Randy Stonehill – Page 2

Randy Stonehill – The Sky Is Falling – Vinyl – 1980

This is the 1994 CD re-release of the Randy Stonehill album “The Sky Is Falling”. Larry seemed to take forever to re-release this album on CD but let’s remember that the album was originally recorded in 1977 but Larry didn’t get around to releasing it until 1980. This album marked the end of the relationship between Randy and Larry as they went their separate ways. It’s never been confirmed but I think we can pretty well assume the friendship ended because Larry was seeing Randy’s wife behind his back. Again I’m not saying that was the reason but I think it’s a safe assumption. The album has a couple stand out tracks, “The Great American Cure” is one of Larry’s great comedy tunes and my favourite track is “Trouble Coming”, a great Rock & Roll tune. Tom Howard is all over the album on keyboards and you can hear his great work very clear. The CD features bonus material none of which really stood out for me but perhaps the better mix of “Teen King”. The Greenbelt performance of “Good News” was also a pleasant surprise.

Tracklist
1 – One True Love – 4:17
2 – Bad Fruit – 5:08
3 – Jamey’s Got The Blues – 4:08
4 – Through The Glass Darkly – 5:53
5 – The Great American Cure – 3:59
6 – Venezuela – 7:01
7 – Emily – 5:41
8 – Trouble Coming – 4:48
9 – Counterfeit King [Alternate Mix] – 5:16
10 – Teen King [Alternate Mix] – 4:42
11 – Postcards From The Heart [Letter To My Family] – 5:19
12 – King Of Hearts [The Orchestral Version] – 3:14
13 – Good News [Live From Greenbelt] – 4:54

Credits
Acoustic Guitar – Larry Norman, Randy Stonehill
Arranged By – Larry Norman
Artwork – Larry Norman
Autoharp – Larry Norman
Backing Vocals – Sarah Finch
Bass – Dave Coy
Bass – Billy Batstone
Design – Larry Norman
Drums – Alex MacDougall, Peter Johnson
Electric Bass – Larry Norman
Electric Guitar – Jon Linn, Larry Norman, Randy Stonehill
Engineer – Andrew “Just Like That” Johns, Ken Suesov
Graphics – Heidi And Co. Graphics
Graphics [Graphic Printing] – Dan Meireis
Harmonica – Larry Norman
Harmony Vocals – Larry Norman, Randy Stonehill
Keyboards – Tom Howard
Koto – Larry Norman
Layout [CD Booklet] – Makasiyowin, Overmeyer
Lead Vocals – Randy Stonehill
Marimba – Larry Norman
Mixed By – Ken Suesov
Orchestra – Tom Howard
Percussion – Alex MacDougall
Photography – Larry Norman
Piano – Larry Norman, Tom Howard
Producer – Larry Norman
Slide Guitar – Jon Linn
Songwriter – Randy Stonehill
Steel Drums – Larry Norman
Synth [Moog] – Tom Howard
Vocals – Steve Scott

Companies, etc.
Published By – King Of Hearts
Phonographic Copyright (p) – Solid Rock Records
Copyright (c) – Solid Rock Records
Copyright (c) – Street Level Records
Manufactured By – Creative Sound Corp.
Distributed By – Sonrise Music Co.
Printed By – L. Grafix
Glass Mastered At – Technicolor – 100944

Randy Stonehill – The Sky Is Falling – CD – 1980/1994

Randy Stonehill – Love Beyond Reason – 1985

This album is often thought of as Randy’s “safe” album. It sounded much more mainstream than his usual work and by mainstream I mean boring in this case. That said the album was actually pretty good just not representative of Randy’s other work. Of course the big single was a duet with Amy Grant, “I Could Never Say Goodbye” that climbed it’s way to #9 on the CCM charts. Though the album is a bit dull it was a star studded affair with Randy being joined by Bryan Duncan, Keith Green, Bryan Duncan, Mark Heard, Tom Howard, and Tonio K. Most only provided background vocals but Mark Heard Engineered the album as well as providing some guitar tracks. Randy also released a VHS tape in conjunction with the album. It included videos of “Love Beyond Reason,” “Until Your Love Broke Through,” “Hymn,” “You’re Loved Tonight,” “Still Small Voice,” (from Celebrate this Heartbeat) and “The Gods of Men.” Though the album wasn’t overly well received the video was very well received as in this time period any videos of artists were rare.

