The story goes that Jeff cut this album/demo in 3 days to demo his guitar work. The story is that it was picked up by a Mexican label and then he got a record deal with Pure Metal records but in reality the timeline doesn’t work so I have no idea how that all worked. I do know that in 2005 this album along with his second album “Woodpecker Stomp” were released as a single CD. As for what we have here is some excellent heavy guitar work. The album is an instrumental which is a little disappointing because there’s some great tracks here but it was recorded as a demo so I understand why. Many people consider Jeff one of the best guitarists in the genre and I have to admit listening to this album will probably support that view.
Credits Bass – Eddie Pruitt Drums – Gabriel Anthony Engineer – Alan Pangelinan Guitar, Producer – Jeff Scheetz Keyboards – Eric Greif Producer – Eric Greif
While Andy Piercy was off recording his new album Peter Banks and Pete King went into the studio to record this rather excellent album. Even though it was recorded and mixed in Peter’s home studio it sounds radio ready to me. I am assuming they shopped the album around but like all things After The Fire the record labels didn’t want it. I will try to not go off on a tangent again about how After The Fire and subsequent member recordings were treated but I just simply can’t understand how this didn’t get picked up. Anyway it lived on a shelf until Pete King’s death in 1987 when Peter took it back out to try to get it released in memory of Pete. Lucky for us Christian label Plankton Records picked up the ball and released the album. Unfortunately it looks like it was only released on cassette and of course it had a tiny distribution so most of us never heard it but here it is. This is yet another excellent 80’s sounding album that we should have been able to hear at the time.
Tracklist 1 – Got My Reasons – 3:46 2 – Making It Tougher – 2:58 3 – I Won’t Go Home – 2:34 4 – Hold Me Tight – 3:38 5 – Where Are You Now – 3:36 6 – Let It Go – 3:38 7 – Hold On – 2:53 8 – Never Let It Be Said – 3:37 9 – Nothing You Can Say – 3:22 10 – Found You Out – 3:04 11 – Call Me Up – 4:22 12 – Something special – 3:28
Credits Peter Banks Peter King Stewart Van Blandameyer Elana Harris Mark Pearson Colin Pye Keith Smith Dave West Simon Wilkinson
Usually I bash Chris Harris and Mark Heimermann and their Prism projects but not this time. As I’ve been processing CCM artist’s Christmas albums this week more and more of them sounded like the record company recorded a bunch of Christmas carol arrangements and then invited a CCM artist in to sing them. None of these albums had a feel of the artist and quite frankly the arrangements sound like any album I could buy at Walmart for 99¢ in December. But not this album. Chris and Mark actually sat down and wrote some excellent arrangements for these tracks and did some great vocals. I have no idea who else was involved with this project but it is great as far as Christmas albums go. Many of these tracks will go on my Christmas playlist this year.
1 – Joy To The World – 3:41 2 – O Holy Night – 4:05 3 – Snowdrift / Silent Night – 5:09 4 – White Christmas – 4:22 5 – It Came Upon A Midnight Clear – 2:01 6 – Away In A Manager – 4:33 7 – O Come All Ye Faithful – 4:52 8 – The First Noel – 3:25 9 – Angels We Have Heard On High – 3:16 10 – Only Love (Will Last Forever) – 4:09
This is the final album in the Prism series. I’ll be honest I still don’t understand what the project was really all about. Again there are children on the cover of the album that have nothing to do with the album. I truly believe the original idea was Kidz Bop idea but in the end it just turned into Chris Harris and Mark Heimermann doing an album. I actually find it a bit disingenuous to have a bunch of kids on the album cover when they have nothing to do with the album. Very strange. Now that aside these were a series of very successful albums because they are very good. These guys knew how to make music and I am totally baffled at why they didn’t want to do it using their own names. Thy did have First Call do the track “If You’re Happy And You Know It”. Bottom line is I really like the whole project, the results were fantastic I’m just not sure the path they took to get there.
