I am the first to admit that Julie Miller’s voice is not for everyone. Personally I love it and I love her music. Julie’s husband Buddy Miller handled all the instruments on the album and did a great job. The album also included backing vocals from Colvin, Williams, Grant and Willard. Mark Heard and Reverend Dan Smith. In particular the track with Reverend Dan Smith, “Don’t Let The Devil Ride” is a fantastic track and my pick for the best track on the album. That said this album also included the track “Broken Things” which Julie actually rerecorded for her 1999 album with that title. I think most of her fans far prefer this track. Anyway give the album a listen and if you like her voice I guarantee you will love this album.
Tracklist 1 – I Will Follow You – 4:16 2 – He Walks Through Walls – 4:08 3 – Never Gonna Give Up On You – 3:12 4 – Angelina – 3:52 5 – Broken Things – 3:14 6 – Just Want You – 2:54 7 – Don’t Let The Devil Ride – 2:10 8 – Naked Heart – 2:50 9 – How Long – 2:39 10 – Manger Throne – 3:02
Credits Arranged By – Julie Miller backing vocals – Colvin, Williams, Grant and Willard. Mark Heard, Reverend Dan Smith Composed By – Julie Miller (tracks: 1 to 6, 8 to 10) Engineer – Dan Garcia, Dan Willard, Ted Spencer Guitar, Bass Guitar, Drums, Backing Vocals – Buddy Miller Mastered By – Steve Hall Mixed By – Dan Garcia (tracks: 4, 7, 9), Dave Leonard* Producer – Buddy Miller, Dan Posthuma, Julie Miller Written-By – Buddy Miller (tracks: 1)
Companies, etc. Manufactured By – Word, Inc. Phonographic Copyright ℗ – Word, Inc. Copyright – Word, Inc. Recorded At – Dogtown Studio
One of the best debut albums in CCM history, Out of the Gery’s self-titled released was so “out of the ordinary” for mainstream CCM as to make one wonder how why they signed to such a major label as Sparrow. Husband and wife duo Christine and Scott Dente made a great career of thoughtful, intelligent and stirring music. Scott is a very underrated guitar player (acoustic or electric) and Christine’s voice is both diverse and consistent. I saw Scott play with Phil Keaggy and Scott did more than just hold his own with the legend. Christine’s voice will sometimes (especially here) draw comparisons to Over the Rhine and The Innocence Mission, with less lilt and more punch. The pop and radio friendly songs are very good, but it is on the more adventurous tunes that the depth and creativity really shows. “Write My Life” has the previously mentioned Innocence Mission feel and matches vocal and music perfectly. Remember this continues to sound fresh and He Is Not Silent is nothing short of brilliant. Literally one could make a mention of every song here and find something worthy to discuss. there is not one forgettable song with only “Dance” not quit fitting with the rest of the album, though it is a good song on its own. Their career has not kept up the steam the debut built up and there has not been a new recording in several years, but one should not think they are not making music or out of the industry. Both continue to appear of friends’ albums and Scott’s guitar work can still be heard on occasional releases. That all should not discount just how great an initial release this album is.
Contributor David Lowman – https://legacyccmsgreatestalbums.wordpress.com/
Tracklist 1 – Wishes – 4:58 2 – Write My Life – 4:11 3 – Remember This – 4:31 4 – The Dance – 3:36 5 – He Is Not Silent – 4:00 6 – Better Way To Fall – 4:31 7 – Time Will Tell – 3:21 8 – Perfect Circle – 5:00 9 – The Only Moment – 3:15 10 – The Deep – 3:21
Credits Acoustic Guitar, Electric Guitar, Vocals – Scott Denté Art Direction, Design – Heather Horne Backing Vocals – Vicki Hampton, Vince Ebo Bass – Tommy Sims Booking – Jeff Roberts & Associates Drums – Chris McHugh, Steve Grossman Electric Guitar – Jerry McPherson Engineer [Additional Engineering] – Kevin Twit Engineer [Assistant] – Buzz Leffler, Garrett Rockey, Jonathan Beach Executive-Producer – Peter York Mastered By – Ken Love Mixed By – Bill Deaton, Craig Hansen, Rick Will Mixed By [Assisted By] – Graham Lewis Percussion – Eric Darken Performer [Out Of The Grey] – Christine Denté, Scott Denté Photography By – Chris Carroll Piano, Keyboards, Programmed By – Charlie Peacock Producer, Arranged By – Charlie Peacock Programmed By [Additional Programming], Engineer – Craig Hansen Programmed By [Sampling] – Blair Masters Tambourine – Rick Will Vocals – Christine Denté Written-By – Charlie Peacock, Christine Denté, Scott Denté