Tracklist
1 – I Could Never Say Goodbye – 3:44
2 – Love Beyond Reason – 3:36
3 – The Gods Of Men – 4:13
4 – Bells – 4:15
5 – You’re Loved Tonight – 5:50
6 – Until Your Love Broke Through – 4:03
7 – Hymn – 2:47
8 – Angry Young Men – 3:35
9 – Judgement Day – 4:55
10 – Cross That Line – 3:30

Credits
Tim Aller – Simmons Drum Programming
Milo Carter – Guitar
Bryan Duncan – Background Vocals
Todd Fishkind – Songwriter
Richie Furay – Background Vocals
Rick Geragi – Congas, Bongos, Tambourine, Cabasa, Claves, Percussion
Amy Grant – Duet Vocals
Keith Green – Songwriter
Don Griffin – Guitar
Steve Hall – Mastered
Mark Heard – Engineer, Mixed, Guitar
Tom Howard – Songwriter
Danny Jacob – Guitars
Tonio K. – Background Vocals
Barry Kaye – Producer, Arranger, Fairlight C.M.I.
Jay Leslie – Soprano Sax
Barry Liss – Harmonica
David Raven – Drums
Dan Reed – Engineer
Caryn Robin – Background Vocals
Andrea Saparoff – Fairlight C.M.I. Programming and Arranging
Denver Smith – Synthesizers, M.I.D.I. Technician
Randy Stonehill – Songwriter, Acoustic Guitar, Vocals
Tata Vega – Background Vocals
Ray Ware – Executive Producer
Steve Wilkinson – Bass
Tom Willett – Executive Producer

Companies, etc.
Phonographic Copyright (p) – Word, Inc.
Copyright (c) – Word, Inc.
Recorded At – Sound Vault Studios
Engineered At – Fingerprint Recorders
Mixed At – Fingerprint Recorders
Mastered At – Future Disc
Duplicated By – Electrosound Los Angeles

Randy Stonehill – Return To Paradise – 1989

Randy broke out the acoustic guitar for this release but It’s not an acoustic album it just appears he stuck to the acoustic guitar for most tracks. The title “Return To Paradise” is a reference to his 1979 album “Welcome To Paradise” . This album is full of great performers. Phil Keaggy plays guitar on a few tracks, Mark Heard not only produced the album but played tambourine on a track. Derri Daugherty was involved with the engineering and David Edwards even wrote one of the songs. The lead track “Starlings” was only on the CD and not the cassette or vinyl. If you like Randy you’ll love this album. Realistically Randy never did a bad album.

Tracklist
1 – Starlings – 5:00
2 – Stand Like Steel – 4:55
3 – I Don’t Ever Want To Live Without You – 4:10
4 – This Friend Of Old – 4:00
5 – You Can Still Walk Tall – 5:00
6 – True Blood – 5:02
7 – Strong Hand Of Love – 2:54
8 – Christmas At Denny’s – 5:53
9 – Love Tells No Lies – 4:20
10 – Weight Of The Sky – 3:28
11 – Ready To Go – 4:44

Credits
Acoustic Bass – David Miner
Acoustic Guitar – Randy Stonehill
Backing Vocals – Pam Dwinell, Randy Stonehill (tracks: 3)
Bass – Mark Heard (tracks: 2, 9), Tom Willett (tracks: 7)
Bass [Fretless] – Bill Batstone
Drums – Doug Mathews
Engineer [Second Engineers] – Dan Reed, Dave Hackbarth, Derri Daugherty, Gary Gerhart, Stephen Padgett
Executive-Producer – Tom Willett
Fiddle, Viola – Joe Weed
Guitar [Classical] – Phil Keaggy (tracks: 3)
Mandolin, Accordion, Electric Guitar – Mark Heard
Pedal Steel Guitar, Lap Steel Guitar – Greg Leisz
Percussion – David Baker
Photography – Linda Krikorian
Producer – Mark Heard, Randy Stonehill
Recorded By, Mixed By – Mark Heard
Tambourine – Mark Heard (tracks: 7)
Twelve-String Guitar – Phil Keaggy (tracks: 9)
Vocals – Randy Stonehill
Written-By – David Edwards (tracks: 4), Mark Heard (tracks: 7), Pierce Pettis (tracks: 3), Randy Stonehill (tracks: 1, 2, 5, 6, 8 to 11)

Companies, etc.
Phonographic Copyright (p) – Word, Inc.
Copyright (c) – Word, Inc.
Manufactured By – Word, Inc.
Recorded At – Fingerprint Recorders
Mixed At – Fingerprint Recorders
Recorded At – Neverland
Published By – Stonehillian Music
Published By – Word Music
Published By – Ideola Music
Published By – Let’s Have Lunch Music
Published By – Pease Farm Produce

Randy Stonehill – Celebrate This Heartbeat – 1984

Celebrate This Heartbeat starts out with an overture, which really does have a strong orchestral sound that only stops a little bit short of sounding like an outtake from The Nutcracker.

