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

Thousands of 1000 Hills covers! (well, maybe just a few...)

Well, it appears that this will be our legacy, folks! And a darn fine legacy to be sure! From kids learning their first songs in their bedroom to church worship bands, These Thousand Hills apparently DO roll on and on!

Something from the ol' mailbag...

Got this encouraging message on YouTube from a person who clearly has impeccable taste in music...

Jacob's Trouble
Dear Sir,

I was delighted to see your catalogue available at iTunes. I have purchased most of your songs (have been waiting for a long, long time!). I was in high school when I heard you guys first, it was amazing. You guys were way ahead of your times, and your music was some of the best Christian stuff out at the time. I am 37 now, and I teach high school history. Anyway, I guess you get the fan mail all the time, so add me to another person who was touched by your music and ministry. Thank you for it all, you guys ROCKED!

Thanks, friend! You rocketh mightily! Thanks for listening! Now the rest of you get out there and follow his example and buy our entire catalog off iTunes!

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'. :-)

The Essemtial JT iMix on iTunes

Now that our music has been once again made available to the music-loving masses thanks to the magic of digital download, I took it upon myself to compile an iMix on iTunes for the uninitiated. I would encourage all our faithful Troublemakers to do the same! Please stop by the iTunes store, search "Jacob's Trouble" and rate and review (and download) your favorite JT album. 'Nuff said!

JT catalog now available on iTunes!

It had to happen! Just when you thought it was safe to download music, the JT catalog is now available for purchase on iTunes. If you ever loved us, ever truly cared for us, you will all go and immediately purchase our entire collection. We thank you, our wives thank you, and our hungry college bound children thank you.

Pastor Jerry's preachin' today!

Greetings Troublemakers old and new!
It's been a long while since the last post. Not much going on in the world of JT these days but I did want to share with you guys some of the chances I've been getting to speak lately. I love teaching God's Word as much as I love singing about it. Currently I am on staff at Church at the Ridge in Hiram, GA as the Creative Arts Pastor. We have a kicking band that I lead each week so if you are ever in the Atlanta area please stop by and check us out. But lately I have been getting more opportunities to preach and I wanted to share a few of the latest with you.
I preached two of four messages in a series called New Thru 30, where we challenged our people to read the entire New Testament through in 30 days. Each week we preached on one of the sections of the New Testament. Our lead pastor, Steve Whipple preached on the Gospels and the book of Acts. Then while he took a team to Burkina Faso in Africa, I held down the fort with the Epistles and the book of the Revelation. Want to hear me try to explain 22 of the 27 books of the New Testament in 2 messages? Listen here and here. Thanks for checking in!

The Wayside covers "These Thousand Hills" on their new CD

Our good buddy John J. Thompson and his band, The Wayside, have recorded a version of our song, "These Thousand Hills" on their new project, Spiritual Songs. We found this blurb from the band's biography on Last.FM:

The project came to life when the two enlisted the recording help of producer and engineer Stephen Leiweke to record their version of “These Thousand Hills,” a worship song they have been performing since its original release in 1989 by the Atlanta band Jacob’s Trouble. It was a special request by their good friend Pat O’Malley who was battling cancer. “We just wanted to capture the song the way we had been doing it for years,” John explains. “It was a favorite of Pat’s and he requested it be used at his memorial service when that time came. We decided not to wait, but to record it right away so he could enjoy it while he was still with us.”

Wow. We are so grateful to God that He is still using our music to comfort, encourage, and speak into so many lives. It's a testament to the greatness of God, not the goodness of our songs. He is awesome!

You'll never guess who I ran into today....

So I'm attending the one-day Sticky Church conference in Cumming, GA. today with some pastor friends, right? And I'm at this cool, hip, edgy church called Mountain Lake Church. I keep noticing that they are playing great music (Coldplay, U2, etc.) between sessions. I walk by the sound booth and just glance over at the front of house guy mixing sound and our eyes lock. I did a double take and practically fell out. It was none other than my buddy and former JT drummer, Ron Cochran! We both yelled and pointed. I'm sure everybody thought we were nuts!

It was an awesome surprise and a great gift from the Father. Ron and I haven't seen each other in a decade or more and to just happen to be in the same room at the same time was too much to be merely a coincidence. Ron tells me he and his wife, Kristen, just had their first baby 16 days ago. No pics, sorry. I didn't have a camera with me. Anyways we traded numbers and promises to call soon.

Just thought you guys might enjoy that. I know I did!