Tracklist 1 – Amazing Grace – 3:37 2 – Kum-Ba-Yah – 4:49 3 – He’s Got The Whole World In His Hands – 4:54 4 – If You’re Happy And You Know It/I’m Happy Today – 2:25 5 – Love Him In The Morning – 3:39 6 – Seek Ye First – 3:15 7 – Sure Shot – 3:48 8 – Count Your Many Blessings/Can You Count The Stars – 3:01 9 – Big Enough – 3:43 10 – The Lord Bless You And Keep You – 2:03
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
This is the final album from The Predators (they did come back together in 2011 for a modern release). It was self released and only available on Cassette as far as I can tell. By this album all that was left from the original band was drummer Francis Johnson and of course lead vocalist Kevin Smith. This album drifts away from their new wave pop sound to pretty strait up AOR pop album. At the urging of Kevin Smith’s daughter the band came back together in Sept. 2008 and had a private night of playing their oldies. Subsequently a version of the band did come back together to record a new album which was independently released in 2011. I look forward to giving it a listen but today I’m going to give this album another listen. If you want to read a definitive interview with the band head over to https://downthelinezine.com/archives/the-predators/
Tracklist 1 – Your World – 3:57 2 – No Connection – 3:03 3 – Fallen Angel – 4:07 4 – Nothing At All – 3:05 5 – Built On Sand – 6:27 6 – Love You To Death – 3:23 7 – Dead On Arrival – 3:56 8 – Lies (The Human Jungle) – 5:05 9 – Don’t Laugh At Me Now – 4:08 10 – Rescue Me – 4:17
Credits Bass, Acoustic Guitar, Backing Vocals, Producer – Andy Rayner Drums, Percussion – Francis Johnson Engineer – Lol Cooper Guitar – Paul Truswell Lead Vocals, Percussion – Kevin Smith
There is kind of an interesting story behind this album. The band actually split in 1987 but John McNamara and Glenn Holland continued writing material. With the blessing of the departed members they came to an agreement with Ojo Taylor and Gene Eugene at Broken Records for a third album. Gene Eugene produced (assisted), mixed, and engineered the album. The new version of the band even did a small tour with Glenn’s brother Kenny on drums and John Gaudesi on guitar. As for the album well quite frankly it just isn’t the original version of the band. I did not know about all the personnel changes in the band before I listened to the album and thought it just didn’t sound right and after some research I discovered why. Really this album should be evaluated as a stand alone group. It’s a lot darker then their previous work but is a solid new wave album. I think it should definitely be given a listen but remember your listening to a very modified version of the band.
Tracklist 1 – Judas Kisses – 4:48 2 – Oh No – 4:33 3 – Push (These Walls Down) – 3:59 4 – Sacrifice – 3:58 5 – Beautiful Places – 3:10 6 – This Is Love – 3:16 7 – Death Of Innocence – 4:31 8 – Pray For Rain – 4:50 9 – Don’t Make Me Cry – 3:40 10 – What Am I To Do? – 3:20 11 – Standing On The Edge – 4:44 12 – Push (Reprise) – 1:39 13 – Untitled Hidden Track – 0:30
Credits Arranged By [Additional Arrangement Ideas] – Gene Eugene Art Direction, Design – Norman Fog Bass, Keyboards – Glenn Holland Drums – Kenny Holland Mastered By – John Matousek Photography By – Brian Ray Producer [Produced By] – Gene Eugene, Glenn Holland, John McNamara Recorded By [Additional Recording By] – Dave Hackbarth Recorded By, Mixed By – Gene Eugene, Glenn Holland Songwriter [All Songs Written By], Arranged By [All Songs Arranged By] – Glenn Holland, John McNamara Vocals, Acoustic Guitar – John McNamara
Whitecross released this EP shortly after releasing their first album. I’m not entirely sure what the strategy was here as 2 of the tracks from this EP are actually on that first album. If I had to guess I think they probably wanted this to be released before their first album but something went wrong along the way and it was delayed but that is strictly a guess. As I said the album contained 2 tracks from their first album the other 2 tracks wouldn’t appear on an album until much later. Anyway this must have been a treat for Whitecross fans and with 2 unreleased tracks it must have been a must own. Interestingly it was only released on vinyl and cassette with the same four tracks simply repeated on the flip side.
