprise) – 1:15

Credits
Bass – Stephen Romanow
Cello, Mandolin – Dorothy Nielsen
Drums – Barry Salmon
Electric Guitar [Rhythm] – Kevin Rogers
Keyboards, Strings – John Lawry
Producer [Assistant], Engineer – Ron Moore
Trumpet, Percussion – Danny Srnec
Vocals – Joe Paquette
Vocals, Acoustic Guitar – Jim Thomson II
Vocals, Percussion – Danny Thomson

Farrell And Farrell – A Portrait Of Us All – 1979

This is the second album from Bob and Jayne and Word records (The distributor) promoted it like crazy. It included the enduring hit “Boundless Love” (originally written and released by Dennis Loewen) which made it to #13 on the CCM charts. The bigger hit on the album was actually “All You Need” which climbed to #3. This track featured Amy Grant on background vocals which must have had something to do with the albums producer Brown Bannister. Bob said in an interview that he sought out Bannister after hearing Amy’s first album. Brown listen to some of the Farrell’s first album and wanted to do this album. They headed into Gold Mine Studios in Nashville, which was owned by Chris Christian, and cut the album. Farrell & Farrell are not exactly my preferred genre but they always seemed to have the ability to get a few tracks on each album that I liked. Most of this album is soft rock but there’s a few tracks that keep me interested. This in one of the CCM era albums that everyone should listen to.

Tracklist
1 – I Couldn’t Live Without You – 3:44
2 – Fallen – 3:55
3 – Put More Love In Me – 3:23
4 – Can’t Ask Anything More – 2:27
5 – Boundless Love – 3:34
6 – No Need – 3:04
7 – Find It In The Word – 2:52
8 – Jailhouse Rock (Acts 16:16-34) – 1:50
9 – All You Need – 4:44
10 – Scars – 4:12
11 – A Place In His Heart For You – 3:03

Credits
Acoustic Guitar – Jon Goin, Larry Byrom, Ron Elder
Backing Vocals – Amy Grant, Ava Gardner, Cindy Richardson, Marie Clark
Bass – Jack Williams, Jerry Bridges, Mike Leach
Congas, Bongos – Terry McMillan
Cymbal – Terry McMillan
Drums – Kenny Malone, Roger Clark
Electric Guitar – Jon Goin, Larry Byrom
Electric Piano – Randy Goodrum, Bobby Ogden, Shane Keister
Flugelhorn – Harrison Calloway, Jr.
Flute – Quittman Dennis
Horn – Charles Rose, Harrison Calloway, Jr., Harvey Thompson, Ron Eades
Lead Vocals – Bob Farrell, Jayne Farrell
Lyricon – Quittman Dennis
Organ – Shane Keister
Percussion – Roger Clark, Terry McMillan
Piano [Acoustic Piano] – Bobby Ogden, Randy Goodrum, Shane Keister
Strings – Shelly Kurland Strings
Synthesizer – Shane Keister
Saxophone, Lyricon – Quittman Dennis
Trombone – Charles Rose

Companies, etc.
Phonographic Copyright ℗ – Newpax Records, Inc.
Copyright © – Newpax Records, Inc.
Published By – Paragon Music Corp.
Published By – Bug & Bear Music
Distributed By – Word, Inc.
Distributed By – Word Records Limited
Distributed By – The Benson Company
Produced For – Chris Christian Productions
Recorded At – Gold Mine Studio
Recorded At – Sound Stage Studios
Mastered At – Masterfonics

Malcolm Wild – Broken Chains – 1979

You likely know Malcolm better as a member of the Malcolm & Alwyn duo but he did have a solo album and this is it. After the second Malcolm & Alwyn album they went their separate ways with Malcolm moving to the U.S. to work with Maranatha music. This is the album that came out of that relationship. The album features many of the Gang from Calvary Chapel Cosa Mesa including almost all the members of Gentle Faith but with drumming duty being shared between John Mehler and Greg Gustafson. There were many others appearing but I won’t list them all because it would take quite awhile, there was that many of them. Anyway this was my first time hearing this album and while I do like the album it just doesn’t have the magic touch that Malcolm and Alwyn had when they worked together. It ha s a strong 70’s feel and like I say it’s pretty good but it really lacked a track that stood out and made me want to listen to the rest of the album. That said this is still a great 70’s album and it deserves a listen.

Tracklist
1 – When You Call – 3:45
2 – Morning Star – 3:05
3 – Broken Chains – 4:53
4 – Was It You My Love? – 3:50
5 – Dreams – 3:49
6 – Pride (Before A Fall) – 3:44
7 – The Best Is You – 3:04
8 – You’re The Reason – 3:45
9 – Love Is You – 3:14
10 – The Prize – 3:32

Credits
Arranged By [Basic Track Arrangement Assistance] – Don Gerber, Henry Cutrona
Arranged By [String Arrangements] – Colin Owen
Art Direction [Inner Sleeve] – Neal Buchanan
Artwork, Art Direction – Jim Shepard
Co-producer – John Pac, Malcolm Wild
Concept By [Cover] – Malcolm Wild
Engineer – Chris Taylor, Colin Owen
Mastered By – Bernie Grundman
Photography By – Linda Dillon
Photography By [Assisted By] – Gary De Lacy, Steve Churchill
Vocals, Harmony Vocals – Malcolm Wild

Companies, etc.
Phonographic Copyright ℗ – Pilgrim Records
Recorded At – Maranatha! Studio
Recorded At – The Old Smithy Recording Studio
Mixed At – The Old Smithy Recording Studio
Mastered At – A&M Studios

Bryn Haworth – Keep The Ball Rolling – 1979

This is Bryn’s 4th album and while his previous album “Grand Arrival” was released in the U.S. I can’t find any record of this one being released outside of Europe and Japan. I was a big fan of Bryn in the 80’s but where I lived the only album available to us was “Pass It On” and “The Gap”. It is great that all these years later I can listen to his other work. This is a rather atypical album from Bryn and falls in line with most of his work. As such there aren’t any real outstanding track but I found Bryn’s version of the Righteous Brothers’ Unchained Melody pretty good but he did it as an instrumental and I think he should have done the vocals too.

Tracklist
1 – Keep The Ball Rolling – 4:02
2 – First Time – 3:52
3 – Let Me Love You – 4:22
4 – Standing On The Rock – 3:59
5 – City Boy – 6:00
6 – Party Girl – 2:12
7 – Luxury Liner – 3:29
8 – Unchained Melody – 4:02
9 – Unemployment Blues – 3:58
10 – Working For Love – 4:35

Credits
Arranged By [Brass] – Lyle Harper
Arranged By [Strings] – Ted Astley
Baritone Saxophone – Bud Beadle
Bass – Dave Markee
Drums – Henry Spinetti
Keyboards – Pete Wingfield
Percussion – Simon Morton
Producer – Doug Bennett, Jon Astley
Saxophone – Jim Cuomo
Saxophone, Flute – Mel Collins, Steve Gregory
Trombone – Terry Hellyer
Trumpet, Flugelhorn – Martin Drover
Vocals, Guitar – Bryn Haworth