“Who Will Save The Children” is an important song on this record. The liner notes included a sign-up form to sponsor a child. Sally Struthers was working hard to get children sponsored at the time, and Randy had his hat fully in the ring starting around this time.

As usual, Randy gives us a fun song to both entertain us and challenge us on this album
Stop the World / I wanna get off / This place is too weird for me

This album is another polished studio approach from Randy, and a little farther from his rock’n’roll roots than what we were used to hearing. Fortunately we wouldn’t have to wait long for him to come back to the rock style we got to know him for.

Tracklist
1 – Overture: Celebrate This Heartbeat – 3:25
2 – Still, Small Voice – 4:04
3 – Celebrate This Heartbeat – 4:08
4 – Modern Myth – 3:51
5 – Who Will Save The Children – 5:27
6 – When I Look To The Mountains – 3:41
7 – Allison – 3:18
8 – Whatcha Gonna Do About That – 3:19
9 – Stop The World – 4:34
10 – I’ll Remember You – 4:26

Credits
Acoustic Guitar [All Acoustic Guitars] – Randy Stonehill
Arranged By [Rhythm Section And Vocal Arrangements] – Barry, Randy
Art Direction – Tim Alderson
Congas, Bongos, Percussion – Rick Geragi
Electric Guitar [Electric Guitars] – Danny Jacob
Electric Guitar [Electric Twelve String Guitar] – Mark Heard
Engineer [Engineered By] – Mark Heard
Engineer [Second] – Dan Reed
Flute, English Horn – John Clarke
French Horn – Darrel Gardner
Harp – Michael Amorosi
Mastered By – Steve Hall
Oboe – Barbara Northcutt
Orchestrated By, Arranged By, Conductor [Conducted By] – Tom Howard
Photography By – Aaron Rapoport
Piano, Electric Piano [Electric Grand Piano], Synthesizer, Timpani – Tom Howard
Producer [Produced By] – Barry M. Kaye
Tenor Saxophone, Baritone Saxophone, Flute – Jay “Shotgun” Leslie*
Vocals [All Vocals] – Randy Stonehill

Companies, etc.
Phonographic Copyright (p) – Word, Inc.
Copyright (c) – Word, Inc.
Pressed By – Monarch Record Mfg. Co. – Δ26410
Engineered At – Fingerprint Recorders
Mixed At – Fingerprint Recorders
Edited At – Wilder Bros. Studios, Los Angeles
Mastered At – Future Disc
Published By – Stonehillian Music
Published By – Word Music
Published By – Tom Howard Music

Larry Norman – Streams of White Light into Darkened Corners – 1977

Larry released this album in 1977 and it was labelled “Part 1.” Like many of his projects, the rest of it was never released.

The idea here seems to be to “expose” the pseudo-Christian songs that were radio hits in the 60s and 70s. Larry seemed to feel that they were exploiting the Jesus Movement for profit.

Randy Stonehill plays the part of the radio DJ, and the two of them record covers of popular songs that many people considered religious in spite of the rest of the bands’ repretoire. The songs are not recorded very seriously, and you can hear them making fun and holding back laughter in a couple of places.

From the back of the jacket:

This album was originally a newspaper article, but several different publishers backed down from printing it so I decided to record the music that is described in the article and release the soundtrack to the “newspaper movie.”

This is a Satirical Record and anyone who doesn’t have a sense of humor that leans toward the surreal, a cursory interest in pop music, and a healthy indifference/disdain for ego-lipped disc jockeys should definitely stay away from this album.
Larry Norman, 1974″

Track Listing:
A1 Spirit In The Sky Written-By – Norman Greenbaum
A2 Put Your Hand In The Hand Written-By – Gene MacLellan
A3 Bridge Over Troubled Water Written-By – Paul Simon
A4 Let It Be Written-By – Lennon-McCartney
A5 My Sweet Lord Written-By – George Harrison
A6 Presence Of The Lord Written-By – Eric Clapton
B1 I Think He’s Hiding Written-By – Randy Newman
B2 He Gives Us All His Love Written-By – Randy Newman
B3 Stranger In A Strange Land Written-By – Leon Russell
B4 Prince Of Peace Written-By – Greg Dempsey, Leon Russell
B5 Song For Adam Written-By – Jackson Browne
B6 Shine A Light Written-By – Jagger-Richard*

Mark Heard – Stop The Dominoes – 1981

Mark Heard created a tradition of going the extra mile on his records. He wrote lyrics that had real honesty packed in tight, and yet he still managed drop some tongue-in-cheek one-liners. The effect was that when he was cheeky, you still had to take him seriously. Stop the Dominoes is a classic version of this.

