Daniel Amos: Live Bootleg '82 (1982/1990)

1. I Love You #19
2. I'm On Your Team
3. Faces To The Window
4. Mall (All Over The World)
5. Everyone's Fallen Down
6. Baby Game
7. Through The Speakers
8. ¡Alarma!
9. Love Has Open Arms
10. Hit Them (With Love)
11. Hound of Heaven
12. Ghost of The Heart
13. The Surf Suite: Surfin' USA/Wipeout/Near Sighted Girl with Approaching Tidal Wave/Endless Summer

This little artifact was recorded in St. Louis, and as the title tells us, was recorded during the tour that followed the release of ¡Alarma! These shows feature the same four-piece, guitar-driven lineup of that album with one major difference:  Tim Chandler has been installed as the new bass player, and once again, the DNA of the band is mutating in the process.  The sound isn't radically different--yet, as would be revealed on the next studio album.  At this point, they're still playing fast-paced new wave rock with Chamberlain cranking out loud, bristling solos and Terry chopping out angular rhythm parts.  But it's Chandler who brings a whole new level of playing to the band.  Dieckmeyer's somewhat laid-back style was great, but Tim thumps out heavy, funky patterns with an almost fusion-esque recklessness.  It's most obvious on the one preview from the upcoming Doppelgänger, "Mall (All Over the World)."  Chandler jumps in with a series of thundering pops and pings on the bass, and the band launches into their most ominous riff yet.  It's just a portent of bigger things to come.

As for the rest of the set, the bulk of the songs are from the previous album, and there's no real changes in arrangements or sounds;  If anything, the band seems to be playing everything a bit fast, with the result that Terry is spitting out lyrics at such a rate (especially on "Faces to the Window") that I run out of breath just listening to it.  Still, the guys seem to be having a great time, and really getting into the whole new wave vibe.

The most interesting tracks are the three previously unreleased songs.  "I'm on Your Team" is one of those 200 bpm sprints that the band whistles through, so that the only thing I hear is the title in the chorus.  The ballads "Everyone's Fallen Down" and "Love Has Open Arms" are more arresting in their style and message.  Both are tender songs about forgiveness and reconciliation, and would have been quite at home on side 2 of Horrendous Disc.  

Speaking of that "old" album, the biggest changes come in the chestnuts "I Love You #19" and "Hound of Heaven."  To understand these differences, I now take a brief digression:  For years, while Larry Norman was figuring out if the aliens were going to steal the Solid Rock catalog while he was on a plane to Cambodia (Okay, that was mean, but really, is there any better explanation as to why he sat on the tapes for almost twenty years?), the only way to officially hear any Horrendous tracks (other than in person) was this here bootleg.  When the band released Our Personal Favorite Worldwide Hits in '98, these were the versions that represented the album on that disc.  And this is where the I learned the songs from, and what I assumed were the "right" arrangements.  So when I finally got to hear the original studio takes, in their stately 70s SoCal tempos and pristine gloss, they sounded like plodding, sluggish Lincoln Town Cars lumbering down the freeway compared to the streamlined compact sports car versions flying in the fast lane on Bootleg.  You can guess which one I prefer.  "Hound" especially seems much tighter and upbeat, even if it's not that much faster.  The major difference is that Tim and Ed keep such a heavy, almost bluesy beat, with minimal fuss, that the guitars slice through with a much sharper edge.  

The Horrendous songs are the only connective tissue between Bootleg and Preachers From Outer Space, and it's a thread at best.  Comparing the two records, you really hear two different bands, with two different approaches and two different sensibilities, although it's 75% the same personnel.  Of course, Terry's high tenor brings it all together, even if he still has a slight twang in his throat.

Oh, and let's not forget the "Surf Suite" that closes the album, featuring some silly dialogue by Terry and Jerry, as the two break into laughter midway through "Tidal Wave."  The surf vibe is probably the best-hidden branch in the band's majestic family tree of musical influences.  Still, the way they rip through "Wipeout" would make the Surfaris hang ten with pride.     

Phil Keaggy: Town To Town (1981)

1. Wished You Were There
2. Full Circle
3. Life Love and You
4. Town to Town
5. What a Wonder You Are
6. In Between
7. Our Lives
8. Rise Up O Men of God
9. Let Everything Else Go

Phil continued his journey into CCM on his next effort, Town to Town.  The album has a lot of the same qualities as Ph'lip Side, except it's not split down the middle between acoustic ballads and uptempo rockers.  Phil's still cranking out melodic, radio-friendly pop rock with a playful spirit and aurally deep soundscapes.  If anything, his sound is shifting into the middle, as there's nothing as purely acoustic as "Little Ones" or "Spend My Life With You," but also nothing as rocking as "Pulling Down" or edgy as "Sunday School."  

The big single off the album, "Let Everything Else Go," is strangely placed at the end of the album, as it's a gentle pop ballad with a huge chorus, and doesn't seem like much of a finale song, with its verses about "chasing down hot air balloons on Sunday Morning."  Maybe I'm old-fashioned, but I'm usually chasing my socks and burning toast on my way to church on Sunday morning--maybe the scene from the album cover is Phil and the boys loading out after a Saturday night service?  

Still, the song is probably the best thing on the album, although I could cast a vote for some others: The title track, which seems like a younger brother to "A Royal Commandment" in that it opens with a mellow acoustic prelude, then cranks into an uptempo, heavy chorus riff before shifting into a nice pop verse.  Indeed, the "Town" riff could the heaviest thing on the album.  

Or there's the gentle nose-thumbing of "Wished You Were There," Keaggy's account of his old band Glass Harp's reunion shows in Cleveland that year.  The "Stacy" that never mentioned the shows was Plain Dealer rock columnist Anastasia Pantsios, and Phil's "complaint" is really just a good-natured nostalgia trip.  Phil, ever the well-read scholar, may have unconsciously borrowed the line from chapter 30 of Anne of Green Gables: "Miss Stacy never mentioned such a thing to me, Anne, and its only your guilty conscience that's the matter with you.'" (Here's the rest of the chapter)

Speaking of early 20th century literature, there's "Rise Up O Men of God," PK's cover of the old William Merrill hymn.  It's suitably epic, with punchy acoustic chords and marching cadences by Alex Acuna, who would re-visit these rhythyms on The Wind and the Wheat.  The only thing that takes it down a bit for me is that Phil tries so hard to sound "manly" that it almost feels like his vocal is pitched down a semitone.  Which is really odd, considering this album is his most vocally-adventurous one yet.  There's lots of falsetto grace notes, big crescendos, and lots of belting out, without the squeakiness that used to mar some of his attempts to sing big. 

Overall, a nice album with nothing earth-shattering or groundbreaking, but then, Phil was never much of an earth shatterer anyway.  He's always been more of a "song in the air" kind of guy.