Church -of-Do-What-You-Want-To still impacting evangelical thinkers

A friend of mine sent me a link to this blog post from author/blogger/Troublemaker Joel J. Miller... check it out!

Behind the Song: She Smiles at the Future

"I wrote this one mostly myself on a little keyboard my wife had given me for my birthday one year. I picked out the opening riff first and played it for Mark, who learned it on guitar. I then sang out the melody as I heard it in my head, and Mark and Steve figured out what chords to play behind it. That’s pretty much the way I wrote all my songs back then. I couldn’t play guitar yet at that point so I was at the mercy of the guitarists in the band to interpret what I sang or hummed to them. It was an awkward and painstaking way to write songs. But it was the only way I had to communicate what I heard in my head. The instrumental bridge part in the middle was Terry’s Taylor’s idea. He helped us figure out what to do there. The riff like thing that resolves it back into the verse is a discarded riff from another song idea I had. I liked it though and was glad I found a place to use it. The lyrics are taken largely from Proverbs 31 about a godly wife. There is no godlier person I know than my wife. And the verse that said, “She smiles at the future” just leapt off the page. I thought that pretty much summed up my wife; confident that Jesus loves her and has an incredible life planned for her and our family. If I were to write a song about myself it would probably be 'He Stresses Out About Everything.' The drum part is straight Ringo, lifted right out of 'In My Life.' " -- Jerry Davison (from an interview with BackSpin Radio, 2011)


Big thanks to our friends at BackSpin Radio for all the support and encouragement! Check out their website and podcasts for more great vintage CCM!

"Quirky purveyors of retro pop..." Wot a nice thing to say!

Today I stumbled across a very nice article chronicling the history of JT by a British CCM journalist by the name of Tony Cummings. He wrote quite a flattering piece on the band for a UK Christian music website called CrossRhythms. Thought you die hard Troublemakers might enjoy reading it.
Thank you, CrossRhythms and Mr. Cummings for your kind words, and for still giving a poop after all these years. Check out the full article here!

Cool article on JT

Found this while perusing the web (that's fancy talk for surfing). Enjoy!

New interview with Backspin Radio!

Hey Troublemakers far and wide (and deep, too!)
I recently had the pleasure of sitting down to an interview with Bill Moore of Back Spin Radio, a national program that spotlights the rich heritage of classic Christian music. He will be airing it this Sunday, Dec. 4th at 3:00 PM. Here is a promo clip to tease you! Be sure to tune in and listen! And be sure to listen and support Bill and Back Spin radio. We need more guys like him keeping us mindful of the great music and artists who paved the way for today's CCM! Thanks, Bill! You are the man!

These Thousand Hills 1 30 You Tube HQ

Keep them cards and letters comin', kids!

Every so often we will get an email or letter from a longtime Troublemaker. A few days ago I got this email from a JT fan named Chuck. He said it was just dandy if we shared it with the rest of you. So here goes...

Jerry,

I recently repurchased my Jacob's Trouble collection on CD (previously on cassette).
I really appreciate the album Jacob's Trouble. Almost everything I have come across lately that has impacted me is that our main purpose is to love God and to be in fellowship with Him. We learn to love God by finding out how much He truly loves us. All religion and works are worthless if we have no relationship with God and our Lord Jesus Christ.
I find the Jacob's Trouble album to be loaded with this message. I listen to it sometimes on the way to work, and I find the music very uplifting. The album usually sets a good frame for prayer, meditation and fellowship with God while I am at work (high-stress job).
My Passage for today: And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. Revelations 21:3
I see our Father's end result is constant eternal fellowship.

God bless you and your family brother,

Chuck Rominski

A few days later, Chuck wrote again to tell us how a JT song helped him through a tough day...

Jerry,

The day after I sent you the previous email, I had a particularly stressful day. We had to meet a high profile deadline, and some of my work had come under criticism. All day three verses from one of your songs played through my head "Don't let them tell you I don't love you. Don't let them say that I don't care. Don't let them throw you to the lions of despair." I was very comforted.
I saw a few links to you online. I saw you are very involved in working for our Lord.
Keep it up!!

God bless you and your family,

Your brother in Christ,

Chuck

Thanks, Chuck, for the encouraging words. We never cease to be amazed at how God still uses a bunch of mullet-wearing, guitar-playing guys in clown suits to draw people into deeper intimacy with Himself. That is a miracle of Red Sea-type proportions, indeed!

JT available for download on Amazon.com!

Hey all you Trouble makers! Just noticed today that our catalog appears to be available for digital download on Amazon .com, as well as iTunes. It appears that the albums are about $3.00 cheaper there (sorry to anyone who paid $10 on iTunes for Christmas... but thanks anyways!) You can find them all right here!

JT makes the Popdose CCM Top 50 of all time!

Popdose, a webzine for music lovers both secular and CCM, recently counted down their top 50 best Christian Rock albums of all time. We are very honored and flattered to be counted among so many amazing and legendary talents. You can view the list here or read our entry below:

26. Jacob’s Trouble – Knock, Breathe, Shine (1990): In the late ’80s, the nostalgia for the ’60s was becoming fairly prevalent. Paisley was making in-roads once more, Rickenbacker was jangling again after a long hiatus behind synthesizers. So too was the idea of the short-and-punchy pop tune, saying what it intends to say, in a way that gets you humming along, then gets out of the way. Jacob’s Trouble was a band particularly good at that.

Comprised during this period of Steve Atwell, Mark Blackburn and Jerry Davison, each track stays just under the 4-and-a-half minute mark and mostly lingers around three-straight (aside from the near-five-minute Dylan cover, “I Believe In You”), and that commitment to economy makes the album a breeze to listen to, so much so that you might miss some points along the way. “Islands, Bulidings and Freeways” is downright jubilant, but focuses on the isolating effects of modernity. “Mr. Hitler” tackles judgmental, my-way-or-the-highway theology: “They call me Mr. Hitler, you you won’t hurt my pride. I may be Mr. Hitler, but God is on my side. You can call me Mr. Hitler, but I’m righteous in my rage – I’ll shoot you down if you don’t get out of my way.” It should be obvious to most they’re not advocating this sort of dictatorial spirituality, but there’s an awfully good chance the song was misinterpreted down the line. Sadly, that happened a lot when artists attempted poetic license and roleplay in their recordings.

The two big stand-outs are “Wounded World” wherein the supposed learned among us, including ourselves, are inclined to hang back and let things get worse, thinking, “Well, I’m sure God’s got it covered,” and “There Goes My Heart Again.” The former says, “We sting like salt in the wounds of a wounded world – Well, it’s all our fault, yeah, we’ve all been caught…” Just because you are forgiven, or believe you are, doesn’t exclude you from trying to make the world better, or from trying to help your fellow person, even if and especially if they are not like you or don’t believe as you do. This is not a pick-and-mix option. To quote Adrian Belew, “You either make it better or make it worse.” It’s a common, human mission.

“There Goes My Heart Again” is a big old pop valentine and I dare you to listen to it without having it pleasantly stuck in your head for the rest of the day.

With bright colors, big hair, a Christian mindset and a hippy call to action versus commanding by the couch, Knock, Breathe, Shine is big fun, but says something in the midst of the love-in.


Read more: 50CCM50, Part Three | Popdose http://popdose.com/50ccm50-part-three/#ixzz19ckKfCjN
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