The Story Continues...

So a few months back I posted an excerpt from my personal journal of JT memories. I decided to go ahead and tell the next part of the story for anyone who might be interested...

THE FIRST SONGS
After that night (the night we decided to be a Christian band -- Jerry), things began to move really fast for us. God began doing things that only He could have done. We began writing songs. They came fast and furious, too. One of us would bring in an idea and we would all hash it out.
One of the first songs we wrote together was “Psalm 151.” Mark had the music all worked out and played it for us one night. I began to work out a vocal melody. It felt like a praise and worship type song so Steve and I began looking through the Psalms for lyrical inspiration. We all added lines here and there, some from scripture, some from our own ideas. The hook line became “Your name is the Great I Am.” We called it Psalm 151 as a sort of in-joke for the biblically literate. There are, of course, only 150 psalms and this was a new one so…
It is amazing how many people have come up to us at concerts and said, ”Wow! I love how you guys put Psalm 151 to music!” One guy even told us tearfully of how he looked it up in his Bible to follow along!

Other songs came to us around that same time. I had ideas for “Million Miles” and “Wind and Wave.” Mark brought in an old demo of “If You Believe” that he had recorded with another band earlier. Steve and I played Mark our recording of “Eden Again” that we had done with Transit (an earlier band that Steve and I had played in -- Jerry). We changed some of the words to make it more doctrinally sound (Although I heard it the other day on my son's iPod and I think it is too "works" oriented, personally -- Jerry). Before we knew it we had a nice little set of music, between our originals and our covers.


HOW WE GOT THE NAME
All we needed now was a name. We kicked around a few but the only one I remember was Zilch. It was a favorite Monkees’ track off their 1967 album Headquarters. Not only was it a hip nod to the influence of the Monkees but we felt it had some spiritual significance because as the Bible says, “Without Him we can do nothing.” Nothing. Zero. Zilch. Get it?

Well, it wasn’t great but it was all we could think of. Then one day I was watching a videotape Mark had let me borrow. It was one of those old 70’s end times movie from Mark IV productions, I forget which one. But one of the characters in the movie mentioned that the Bible called the seven-year tribulation right before the return of Christ as “the time of Jacob’s Trouble.” I sat straight up. What was that? I rewound it. “The time of Jacob’s Trouble.” I ran to find a concordance. There it was in Jeremiah 30:7. How cool was that! It had everything; it sounded like one of those hip college radio bands and it had spiritual significance. Heck, it was even in the Bible! I called the other guys on the phone. They all liked it and so the name became Jacob’s Trouble.


THE FIRST CONCERT
The very first Jacob’s Trouble concert ever was in August of 1988 at the church Steve and I attended, First Baptist Acworth. We only knew about 8 songs and we played all of them. A few of them twice, I think. We called in an old buddy from high school, Brad Nash (later to be sound guy and recording engineer for Janah -- Jerry) to run sound, which was whatever the church had on hand.

Anyway, we were booked by the youth pastor to be the opening act for a Billy Graham film they were showing. I have the flyer for the gig in a scrapbook somewhere. I think there were a total of maybe 12 people there. In spite of the somewhat humble circumstances, we were a hit! Mark was whirling and spinning and windmilling and jumping. They loved us and we had a pretty good time playing. A splendid time was had by all.

Rare JT VHS for sale

One Troublemaker hipped me to an online music store that has new copies of our ultra-rare, ultra-cheesy VHS "The Best Christian Videos We've Ever Seen" for only .99. Click here to buy your copy of the most inappropriately named video in the history of Christian music. I might order one myself just for grins and giggles. They also have some good deals on our other records.

JT reunion cancelled

I'm having trouble as I write this picking the words that will convey the facts without revealing too much private and personal information. It is not a little difficult to hide my frustration but here goes...

Due to an irreconcilable difference with one of the participating members, the Jacob's Trouble reunion show at AtlantaFest 2007 has been cancelled. For the past two weeks we have been praying through this and talking it out, but the end result is that the show will not happen.

On behalf of the band I want to apologize to those of you who have made special arrangements and shelled out money to be there for us. I can only say that the matter is entirely out of my hands and I pray that no one has been too terribly inconvenienced. I can assure you, no one is more hurt and disappointed than we are.

Again, I apologize from the bottom of my heart on behalf of the band and I hope you will continue to pray for us as we each individually seek what God has for us and our families. Do stay tuned to this blog for more behind-the-scenes stories, reminiscences, and archival audio and video. We love you guys and thank you for sticking with us all these years!