I remember hearing about this blond with a monster voice that had appeared on “everybody’s” albums, and regularly with one of my musical heroes, John Hiatt had signed a mainstream record deal with Atlantic. But nothing prepared me for the pushing play on my CD players and the a capella vocal strains of “Soon and Very Soon” busted through the clutter of modern music with sledge hammer. Damn, what a voice! Then i was even more pleasantly surprised to discover an album rich in textures, loaded with incredible talent and filled with brilliantly conceived and produced songs. There is really not a dud on the entire project. Of course Cleveland could also sing Presbyterian Book of Church Order and make it sound like Maggies Farm. I soon discovered Cleveland was an artist and not just a voice; a singer-songwriter with credentials to spare. But still I come back to that voice. Throwing out comparisons and superlatives will do her pipes no justice. A wonderful combination of Joplin passion, Slick rock cred and a bluesy, smokey vibe that is unmatched. In all honesty this should not have been the only album of hers to make list and that oversight is purely mine. That notwithstanding her debut here stands out heads and shoulders above most of her contemporaries and like nothing else in CCM at the time. I highly recommend her recent traditional blues and Gospel projects as well.
Contributor David Lowman – https://legacyccmsgreatestalbums.wordpress.com/
Tracklist 1 – Soon And Very Soon / Big Town – 5:10 2 – Love On The Mainline – 4:59 3 – Willy – 4:40 4 – I Could Learn To Love You – 7:14 5 – Tentative Man – 4:00 6 – Angel – 4:41 7 – Up From The Ether – 5:31 8 – We Can Dance – 4:40 9 – I’ll Call You – 5:41 10 – Walk To The Well – 5:22 11 – Rebecca – 5:19
Credits Acoustic Guitar, Vocals – Ashley Cleveland Bass – Glenn Worf Drums, Percussion – Craig Krampf Electric Guitar – Kenny Greenberg Keyboards – Bill Cuomo Mastered By – Doug Sax Mixed By – Craig Krampf, Niko Bolas Producer – Craig Krampf, Niko Bolas Recorded By – Niko Bolas
Though Billy was all over the Christian music scene through the 70’s and 89’s he didn’t release this his first solo album until 1991. While his high school friend David Diggs was with him on his previous work he doesn’t appear on this album. At this point in his career Billy was working with The Praise Band, later called the Tommy Coomes Band but that work went uncredited until later in the decade. Billy was also doing a ton of writing at this time and wrote hits fir several artists. As for the album it’s a easy listening album but with a great 80’s sound. I’m still not a huge fan of easy listening but this is the kind of easy listening I can get into.
Tracklist 1 – I Long For Your Love – 3:15 2 – O Lord, Come – 4:39 3 – I Will Be With You – 4:15 4 – Call For Surrender – 3:05 5 – There Will Come A Time – 4:42 6 – A Little Broken Bread – 5:18 7 – Walking On The Water – 4:04 8 – The Reign Is Over – 4:08 9 – To Every Generation – 3:38 10 – Nobody Like You – 4:41 11 – Your Throne O God – 3:39
Credits Acoustic Guitar, Electric Guitar, Keyboards, Lead Vocals – Billy Batstone* Backing Vocals – Anne Barbour, Billy Batstone, John Barbour, John Batdorf Bass Guitar – David Miner Chapman Stick – Fergus Marsh Classical Guitar [Nylon Strting Guitar] – Bob Somma Design, Layout – Gary DeLacy Drums – Jack Kelly Engineer, Mixed By – Mark Heard Harmonica – Mark Heard Music By – Billy Batstone, John Schreiner, Wayne Brasel Percussion – Brad Dutz Photography By – Michael Going Producer, Arranged By – Billy Batstone Typography [Typesetting] – Russell Heistuman Words By – Billy Batstone
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
This is the second and last album from The Crucified. The line up changed slightly with Jeff Bellew replacing Mark Johnson on bass but everyone else stayed the course. I think this album is actually a bit better than their first but it very similar just with slightly better vocals or perhaps it’s been better engineered. Unfortunately the band split after this album and in fact toured very little to support the album. They did however come back together for a good bye show at Cornerstone Festival. Everyone went on to further projects including, Stavesacre, Neon Horse, The Blamed, CHATTERbOX, and Applehead. After a long battle with Ocean Records the band was able to get the rights to their music and released a complete collection CD set. The band also returned to touring including a show at Cornerstone Festival in July 2009.