Return of Fan Mail Friday

Well, it's been a while since we cracked open the ol' mailbag. I guess that's because no one has written to us lately. Maybe that we have been defunct for 15 years has something to do with it...

Anyways, I got this email from a fan who caught our stuff on YouTube:

Jerry
I really am glad to be able communicate with you. I have so many things to say to you. You guys meant so much to me for just a short period as a band and continually through your recordings. While I like all kinds of music, I've always leaned heavily toward metal (Current fave's Demon Hunter, Skillet, Disciple). That's why it is so amazing to me that your music just reached out and grabbed me like it did. I think you guys were just great songwriters and that's what attracted me to Jacob's Trouble. I really enjoyed your last two CD's. You seemed to hit on all cylinders as musicians. I became a fan about a month before your last CD came out. I saw you tear it up at a church in Parkersburg WV in front of about 300. The last show I got to attend was in front of about 20 people at a Vineyard church in Cross Lanes WV. Most of the show you were literally only a foot from me. You could have played bongos on my head . I got to help you guys a couple of times tear down after about three of the four times I saw you in '93. I was at Ichthus where you put up some stuff on YouTube. I got a cool picture of a couple of you guys with Terry Taylor and my roommate. I showed you the picture and you said Terry looked like a demented Santa Claus.
I'm really happy to see you in ministry. I always dread finding out about some of my past favorites, because I fear hearing that they abandoned their faith. Remember the Roger Martinez issue from the mid 90's? Anyway I got a kick out of seeing the picture of you, Steve and Mark on your Facebook page. So what is everyone doing these days? I guess I expected to hear about each of you guys joining/starting bands but that didn't happen. Where are Ron and Keith? Did Keith ever find his "Pasta Mama"? Anyway I hope to hear from you sometime. Feel free to tell me about you church and living in Vegas. By the way I'm fond of CSI, LOST, and the Lord of the Rings trilogy too.

Bill Bias

Merry Christmas, JT style!

Seasons greetings to Troublemakers near and far, young and old! To help your Christmas be that much merrier, I am continuing the grand tradition of making rare JT music from my personal archives available to our fans ABSOLUTELY FREE for a limited time.

This year's download is a set we performed in February of 1991 at Mt. Paran Church in Atlanta, GA. as part of the Ron Hutchcraft Saturday Night Alive radio program. We were the special musical guests that week and they recorded our pre-show warm-up set. Click here and select the JT_live_1991.zip file for download. I think it's a right-click deal for you PC users and a control-click thingy for Mac people. Anyhow, please have a safe and peaceful Christmas this year! And thank you on behalf of Mark, Steve,Ron and Keith and myself for your love and encouragement that you still show us after all these years! Blessings on you and yours!

Jerry Davison

Yet another cover of 1000 Hills!

Check out this bluegrass version of "Third Day's" These Thousand Hills. :-D

Fan Mail Friday!!

Howdy Troublemakers far and wide!
It's time to open up that ol' mailbag and hear from you the fans. This week's letter comes from a guy who saw our videos on YouTube. He writes:

Jerry,
thanks for posting your videos. they bring back many memories. I had the awesome opportunity to see you guys in Evansville, Indiana many years ago at a place called, I think, the encore...
Also, I have been doing a CCM radio show since 1994 on a 50,000 watt PBS station and occasionally I will get a JT tune on.
Anyway, thanks for posting your vids, I loved seeing them.
Best regards,
Dave

Well, thankee kindly, Dave. Somebody's got to keep the dream alive! And since we don't have a radio show, it looks like it's up to you!

Have a great weekend everybody! And don't forget to get yer butt in church somewhere, you buncha postmodern, back-pack wearin' latte sippin' horn-rimmed glasses sportin' whipper-snappers!

JT gets a shout out from Third day...

My good buddy Mark Lee, guitarist extraordinaire from Third Day, gave JT a nice plug on his blog yesterday:

I had so much fun last week with Hair Metal Day that we've got to keep the party going. This week we're going to talk about our favorite old school CCM artists. I'm going to get it started with a list of 10 CCM bands. No particular order...

...3. Jacob's Trouble - Great live band - I saw them at least 20 times in concert.

Thanks, Mark! You guys are definitely in our Top Ten CCM bands that have covered a JT song! Wait, you guys are the only band to cover a JT song. Oh well...

Anyhoo, it's a cool blog post and if you want to read the whole thing you can find it here.

