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!

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
Under Creative Commons License: Attribution

New videos posted on YouTube

Hello Troublemakers far and near, young and old, angular and flatulent (?!?) My son Erik edited these videos together from old concert footage. They turned out pretty cool and he posted them to YouTube yesterday. They have been on our Facebook page for a few months now so if you haven't seen them yet, here they are. Enjoy!

JT guitarists listed as top influence on Mark Lee of Third Day

It's no secret that the Third Day boys have long been Troublemakers, even as high school kids! They frequently give us shout-outs on their blogs as well as from the stage whenever they perform "These Thousand Hills" live. I found this nice little nod to Keith and Mark on Mark Lee's blog for guitar players, SixStringLounge.com. He was speaking of his biggest influences as a guitarist and he wrote:

I could go any number of directions with this. I mentioned a couple of weeks ago about Phil Keaggy and his prowess on the guitar. Also Keith Johnston and Mark Blackburn from Jacob’s Trouble were the first guitarists I saw perform live a number of times so they were a big influence on me. And through touring, I’ve had the chance to share the stage with killer guitarists like Mark Townsend, Jody Davis, and Lincoln Brewster.

Wow! That's some nice company to be in! You can read the entire post here. A big thanks once again to Mark and Third Day for their continued encouragement and support of our music.

The Essential JT iMix on iTunes

I put this little beginner's guide to JT together for newbies and veteran Troublemakers alike. Please feel free to create your own JT iMIx and publish it on iTunes. Also, take a second to help the band out by logging in to iTunes, searching Jacob's Trouble, and rating and reviewing the albums. It wouldn't hurt to purchase some music, too! Just sayin'. :-)