Old Enough to Forget

I'm kind of surprised I didn't write about In Another Land earlier. I suspect this may be longer than it needs to be (likely a lot longer), sorry in advance but you should stick around anyway - it may be worth it. In terms of watershed albums this is right near the top of the most influential albums I have ever heard. The album was released in 1976 and a number of the older kids knew about him, but I was pretty clueless about Christian music. I was at a youth conference in '77 or '78 (things get fuzzy ) and the cool kids (who were likely four or five years older) were talking about an upcoming concert he was going to have in Vancouver, likely the Queen Elizabeth theatre but honestly the details are sketchy. The fact I remember anything at all is kind of amazing.  It was the youth group dances in the late '70s and early '80s where I first got a taste of his music. The big dance songs were "Why Should the Devil Have All the Good Music" and "The Roc...

Over the years, I've gathered a wide variety of Christmas music—fun, kitschy, terrible, poignant, and glorious—to celebrate the holiday season. It all starts building up to Christmas Day, continues through New Year's celebrations, and finally winds down at Epiphany. After that, everything is packed away until the first Sunday of Advent—though we often start listening before the end of November. We love Christmas music, heck over the last couple of years I've dedicated December to writing about Christmas music, particularly old albums I'd pick up in the discount bins. This year was a little skinny, but like I said I have a lot of Christmas music, and I just figured I'd pull out one of my favourite CDs. David Edwards is an artist I first discovered back in 1981 when he released his self titled album. That album lived on my turntable for months. His cover of the old Paul Revere classic "Kicks" to me is the definitive version. It was so good but it wasn't ...

I was in searching an online catalogue for some stuff and this popped up when I was looking for something by Randy Stonehill. Considering I had most of his stuff already, I have no idea why I was looking, but up popped an album by Kyle, no first name, or maybe it was his first name. Who knows. I know I don't. Turns out the song "If I Had the Cash" was also co-written by Keith Green. Now I was curious. The album cost me five bucks, and I will admit I was pretty curious.KYLE, and I was more curious when I read the back cover. It was produced by Danny Janssen & Bobby Hart. Yeah, those guys. So this was likely going to be somewhere between The Monkees, Josie and the Pussycats and The Partridge Family. That's okay, I liked The Monkees. I'm going to jot down my thoughts in real time, and then come back and see if anything makes sense? Are you seated comfortably? The first song "Rescue Me" comes over the speakers and this is sounds a bit like Neil Diamond, ...

Although the album came out in 1976, it wasn't until a few years later that I picked this up. For me it served as a bookend to Larry Norman's 1975 album In Another Land . Both albums were produced by Larry Norman, and both engineered by the legendary Andy Johns, with assistance from Tom Trefethen. These were the albums that introduced me the guitar playing of Jon Linn a player who was mind mindbogglingly tasty and did stuff that still makes my head spin.  Welcome to Paradise was a rock record filtered through Randy's acoustic guitar and his distinctive voice. The album kicks off with "King of Hearts" a song that has more than stood the test of time. Randy followed up with a two punch combination "Keep Me Running" and "The Winner (High Card)" that are still among my favourite songs - ever. It's these three songs alone that have made this album such an important part of my musical journey. As good as he'd be in later albums, with flashes...

Over the last year and a bit I've been accumulating more dollar store treasures than I have time to actually process. It doesn't mean I'm not giving them a proper listen and consideration, it's just that not everything has a story that can meanderamble for a while and still say nothing at the end. Also there are a lot of bands where there are numerous albums in their discography that are sitting on my shelf (more than one, as my wife reminds me) and they deserve a shout out. I figured since no one really reads this nonsense anyway and this is all about me fuelling my own inflated sense of hubris I'd start a new segment I'd slot in maybe once a week, or once a month, or perhaps quarterly, or as an annual thing. I'm hedging my bets as I generally have a lot of ideas and poor follow through. Not everything is a dollar store treasure, some of these I've had a long time, some not so long, and some were more than a buck. However, let's be optimistic and se...