Rippin' Vinyl

Here’s an update on my vinyl rippin’ efforts. First, it is amazing how well I remember these tunes, the lyrics, and what appealed to me about the music back in the day. Second, I listen to some of these albums and can’t help but react: “What was I thinking??!” My only defense was that my musical tastes were ‘evolving.’

So here’s what is now in my digital library:

Maranatha Music – Growing up in SoCal as a Christian coming of age in the days of the Jesus Freaks, there was pretty much one show in town and that was Saturday night concerts at Calvary Chapel. This was just after they moved out of the circus tent into their (at the time) brand-spankin’ new auditorium. It was my first exposure to a mega-church and was the emerging church of its day. As part of Calvary Chapel of Costa Mesa’s (CC/CM) outreach, they had several ‘worship teams’ (bands) of top-notch talent. These bands would not only play at home, but toured and recorded. CC/CM created its own record label, “Maranatha Music,” and here are the titles I bought and have ripped to digimedia:
Love Song – while some would say that “Children Of The Day” was the first, “Love Song” was the flagship group of the Maranatha label
Daniel Amos – country style with some Big Band fun
Mustard Seed Faith – “Sail On Sailor;” like several albums side B much stronger than A
The Way - title album
The Way – “can it be?” [note the lack of capitals, e.e. cummings was Very Big then]
Maranatha x – a series of compilations ranging from “The Everlastin’ Living Jesus music Concert” to Maranatha VIII; I have ‘volumes’ 1 through 5
Issac Air Freight – “Fun In The Son;” IAF was a trio of guys who did Christian comedy; it’s a bit dated now, but was very cool back then

Solid Rock – created by the Bad Boy of Jesus Rock, Larry Norman. Solid Rock operated under the principle, “Why Should the Devil Have All The Good Music?” Larry was my role-model for the Angry Young Man thing (the problem was that *I* stayed angry long after my youth). Larry was personally problematic but pushed the envelope in several directions that the church is only now coming to grips with (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_Norman). Larry discovered several talents. It seems to me that the most significant was Randy Stonehill. The sweet guitar work in this album was done by Stonehill.
Larry Norman – In Another Land; very serious, full of the thundering prophet
Randy Stonehill – Welcome To Paradise; as Larry was serious, Randy was playful

Spirit – a division of Sparrow; Jesus Rock now getting some commercial attention.
Benny Hester – fun, loud, impossibly high tenor

Myrrh – a division of Word and distribution channel for Solid Rock
The 2nd Chapter of Acts – wow, a trio of siblings who sang real pruty-like
Power Music – a collection of some of their artists and albums for 1977: Chuck Girard, B.J. Thomas, Michael Omartian, Tom Howard, Randy Stonehill, Larry Norman, Phil Keaggy, et al.
Bob Ayala – “Joy By Surprise;” an interesting album themed by great thinkers within the faith; Bob was blind and would comment that his first sight would be of the risen Jesus – which sure beats what the rest of us have to look at day to day.
John Fischer – “Johnny’s Café;” apparently somewhat panned by critics, I actually loved it