There's a long story behind this album but I won't tell it. The short story is that when Billy Ray Hearn left Myrrh Records to form Sparrow in 1975 he took two artists with him; Barry McGuire, and The Second Chapter Of Acts. He asked Dee and I to be the first new act for his new label. As it turned out this album was never completed or released. All that remains is a cassette of a rough mix. I have cleaned it up as well as I can and we are making it available here.
Enjoy some oldies of another kind—Jesus Music.
Jim
As a race, our selfishness affects more than just ourselves. It has an impact on our environment and the rest of the planet, as well. Check out Romans, chapter 8.
This track is a straight-ahead rock 'n' roll tune which is appropriate considering its' title. Don't you think? If I had it to do over again I would probably leave out the last verse just to shorten it up a bit. Whatever.
One of my favorite songs by The Hollies is "King Midas In Reverse." For many, many years Dee and I have sung, "King Midas In Reverse," followed by, "I'm A Different Guy." For me it's like my before and after songs.
This was one of the first, if not the first, (who can remember nearly 40 years later), that Jim & Dee ever wrote together. It was the opening song on Barry McGuire's first Christian album, "Seeds." And it is one of the songs we've continued to sing down through the years.
Al Perkins came on the scene in the 1970s and has played with The Flying Burrito Brothers, Steven Stills and Manassas, Dan Folgerberg, Roy Orbison, & Bob Dylan, among others. He also produced "Help Is On the Way." Today he is generally known as the greatest dobro player in the world even having a Gibson signature model named after him. On this song he played pedal steel and even sang some of the background vocals. He also, by the way, played lead on another song I'll be putting up in a couple of weeks, "When the Mist Has Rolled Away." So enjoy his wonderful pedal steel work on this tune.
The passion of our lifetime has been to see a real move of God in revival. That's all this song is about. Dee and Jim both sing it in unison; no harmonies on this one. I love the organ solo by Chuck Surface.
This is another song that Barry McGuire sang, this time on his album, "Lighten Up." This version of ours features Al Perkins on lead guitar and Keith Green is one of the backup singers.
Pianist Jim Hobson was also the arranger for "Help Is On the Way." He was amazing. I couldn't have picked anybody with tastes closer to my own. I loved his arrangements. The only thing he had ever done (that I was familiar with) was play with Arthur Lee and Love which was a group I loved. He also played with Delaney Bramlett. His piano playing skills get to shine on this track.
As I've mentioned, these songs are from a cassette of a rough mix. In the middle of the song you hear me talking over the music. That would have been dropped out of a final mix but here you get the good, the bad, and the ugly all at once.
This in not the song made famous by Nancy Sinatra. This is a song that Dee wrote and I helped with the arrangement. And it is truer today than when we recorded it. A simple, soft song to finish out the album. The album that never was. But at least now, 3½ decades later, as crude as these recordings are, they can finally be heard.
These are songs we've written. Most songs are written by Jim 'n' Dee though on occasion it might be one or the other of us or maybe us with one of the girls.
The last book in "The Chronicles Of Narnia", is "The Last Battle." The 15th chapter is called "Further Up And Further In." Look no further for the inspiration for this song.
This is the only song I ever remember getting in a dream. Not the whole song, but the chorus and the main idea. I woke up and got Dee and we put it altogether into the song it is now. That makes it special to us and we hope you especially like it, too.
Jim
Since Bree is out of town this week we don't have any new recordings to put up. Here is a song we've sung a few times at Victor's NY Deli recently. This is a demo from back in the '80s. Perhaps we'll record it again with Bongo and the Point.
We once had this song rejected by someone who thought this song was glorifying gluttony in children! So it didn't make it onto that album. Is that what this is? You decide.
As a race, our selfishness affects more than just ourselves. It has an impact on our environment and the rest of the planet, as well. Check out Romans, chapter 8.
For those of you who haven't heard "The Selfish Giant" and have only heard us sometime in the last 8 or 9 months or so here's a chance to hear Bree's big sister, Elfin. We wrote this song a year or two ago for a movie project. The song was not used for the film but we kept it anyway. So now hear Jim and Elfin sing this song about "a family affair," "I'm Coming Home." Written by Jim, Dee, and Elfin.