Behind the Scenes: "Further Up, Further In"

Here's another peek behind the curtain into the VH1-style drama that was Jacob's Trouble. I thought with all the hype around the Narnia movies I would give a little insight into our own C.S. Lewis inspired tune,"Further Up, Further In" from our second record, Knock,Breathe Shine (1990):

FURTHER UP AND FURTHER IN
I am a big fan of C.S. Lewis. Mere Christianity is second only to the Bible in terms of spiritual influence in my life. During the time between Door Into Summer and Knock Breathe Shine, I had been reading a lot of Lewis. My wife and I, both fans of fantasy literature, had bought a set of the Narnia books and were reading them to each other. The Last Battle became a favorite of ours, particularly the last few chapters where Lewis deals with the Narnian concept of heaven.

The characters in the book, having all died in the Last Battle of Narnia, discovered they were in Aslan’s Country (Heaven). What I love most is that he doesn’t waste time trying to describe what Heaven looks like, so much as what we will be like when we get there. His description of the changes that come over the characters is moving and produces a longing for God every time I read it.

At one point, one of the characters calls out “Come! Let’s go further up and further in!” It becomes a sort of cry that encourages them to explore the glory of God deeper and deeper. The further up and in they go, the bigger it becomes.

As with most things that touch me deeply, it squeezed a song out of me. I wrote it down and sang it to the band one night at rehearsal. They all liked it but didn’t really know what to do with it in terms of arrangement. So we didn’t really develop it further until we took it in the studio and recorded it with Terry.

The drum loop is actually Dave Raven’s drum machine. He programmed the loop for us to rehearse with but we liked the groove so much we used it on the recording. Greg played the accordion part, I think. Randy Stonehill came in and sang harmonies. It turned out quite nicely.

Now that full theatrical versions of The Chronicles of Narnia are being made, I’d like to see if they would use “Further Up and Further In” in the soundtrack to The Last Battle. Hey, maybe I could get Third Day to record it and pitch it to Walden Media!

Out of the blue...

...comes a letter of encouragement from a JT fan. I never ceased to be amazed that God continues to use a bunch of goofballs like us even long after we stop being a band. This one's from Skip in Saskatchewan:

Hi there, I was wondering if you could pass this along to Jerry:

It is the day before Canada Day, and being a Monday before a holiday, no one is here at work and I was putting some songs on my computer to listen to while I typed away. My diggin’ up bones cd didn’t have any album art coming up and so I went on line to find it and read a little article on where you and the band are now. It was really neat to hear about what went on, and what you are doing now.

I just wanted to say thanks for making the music that you did. I don’t have a ton of music in my collection. I tend to find things that I like and just listen to them over the years, and your stuff has been some of my favourite. I have the self titled one and diggin’ up bones, and I have really loved listening to those songs. You had some good words to say (sing) and I have really appreciated it. They have had an influence. I still listen to them.

When I wrote back to Skip to tell him thanks for the kind words, he responded...

You know, there was one more thing that I was going to tell you as well. Sometimes, when I am listening to those certain bands that I really like, I think “wow, these guys may have only made x number of albums (or one even), and they didn’t really go very far – from the world of music’s perspective anyway. But am I ever glad that they did what they did. And I wonder if they will ever know what a difference they made.”

So I really thank God for people like you who did (and are doing J) what they are called to. I don’t believe any art or work is done in vain if we are doing what we are called to do at that time and place. I guess I am starting to see that our job is to do what we are supposed to, and Jesus will take care of the impact of it – and most of it we will probably never realize. Even simple things, like a smile, or a prayer, or just treating our kids or wife well, let alone the “big” things. This helps me to realize that nothing is wasted when we are faithful.

Keep up your good work!

Skip

Keep them cards and letters and emails and blogposts and whatever else they come up with comin' Troublemakers. If you've got a story of how God has used the music we made to effect your life, we want to share it with the rest of our fans... all 27 of them!

New JT page on facebook

Good news, all you social networking geeks who also happen to like old Christian bands with bad mullets (and I know there are a lot of you!): My brilliant and talented son set up an official JT page on facebook. Go sign up and let your Troublemakin' colors fly high for the world to see! First 100 fans to join get a free Steve Atwell bobblehead doll (Just kidding... but wouldn't that be awesome? I'd buy one!).

It never ceases to amaze...

...the different interpretations on "These Thousand hills." My son found this incredibly caucasian version on YouTube. Thought you Troublemakers might get a grin out of this...