Tracklist 1 – Intro / Hateworld – 5:20 2 – It’s All About Fear – 2:29 3 – The Wrong One – 3:41 4 – Mindbender – 3:53 5 – Path To Sorrow – 4:02 6 – Fellowship Of Thieves – 3:12 7 – Focus – 2:32 8 – The Strength – 3:53 9 – Blackstone / So-Called Living, 1991 – 4:16 10 – The Pillars Of Humanity – 2:57
Credits Artwork – Rick Catizone Artwork [Inside] – Mark Salomon Bass – Jeff Bellew Design Concept, Cover – Mark Salomon, Rick Catizone Drums – Jim Chaffin Guitar – Greg Minier Photography By [Group Shots] – Perry Cooper Photography By [Individual Shots] – Andrew P. Watrous, Teddi Sherrer Producer, Mixed By, Engineer – Chris Morris, The Crucified Vocals – Mark Salomon
This is a rather odd sampler from Pakaderm Records. I’m not entirely sure but I think the point of this sampler was to hear these artists doing sort of an acoustic track. This is a little weird because there are a few artists here that usually only do this style of music so like I say I’m a little confused at what the Elefante brothers were trying to achieve here. I’m even further confused as most of the tracks seem to be newly written and the recordings are only with the performer as the vocalist and the album appears to utilize a studio band. I honestly don’t think most of the artists understood what was going on either because most of the tracks just don’t work in my opinion. There are 3 tracks that in my opinion did get it. The 2 tracks form Richie Furay are absolutely excellent and include an appearance form Darrell Mansfield on harmonica. The other track that “got it” is the one from Guardian where they absolutely nail the vocals. Anyway it is what it is and I’d suggest a listen even if it’s just for the 3 tracks I mentioned.
Tracklist 1 – David Robertson – The House Of The Lord – 3:17 2 – Richie Furay – Man Of Many Sorrows – 4:23 3 – Brighton – Taking Back The Land (Jericho) – 4:20 4 – Sara Tennison – What Did I Ever Do – 4:57 5 – X-Sinner – Shelter Me – 3:12 6 – Mark Pogue – Thou Shalt Love – 3:49 7 – Richie Furay – Song Of The Lamb – 3:06 8 – Guardian – Take Up Your Cross – 4:50 9 – Halo – Real Life Conversation – 3:47 10 – The Heard – We Need Jesus – 5:05
Credits Art Direction, Design – Terry DeGraff Backing Vocals [Additional] – Doug Beiden, Sara Tennison Bass – W.C. Jr Cover – David Del Sesto, Terry DeGraff Engineer – Dino Elefante, Doug Beiden, J.R. McNeely, John Elefante Guitar [Additional] – Rock Lobster, Tex Mex Keyboards, Drums – Mack Jack Mandolin, Violin – Matt Brislawn Mastered By – Chris Mixed By – Dino Elefante, Doug Beiden, John Elefante Percussion – “Chi Chi” Allison Producer – Dino Elefante, John Elefante
In 1989 Steve Taylor put together Chagall Guevara with the goal of conquering the secular record charts. After a flurry of bass players they finally put out this their first album in 1991. It didn’t do great but I do remember the single “Violent Blue” getting some airplay in my market in Canada. Strangely the entry for the band in Wikipedia states “All of the band members had histories within the Christian music industry, but the band was an effort to depart from the CCM industry. Despite this, the band still performed at the exclusively Christian music festival Cornerstone, and had their music (albeit against their wishes) distributed through Christian bookstores.” This is absolutely and completely untrue. The band had signed a distribution deal with Sparrow records as well as MCA Records. Obviously they knew Sparrow would distribute it in Christian books stores as that’s the only place they distributed to. Even if Steve has encouraged this rumour it is a complete lie. This was the only album from the band and MCA obviously didn’t think the hassle of Steve Taylor was worth it. Personally I moderately like the album but I don’t think it’s very good luck to name your band after a murderous, Marxist, dictator wannabe, just saying.