He had a lot to say. The liner notes are incredible. CCM records routinely included all the lyrics printed out on the sleeve, but in addition, Mark included 2 full pages of small print, written from his heart to his fans. Mark had a passion for reality. You can hear it in his song lyrics, and these notes include some personal diary entries from his tour stops through Europe. It’s hard to imagine this kind of thoughtful writing being shared with fans now.

These notes were written on his travels, and later collated into this form, typeset and arranged, sent out to print, manufactured, distributed to stores, and then finally brought home to read. I hope a lot of people read them, but then again, I know. In 1982 when we bought records, we read everything.

There was no Twitter feed. The Internet didn’t exist in any consumer form at that time. Mark died in 1992, well before fandom was available online. Long before we would be able to follow someone’s thoughts as they had them.

Sure, we can follow people on social media now, but that’s a different thing. Online posts are so disposable because they are so temporal. Reading someone’s deliberate writing, something that they know they would have to work on, proofread, and only be able to publish to the world once a year – that’s special in a different way.

Mark Heard was one of the most thoughtful songwriters, and gone much too soon and much too young.

Track Listing:
A1 One Of The Dominoes 4:23
A2 Stranded At The Station 3:30
A3 You Could Lie To Me 4:02
A4 One Night Stand 2:52
A5 I’m Crying Again 3:29
B1 Stuck In The Middle 4:39
B2 Call Me The Fool 3:11
B3 I’m In Chains 3:25
B4 Lonely One 4:35
B5 To See Your Face 3:31

Credits:
Arranged By – Mark Heard
Backing Vocals – Dave De Coup Crank, Larry Norman, Leslie Phillips, Little Bobby Emmons, Randy Stonehill
Bass – John Patitucci
Electric Guitar – Tony Eisenbarger
Electric Guitar, Lead Guitar, Slide Guitar, Keyboards, Backing Vocals – Mark Heard
Engineer – Jonathan David Brown
Fiddle – Buddy Spicher
Keyboards – Tom Howard
Percussion – Alex MacDougall
Producer – Mark Heard
Saxophone – Karl Denson
Steel Guitar [Pedal Steel] – Sonny Garrish
Written By – Mark Heard

Various – Rock of the Ages – Rock & Roll From The Third Dimension – 1983

This sampler is relatively unremarkable in that all the songs on it were very well known. The only thing that stood out about the release was that the album cover was 3D and the album came with 3D glasses so you could enjoy it.

Tracklist
1 – Leslie Phillips – Put Your Heart In Me (Beyond Saturday Night) – 4:00
2 – Randy Stonehill – The Glory And The Flame (Between The Glory And The Flame ) – 3:10
3 – Imperials – How Can You Live (Stand By The Power) – 3:46
4 – Maria Muldaur – Keep My Eyes On You (There Is A Love) – 4:01
5 – Kenny Marks – He’ll Finish What He Started (Follow Him) – 3:11
6 – Amy Grant – Too Late (Never Alone) – 3:15
7 – White Heart – You’re The One (White Heart) – 3:56
8 – David Edwards – Anything But Love (Get The Picture) – 3:34
9 – Dion – I Put Away My Idols ( I Put Away My Idols) – 3:08

Various – Adventures in the Land of Big Beats & Happy Feets – 1989

This has to be the worst sampler in the history of Christian music. It’s not the songs that are bad, they are great songs from great artists. It’s what they did with them that is the problem. Let me explain. This album is constructed as follows. The opening, ending, and all odd number songs are studio dance beats attributed to non existent bands. All of the even songs are well known songs by well known artists BUT they have been “remixed and extended”. Now first of all this album came out in 1989 and the secular music scene was done with cheesy two bit extended dance tracks. But for whatever reason Word Records chose at this late time to jump on a bandwagon that had already left the building. So here we go. Every song we have heard of before on this album is an “extended remix”. I use the term “extended remix” term loosely as these are without a doubt the worst remixes I have ever heard. So what we have here is the business idea of re releasing the same content over and over again only this time they pretended to dress it up as something new. What a disaster. OK listen to the album once and forget about it, that’s what I did.