In His grip,
Jerry Davison

Reunion Update!

Hey!

Thanks for all the encouraging emails and phone calls! It's exciting to know so many Troublemakers will be there in force at AtlantaFest to see a bunch of old guys try to relive the glory days. Many of you have been asking, "Will Mark be there?" and the answer, unfortunately, is no. Mark Blackburn, a founding member of JT and the original guitarist known for his jangly Rickenbacker sound, has declined to participate for personal reasons. Rest assured that there is no ill will or bitterness, just a simple "No, thank you." Please no gossip or rumor-mongering among the faithful! :-)

There is still no venue yet for the second show, but we will keep you posted as details come.

Now it's our turn to ask a question of you, the fans: What songs would want to hear us play? We have a fair idea of what we would like to play but we want to hear from you. Just click on the comments link below and leave us your fantasy JT set list. Please keep it to about 10 songs max. We look forward to hearing from you.

One last note: I fixed the link to the "Walls of Doubt" video. Thanks for the heads up, Joe! If I can, I hope to be able to add some more video from the many archived JT shows I have. Spare time these days is a rare commodity indeed!

Thanks again for the encouragement! Keep them comments and emails coming!

Jerry

How the Band Got Started

It's time to peel back that dusty layer of time and get a glimpse into the early beginnings of JT. Many have asked us through the years how we got started. So here from my personal journal is the beginning of JT the best I remember it...

About a year and a half after quitting Transit (my band prior to JT) I began to crave playing again. My wife and I were talking one night and she said, “I really it miss it when you used to play. Why don’t you find some guys to play music with again?” Now I’m sure that she only meant that I should play again “for fun.” And to be honest that’s all I wanted out of it. When I left Transit, I packed my drums up in a closet and there they had stayed for the last several months. I had surrendered my lifelong dream of playing in a band and left it in God’s hands. If it ever happens, I thought, it would have to be a God thing. For now, if I could play “for fun” that would be cool.

I looked in the Musician’s Exchange section of a local entertainment paper called Creative Loafing. For the next several weeks I answered a few ads, even tried out with one or two bands, but nothing seemed to fit. So I decided to take out my own ad to find musicians who were into the same things I was into.

I had come up with this idea, which is still a pretty cool idea, I think. I advertised for musicians to form a faux 60’s band. The idea was to become a fictional band from the sixties, dress the part, play the hits on vintage instruments, dress the stage up with memorabilia from the period, Even adopt fictitious names and personalities. Then we take the show on the road, renting ourselves out to private parties, dances, corporate functions, etc. I guess it really was a good idea because the response to my ad was phenomenal.

Among the callers was one Mark Blackburn. Mark was a guitar player, a Rickenbacker player, to be more specific. And he was a big Monkees fan! The more we talked, the more we had in common. He had played in the college frat circuit also. He loved sixties music, especially the Byrds and he had a 12-string Rick he played through a Vox amp. Wow, how cool was that!

Then a neat thing happened. A God thing. Mark and I started talking about Jesus. We discovered that we were both Christians. In fact, we were trying to witness to each other! Not only that, but we discovered that we each really knew who the other was. I was that guy who sang and played the drums for Transit, and Mark was that wild, whirling, windmilling Rickenbacker playing guitarist from Ron’s (Cochran) band, N3D.


THE FIRST PRACTICE
It was at that moment that the whole faux sixties band thing went right out the window. I suggested that we get together with a certain bass player I knew and see what kind of noise we could make. Steve (Atwell) had told me if I ever got anything going to call him. So I called Steve and within a week the three original Jacob’s Trouble members held our first rehearsal in the basement of my mom’s house. It consisted almost entirely of talking, about ourselves, about music, especially about our relationship with Christ. In fact, most of those early rehearsals were just the three of us talking about the Bible, where we were in our walk with the Lord, and praying.

We did play a little. We played a couple of Byrds' tunes, “Turn, Turn, Turn” and “Feel A Whole Lot Better.” We played the Monkees’ “Door Into Summer.” I can’t remember anything else we played but it wasn’t much and it was only covers. We didn’t start writing until later. It was late December 1987 so we decided to reconvene after the New Year and start rehearsing in earnest.