Tracklist 1 – Murder In The Big House – 3:48 2 – Escher’s World – 4:14 3 – Play God – 3:43 4 – Monkey Grinder – 6:59 5 – Can’t You Feel The Chains? – 3:09 6 – Violent Blue – 4:01 7 – Love Is A Dead Language – 4:10 8 – Take Me Back To Love Canal – 3:18 9 – The Wrong George – 1:58 10 – Candy Guru – 4:07 11 – I Need Somebody – 3:33 12 – The Rub Of Love – 4:13 13 – If It All Comes True – 3:35
Credits A&R – Paul Kremen, Teresa Ensenat Art Direction, Design – Tim Stedman Bass – Wade Jaynes Drums – Mike Mead Engineer [Additional Engineering By] – Matt Wallace Engineer [Assisted By] – Mike Corbett, Roy Gamble, Shawn McLean, Ulrich Wild Engineer [Engineered By] – David Bryson Guitar, Vocals – Dave Perkins, L. Arthur Nichols Management [Lookout Management] – Elliot Roberts, Frank Gironda Mastered By – Bob Ludwig Mixed By – David Bryson, Matt Wallace Photography By – Michael Lavine Producer [Produced By] – Chagall Guevara, Matt Wallace Songwriter [All Songs Written By] – Dave Perkins, Lynn Nichols, Steve Taylor Vocals – Steve Taylor Words By, Music By – Dave Perkins, Lynn Nichols, Steve Taylor
So we have about 500 albums we still have to upload to YouTube and sometimes the selection of what album to do next takes a funny turn. This is one of those albums. For some reason I said to myself hey lets listen to this Michael Omartian album. Now normally Michael would not be one of my go to albums as I’m not really a fan of his usual style of music. Imagine my surprise when I picked up this great pop album. Strangely this was pretty well Michael’s last solo project though he did some work in the 2000’s. I’m a little mystified as I think this is his best album yet. It’s not piano heavy at all and he just seems to play keyboards without trying to stand out. If you usually find Michael’s music a bit dull give this one a listen. I think you’ll be surprised.
Tracklist 1 – Faithful Forever – 4:35 2 – Heartbreak City – 5:28 3 – Let My Heart Be The First To Know – 3:48 4 – Kingdoms – 4:32 5 – Cry From The East – 6:29 6 – Alone – 5:05 7 – Last Night On Earth – 5:01 8 – Morning Light – 5:45 9 – Burn It Up – 3:42 10 – Kingdoms (Instrumental Reprise) – 3:20
Credits David Ahlert – Engineer David Boruff – Saxophone Raymone Carter – Background Vocals Terry Christian – Engineer, Mixed Bryan Duncan – Background Vocals Alice Echols – Background Vocals Steve Hall – Engineer, Mastered Jean Johnson – Background Vocals Don Kirkpatrick – Guitar Michael Omartian – Producer, Songwriter, Arrangements, Drum Programming, Keyboards, Bass, Vocals David Raven – Drums Susanne Schwartz – Background Vocals Stephen Tavani – Background Vocals
Strangely in the U.S. this album was called “Reunion Of The Heart” but in the U.K. it was called “Shine Like America”. Continuing on the strange Phil & John were from the U.K. and the album was recorded in the U.K. so where did Shine Like America come into play? The U.K. release was on What? Records which was a joint label owned by Word and A&M so maybe someone at A&M came up with this idea. Well it doesn’t effect the quality of the album which of course is great because Phil & John were great artists. This album is more their easy listening pop style than their humour style. They we’re likely trying to recreate the success of Lonely Dancer but didn’t quite make it although “Reunion Of The Heart” did make it to #22 on the CCM charts.
Tracklist 1 – My Potential – 4:33 2 – Wait Patiently For Me – 4:10 3 – Reunion Of The Heart – 4:25 4 – Jennifer Jones – 4:14 5 – Fire Of Ambition – 4:16 6 – Quiet Storm – 4:43 7 – Every Little Step I Take – 4:09 8 – Don’t “Shoot Them Down” In Flames – 4:14 9 – Sweet Rose Tuesday – 4:02 10 – Shine Like America – 3:59 11 – April Rain – 3:33
Credits A&R – Lynn Keesecker Backing Vocals – Miriam Stockley Design – James Kessell Executive-Producer – David Bruce Photography By – Simon Anderson Producer, Electric Guitar, Acoustic Guitar, Engineer, Mixed By – Neil Costello Producer, Keyboards, Drum Programming, Backing Vocals – Chris Eaton Saxophone – Martin Green Vocals – John Hartley, Phil Baggaley
