Various – The Everlastin’ Living Jesus Music Concert – 1971

Generally speaking we avoid compilation albums but the early ones from Maranatha are sometimes pretty special and that’s the case with this one. Fist of all let me say that this sounds like it might be a live album. It is not. We will dive into this topic a little more on another one of these albums coming up in a few weeks. This album is a gem because of all the unreleased tracks and some of them are really good. Great to hear a very early Gentle Faith (Darrell Mansfield). The highlight of the album is actually a released track from Love Song. I really enjoy “Little Country Church” because of Bob Wall’s great guitar work. Anyway this is some of the best of the Jesus music years. Below are the origins of each track;

1 – Love Song – Little Country Church (Appeared on their self titled album released 1971)
2 – Selah – In Jesus’ Name (Unreleased)
3 – Blessed Hope – Something More (Unreleased)
4 – Country Faith – Two Roads (Unreleased)
5 – Various – Holy, Holy, Holy (Compilation Unreleased)
6 – Gentle Faith – The Shepherd (Unreleased)
7 – Debby Kerner – Behold, I Stand At The Door (Appeared on her 1972 album Come Walk With Me)
8 – The Way – If You Will Believe – (Unreleased)
9 – Love Song – Maranatha (Unreleased until their 2010 Box set)
10 – Children Of The Day – For Those Tears I Died (Appeared on their 1971 album Come To The Waters

Tracklist
1 – Love Song – Little Country Church – 2:38
2 – Selah – In Jesus’ Name – 3:47
3 – Blessed Hope – Something More – 3:30
4 – Country Faith – Two Roads – 5:40
5 – Various – Holy, Holy, Holy – 3:00
6 – Gentle Faith – The Shepherd – 3:30
7 – Debby Kerner – Behold, I Stand At The Door – 2:05
8 – The Way – If You Will Believe – 4:22
9 – Love Song – Maranatha – 3:30
10 – Children Of The Day – For Those Tears I Died – 5:10

Credits
Design – Barry Malone, Kernie Erickson
Photography By – Gary Conniff (tracks: Gary Connif)
Producer [Not Credited] – Chuck Girard

Gentle Faith – (self titled) – 1976

Gentle Faith was Darrell Mansfield’s first band and they released their only album in 1976.

This album varies greatly in style as there are some light rock 70’s style tunes, a few bluegrass songs, and one good solid rock song. Most of the other band members from Gentle Faith worked with Darrell in future projects.

While this album is all over the place it should be listened to for the sake of hearing where Darrell came from.

Tracklist
1 – Simple Song
2 – Living In The Sonshine
3 – The Whole Lump Of Dough
4 – It’s So Good To Know
5 – Jerusalem
6 – Noah
7 – My Love For You
8 – Goin’ Back Home
9 – Turnaround
10 – Home

Credits
Acoustic Guitar, Banjo, Mandolin, Vocals – Don Gerber
Art Direction – Neal Buchanan
Artwork [Embroidery] – Nona Cutrona
Backing Vocals – Virgil Beckham
Bass, Lead Vocals, Acoustic Guitar – Henry Cutrona
Co-producer [Production Assistance] – Al Perkins
Drums, Percussion – Paul Angers
Electric Guitar, Bass, Mandolin, Vocals – Steve Kara
Engineer, Mixed By – Jonathan Brown*
Fiddle – Fred Field
Keyboards, Saxophone – Dave Garland*
Lead Vocals, Harmonica – Darrell Mansfield
Photography By – George Fortner, Scott Lockwood
Producer – Virgil Beckham
Resonator Guitar [Dobro] – Leroy McNee*
Strings – Dave Garland* (tracks: B5), Jim Stipech (tracks: A1)