We returned to mom’s basement in January 1988 and hashed out respectable versions of the same covers we had played at our first meeting. We had absolutely no P.A. equipment so you couldn’t even hear us singing. It was noisy but it was a beautiful noise!

It was just me with my 4-piece black Slingerland drums and a hodge-podge of cymbals, Steve with his Peavey T-40 bass and some rig I can’t remember, and Mark with his blond 12-string Rick running through a Vox AC30 amp on that cool little chrome stand with squeaky wheels. He also had a black 6-string but that day he only brought the 12 if I remember correctly. I was doing all the singing at first. Mark had a cool voice but he was initially reluctant to take any lead vocals. Fortunately for us and our fans, Steve and I persuaded Mark to sing.

We spent a long time talking that night. We agreed to stick together and give it a whirl, so next week we were back at mom’s again. A funny story about Mark and my mom: Mark had arrived early and came in to set his rig up. I went upstairs to the kitchen to fix Mark and I a glass of sweet tea. Mom was there and she motioned for me to bend down so she could whisper something to me (she is only about 5 feet tall!). I leaned down and she whispered, “Mark has an earring!” Pretty shocking stuff for my mom at that time. “I whispered back, 'I know!' She shook her head with a disapproving frown and said, “That’s worldly.” I gave her a little hug and said, ”No, mom, judging somebody because they look different is worldly!” She just shook her head and I laughed. That’s one reason I have never gotten my ears pierced, because I know my mom would be disappointed. Right or wrong, I love my mommy!


A GOD THING
After a month or so of meeting at my parent’s house, I really began to feel that we should commit ourselves to being an openly evangelical Christian band. Up to that point we were just getting together and making music with no intention of being a Christian band, even though we were all believers. I decided to share my thoughts at the next rehearsal. But before I could open my mouth, one of the other guys, I can’t remember which, said, “You know, I believe we should be a Christian band.” The other said, “Wow! That’s amazing! I was going to suggest the same thing tonight. I’ve been thinking about it all week.” I added my two cents, “You’re not gonna believe this, but I had come here tonight prepared to say the same thing!” It was clear we were experiencing a God moment. One that would define Jacob’s Trouble for the next six years.

I want to take a minute here and clarify this distinction between being an evangelical Christian band as opposed to just a Christian band. One may think that to be a Christian band at all would be evangelical, and to an extent that may be true. However, there is definitely a difference in emphasis and approach between those artists whose first priority is to see people come to Christ and be saved and those artists whose first priority it is to make really good music that honors Christ and draws people to Him. There is no right or wrong. Both schools of thought are legitimate. The problem arises when one side maligns the other: “You’re too cheesy” over here, and “You’re too vague” over there.

Our hope in JT was to be the middle ground. I think we managed to strike that balance fairly well. Too well, it would seem, as we were never fully embraced by either side! To the artsy types we were a little too bright and happy and used the J-word too freely. To the preachy types we were too artsy and alternative. As a result, we never really caught on, even though we were a crowd favorite at festivals and a kind of critics’ darling in the Christian rock press. The inevitable result: poverty!

From that night on, we dedicated ourselves to being an evangelical Christian band. We committed ourselves to begin every practice with prayer. The prayer usually took up most of our time! But when we would play it would be so much more productive and creative than it had ever been. I remember one of us praying that night, saying, “God, we want to give ourselves and our music to You. If we never leave this basement, that’s fine with us as long as You get the glory.” Man, let me tell you, God honored that sincere prayer.

Jacob's Trouble Reunites!

It's true! We have been in talks about a possible one-shot reunion show in Atlanta for several months now. Now it looks like it will be at least a two-shot deal. JT will perform Friday June 15 at 1:00 PM at AtlantaFest '07 and then, the following night,Saturday June 16, we will be performing a full 2 hour show at an as-yet-undisclosed location. If all goes well, we are planning to record that show, mix it down and release our first ever live CD later this year or in early '08. This is particularly exciting for us as we have always wanted to do a live record properly. Add to it the excitement of the first new JT CD since 1998's Sampler Pak extravaganza and well, we're smiling bigger than Mister Rogers when the trolley rolls up!

Also, we will soon be launching our own website for the first time. We will still maintain this blog as well as the MySpace.com page. But it will be the Troublemakers' first stop for all things JT. I'll be back with more details as they happen.

Until then, thanks for being the faithful fans that you are!

Rooty-toot-toot!

