Lanny Cordola - Electric Warrior, Acoustic Saint (1991)

01 Intro (A New Beginning)
02 Behold This Dream Cometh
03 Angry Candy
04 Loony Tunes
05 Ish Babobill
06 When Shiloa Comes
07 Birenbau
08 Farbage Calves
09 Marriage Of Figaro (Sort Of...)
10 Slappy White
11 Zulu Jam
12 Shadows Over My Heart
13 Nesh Taps
14 Jalapeno Man
15 Djanago
16 Hungry Hallow
17 Plymouth Rock
18 Sadako
19 Jabberwocy (The Shadow Gang)
20 Vindaloo
21 Fripp
22 Summertime
23 Echo Boy
24 Groom Lake
25 All The Things You Are
26 Amazing Grace

I REALLY like instrumentals! This album has everything from experimental to metal, blues & jazz. It reminds me a lot of Steve Vai. Lanny Cordola is known for his work with Giuffria, House Of Lords, Magdalen and Ransom. If you watched television back in the day, you probably saw him on a little show called "Full House". He was part of Uncle Jesse's (John Stamos) band on the show. But he'll probably be best known for his work with Ken Tamplin. He's released quite a few solo albums, with his last being somewhere around 1998. This is the only one I have by him, but if the others are just as good maybe I should check into getting them! I do know he's done some work for movie soundtracks like "Mr 3000", "Lionheart" and "Now You Know" and has been a composer for a few other films like "Pauly Shore Is Dead" and "Fish In A Barrel".

The Winans - Return (1990)

01 It's Time
02 Everyday The Same
03 Don't Leave Me
04 A Friend
05 Gonna Be Alright
06 When You Cry
07 Together We Stand
08 This Time It's Personal
09 Free
10 Wherever I Go

What can I say about this awesome album? Well, to start, it was like no other Winans material I had ever heard. My earliest memory of The Winans was probably somewhere in 1985 listening to the song "Tomorrow" on the local religious radio station. I love that song, but was totally blown away the first time I heard "It's Time". This could not be the same Winans brothers, could it? It was indeed and the entire album is great from beginning to end. It did have it's controversial moments when they used Teddy Riley to produce and sing in it. It also had some notable musicians on it like Stevie Wonder playing harmonica and singing in "Everyday The Same" and Kenny G playing some beautiful sax on "When You Cry". Sadly, the second eldest brother Ronald died in 2005 after a long battle with a heart ailment. He may be in Heaven now, but his legacy will live on through the wonderful music The Winans put out over the years, and "It's Time" will forever be one of the greatest songs in CCM history! The only info I've found on the brothers is that Marvin is pastor at Perfecting Church in Detroit, Michigan. He can be reached at http://www.perfectingchurch.org/

Stryper - Soldiers Under Command (1985)

01 Soldiers Under Command 

02 Makes Me Wanna Sing 
03 Together Forever 
04 First Love 
05 The Rock That Makes Me Roll 
06 Reach Out 
07 (Waiting For) A Love That's Real 
08 Together As One 
09 Surrender 
10 Battle Hymn Of The Republic

I can remember the first time I heard these guys...I was in middle school and it was in 1985. Up to this point the heaviest Christian music I had heard was maybe Russ Taff, Michael W. Smith and Amy Grant. I already knew of secular metal bands like Twisted Sister, Quiet Riot, Ratt, etc. A television program was coming on one evening called the Dove Awards. It's the Christian version of the Grammy's. Anyways, they said in a pre-showing that they have a band coming up that plays heavy metal but sings for Jesus. I thought "yeah right", but it intrigued me so I decided to watch. Four guys came out with yellow & black spandex, teased hair and make-up, head bangin' and singing the following lyrics..."Jesus, King of Kings. Jesus, makes me wanna sing". I almost fell off the couch. I could not believe there was a band that held the same values I grew up with but performed it in a style that was becoming so popular with middle school and high schoolers in the mid 80's. I was instantly hooked and went out the very next day and bought "Soldiers Under Command" and the rest you could say, is history! They became my all-time favorite band!

Fast forward 25 years later...Stryper is still putting out awesome albums and touring. For more info, the band can be reached at  http://www.stryper.com/

Lou Rawls - Amen (2005)

1  Medley: I Don't Feel No Ways Tired/Please Be Patient With Me  
2  Oh! Happy Day  
3  How Great Thou Art  
4  Peace In The Valley  
5  Blessed Assurance  
6  Jesus Be A Fence All Around Me  
7  Medley: Nearer My God To Thee/I Touched The Hem Of His Garment/Were You There?  
8  He's Got The Whole World In His Hands  
9  Amazing Grace  
10  That's Heaven To Me  
11  Just A Closer Walk With Thee  
12  Amen  
13  His Eyes Are On The Sparrow  
14  Thank God For Standing By Me  
15  People Get Ready  
16  You've Got To Move

I've always liked Lou's voice and was really impressed when I heard he was releasing a gospel album in '05. So I just had to have it and it's actually very good. He does a lot of the older hymns and church songs we all know and does them with some pretty well known choirs like the Georgia Mass Choir and the Mississippi Mass Choir. Sadly, Lou Rawls died of cancer in 2006. He was 72. He will always be remembered for his awesome voice and the charity work he did for the United Negro College Fund, helping raise over $200million for them.

Arsenal - Armored Choir (1990)

01 Turn Around 
02 Someone Believes In You 
03 Armored Choir 
04 Coming Back To You 
05 Forever Yours 
06 The Valley 
07 You're No Good For Me 
08 Bishop Of Souls 
09 Take It Away 
10 The Candle...The Flame

It's kinda refreshing to hear a band come along that has a female as their lead vocalist in this world where men typically dominate the metal world. Awesome encouraging lyrics and their style is kinda similar to Doro Pesch from the secular band Warlock. Sadly, this release came too late as the grunge movement had hit and pretty much killed off all glam. If they could have released this around 85-86, I believe they could have done much better! I think they had a demo before this album under the name "Scymitar". They were also known as "Peace Child". Their former guitarist has his own band now called the "Joshua Miller Band". He has a Myspace page at http://www.myspace.com/joshuamillerband

Robert Sweet - Love Trash (2000)

01 Help Me To Help Myself
02 Love Trash
03 The F Word
04 Any Enemy
05 Sweet Betrayal
06 Me, Myself And You
07 I'm Freakin'
08 Best Regrets
09 Love Trash (Radio Mix)
10 Sweet Betrayal (Radio Mix)

Umm...don't even know what to say about this release! I dig vocalist Larry Worley (Lovelife/Fear Not) but this album isn't good! I got it simply because I'm such a huge Stryper fan. I guess they were trying for a modern hard rock sound??? Anyways as many others have expressed and so will I...that has got to be one of the worst album covers in history!