Tracklist
1 – Rakim D. & The Garden Beats – Prologue – 2:03
2 – Imperials – Fallin’ – 4:18
3 – Bunny Whop And The Hip Hop – Baow Baow Baow – 1:06
4 – Philip Bailey – Thank You – 5:29
5 – Randy McNally & The Road Dogz – Rappin’ Detail – 1:12
6 – Amy Grant – Wise Up – 6:28
7 – Billy B. & The Beez Nees – No Bout Adoubt It – 1:11
8 – Steve Taylor – Svengali – 5:46
9 – Billy B. & The Beez Nees – Doutout – 0:57
10 – Kim Boyce – I Just Want To Celebrate – 5:16
11 – The Nerf Wilson Ensemble – Tee Vee Whiz – 0:51
12 – Ideola – Jericho – 4:28
13 – The Nerf Wilson Ensemble – Gee Tee Vee – 1:12
14 – Russ Taff – I’ve Come Too Far – 5:39
15 – Snappo Schultz – BBBBBeatitudinal – 1:16
16 – Sheila Walsh – Ship Of Love – 7:00
17 – Snappo Schultz – BBBBBeatitudinal – Part II – 1:01
18 – Randy Stonehill Cold Rock The Groove – 4:35
19 – Rakim D. & The Garden Beats – Epilogue – 0:42

Credits
Art Direction, Design – Bradley Grose
Compilation Producer – Leon Mulczk
Coordinator [Cover] – Laurie Fink (2)
Executive-Producer – Tom Willett
Music By [Link Music By] – Lee Cahuenga (tracks: 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15, 17, 19)
Remix [Re-mixes], Edited By [Edits] – Lee Cahuenga
Written-By [Links Written By], Producer [Links Produced By] – Linx, Inc. (tracks: 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15, 17, 19)

Companies, etc.
Record Company – Word, Inc.
Phonographic Copyright (p) – Word, Inc.
Copyright (c) – Word, Inc.
Distributed By – Word Records Limited
Distributed By – Word (UK) Ltd.
Manufactured By – Word, Inc.

Randy Stonehill – Between The Glory and The Flame – 1981

This follow-up to 1980’s The Sky Is Falling was a much more refined studio approach. Randy recruited a lot of top CCM artists to help out.
Producer Terry Taylor (of Daniel Amos) recruited his entire band to play on the album along with, Tom Howard, another Larry Norman and Solid Rock Records protege.

The result is a tight band performing Randy’s songs in the studio, giving a much more polished sound than we were used to getting from him up to this point.

The song “Die Young” is an example of Randy’s cynical but honest approach, calling out the typical Western lifestyle centered around short term thinking. His combination of humour and truth-telling was present throughout his career.

“Christine” is one of Randy’s reaches out to a lonely and desperate person. It has a significant parallel to the song Christmas at Denny’s, which we get many years later on the Return To Paradise album.

This album established Randy’s ability to move beyond performing as a singer-songwriter.

Tracklist
1 – The Glory And The Flame – 3:10
2 – Die Young – 3:15
3 – Fifth Avenue Breakdown – 2:50
4 – Granfather’s Song – 3:24
5 – Find Your Way To Me – 3:42
6 – Christine – 3:29
7 – Rainbow – 3:49
8 – Givin’ It Up For Love – 4:13
9 – Letter To My Family – 4:58
10 – Farther On – 2:56

Companies, etc.
Record Company – Word, Inc.
Phonographic Copyright (p) – Word, Inc.
Copyright (c) – Word, Inc.
Produced For – Rebel Base Productions
Recorded At – Whitefield Studios
Mixed At – Whitefield Studios
Published By – Prime Cut Publishing
Published By – CanaanLand Music
Published By – Tong Songs Music
Published By – Joyful Road Music

Credits
Guitars, Background Vocals – Jerry Chamberlain
Bass – Marty Dieckmeyer
Background Vocals, Songwriter, Synthesizer String Arranger, Piano, Harmonium, Acoustic Guitar – Tom Howard
Percussion – Alex MacDougall
Drums, Percussion – Ed McTaggart
Engineer – Thom Roy
Producer, Songwriter, Guitars, Percussion, Vocals – Randy Stonehill
Producer, Slide Guitar – Terry Scott Taylor