Tracklist 1 – Love On The Line – 6:00 2 – I Believe – 3:52 3 – No Way I’m Going Down – 4:12 4 – Enough Is Enough – 4:04
Credits Bass – Jon Sproule Drums – Mark Hedl Engineer – Dan Rudin Executive Producer – Gavin Morkel Guitar – Rex Carroll Producer – Rex Carroll Vocals – Scott Wenzel
This was Bruce’s second album and wow was it a success. His first album was passed over by most people but this album got noticed. It had 4 top 40 hits with “Above And Beyond” making it to #4 and “Driving Nails” making it to #11 as well as two other hits at #24 and #31. It was produced by Bubba Smith who really nailed this album. The album is an AOR genre style but there are a few tracks that lean more towards Rock. I’m actually a little surprised how well it did. I’m not saying it’s not good, it’s just that like I said it has a couple Rock tracks and we know that the CCM chart people usually shied away from albums like this. But all that aside this is an excellent album and I really enjoyed it. There’s at least 2 tracks that will be making it into my regular rotation.
Tracklist 1 – Cross Your Heart – 2:24 2 – Above And Beyond – 3:13 3 – When He Reigns He Pours – 3:20 4 – Fight To Be Weak – 3:00 5 – The Richest Man In Town – 3:42 6 – Only You – 3:29 7 – Song For You – 3:41 8 – It Is Finished – 3:11 9 – He’s Always There – 4:09 10 – Forget It – 3:44 11 – Something Good Is Bound To Happen – 3:47 12 – Let Go Let God – 2:53 13 – Driving Nails – 3:36
Credits Bruce Carroll – Songwriter, Vocals Russ Barenburg – Guitars Phil Barnhart – Songwriter Eddie Bayers – Drums Mark Casstevens – Guitars Mark Douthit – EWI Stuart Duncan – Fiddle Terri Gibbs – Songwriter Carl Gorodetzky – Strings Lloyd Green – Steel Guitar Buddy Greene – Songwriter, Harmonica Chris Harris – Background Vocals Mark Heimermann – Background Vocals Gary Janney – Background Vocals Bill Kenner – Mandolin Brent King – Mixed Barbara Kinnamon – Songwriter Bruce Koblish – String Arranger Bob Krusen – Engineer Larrie Londin – Drums Phil Madeira – B-3 Organ Kenny Malone – Drums, Percussion, Tambourine John Mays – Executive Producer Jerry McPherson – Guitars Duncan Mullins – Bass Nashville String Machine – Strings Maura O’Connell – Harmony Vocals Paul Overstreet – Songwriter, Background Vocals Don Potter – Guitars Kelly Pribble – Engineer Gary Prim – Keyboards Matt Rollings – Piano Brent Rowan – Guitars Jerry Salley – Songwriter Bubba Smith – Producer, Castanets, Claves, Tambourine Paul Smith – Songwriter Bob Souerv – Songwriter
This may actually be the best Metal band that never got a record deal. Hear me out on this one. They appeared on two Metal compilations, Heavy Righteous Metal,Chapter II and Brave New Music. They opened for Rez Band, Shout, Sacred Warrior, Mylon LeFevre and Allies. They also took second place in the new talent stage at Cornerstone 1989 and won the battle of the bands competition at metal club Alrosa Villa in the winter of 1989. These guys were hugely popular yet a record deal evaded them. They recorded 14 tracks for this demo but only 6 tracks made it and of course it’s almost impossible to find this demo now. That said Eonian Records stepped up in 2010 released all 14 demo tracks on CD. It took 20 years but the guys finally got their music out there.
Tracklist 1 – Salvation Is Law – 4:44 2 – Live It – 4:04 3 – Don’t Run Away – 3:13 4 – Change Of A Broken Heart – 2:54 5 – You Need Love – 4:22 6 – Red, White, And Blue – 5:57
Credits Bass Guitar, Backing Vocals – John D. Rice Drums, Percussion [Other Rude Noises] – “Jungle” John Jenkins Engineer, Producer – Brian Strittenberger Guitar, Backing Vocals – Fred Blanchard, Matt Rice Lead Vocals, Backing Vocals – Doug Meacham Piano, Keyboards – Jeff Koenig
Companies, etc. Recorded At – The Recording Workshop Studio