"Something Good Happens" video

This was our one and only music video. Frontline Music Group, our label at that time, flew us out to LA right before Icthus '92 (April) and put us in a room and told us to jump around. We were hoping for something resembling a good ol' romp from a Monkees' episode but it fell a little short of that, I think. Anyway, in typical Frontline fashion, "Something Good Happens" was released a s a single to radio that summer, and then in the fall, after the single had died and nobody cared, they finally released the video. It showed up on a couple of obscure TV shows but pretty much disappeared into obscurity immediately.

It was packaged along with a lot of old, out-of-date Christian music videos and given the completely idiotic title, "The Best Christian Videos We've Ever Seen" with JT as the host band. A more accurate title would've been "The Worst Christian Videos We've NEVER Seen" because we hadn't even seen our own video at that time, much less the other videos on the program. One would surmise from watching this tape that either we hadn't seen many Christian music videos or we had horrible taste.

When we recorded our next record, 1993's Jacob's Trouble, we told Frontline we had some ideas for our next video. They said,"There's not going to be another video." When we asked why they said that there just wasn't an outlet for Christian music videos that made the cost worthwhile. So that's why there is only one JT music video.

And here it is in all its glory. Silly? Yes. Funny? Maybe. But it is what it is and there ya go.

"You Scare The Hell Outta Me" live video

This is one of my favorite songs from the Truth Gone Wild tour. We caught some flack from conservative types for the use of "profanity" but it is in fact a praise and worship song. I am very proud of the lyrics in spite of the bumper-sticker nature of the title.

"Walls of Doubt" live video

Here is yet another clip from our Creation '92 set. This particular version of the DA classic was where we culled the track from Sampler Pak. You will notice that this clip is significantly longer than the edited version on the CD.

"There Goes My Heart Again" live video

Another golden oldie ! Enjoy!

"Dreammaker" live video

DREAMMAKER
I actually dreamed the chorus to this song one night. I woke up with it still echoing in my head and wrote it down on a scrap of paper. I sang it to myself all week in an effort to not forget it.

The next band rehearsal, Mark came in and played us an idea for a new song he had. He played guitar and la-la-laed the melody. When he got to the end I sang the chorus I had dreamed and it fit perfectly. It was really kinda cool the way it worked out. Mark and I put our heads together and hammered out the words. I ended up writing the lyrics for the chorus and the first two verses, Mark penned the third verse himself.

It was one of those rare occasions where we actually collaborated on the writing of a song. Usually one of us would bring in a mostly finished idea and the band would just work out the arrangement. This was a delightful exception and is one of my favorite JT songs. I especially like Mark’s voice on it. He was a much better singer than he ever gave himself credit for.

Rare live JT videos on YouTube.com

Call me sentimental, call me what you will... I'm just a sharing type of guy! In the festive holiday spirit of Christmas, I am posting select live clips from our appearance at Creation Festival in Lancaster, PA, June 1992. This first one is of one of our most classic tun es, "Wind and Wave." We did this song in nearly every single concert throughout our entire career. This particular version is the same one you hear on the 1998 compilation "Sampler Pak."



From my personal journal:

WIND AND WAVE
Even though this song, like most of our songs, is credited to the whole band, I actually wrote it. That’s just the way we did things. We had read somewhere that Lennon and McCartney had a gentlemen’s agreement in the early days to split the songwriting credit regardless of who wrote the song. That sounded neat and romantic to us, so we decided to do that with our songs.

This was one of the first, if not THE first song I wrote as a member of Jacob’s Trouble. It is largely autobiographical and chronicles the struggle I went through actually believing that His grace is enough to save me. I think every believer has to face the doubt of his own salvation.

I was having a hard time with this because my sin was so great in my own eyes. I knew what scripture says about it but the enemy’s lies were clever and seductive. Finally, my wife got tired of hearing me whine. “Do you believe the Bible or don’t you?” she said.

“Yes,” I said.

“Well, then what’s the problem?” And she just threw her arms up and walked out of the room. It left me there thinking. ‘Hey, that’s right. What the heck am I doing?’ The result of that experience was “Wind and Wave.” I wrote it to encourage other believers who might be having the same struggle. I guess I hit a nerve because I’ve gotten a lot of positive feedback from fans regarding that song.

The opening riff is actually based on an old 77’s song called “Falling Down A Hole” from their first record. I always like those opening chords. Whenever I hear something that I wish I had written I usually try to re-write it with enough of a twist to keep from getting sued. I started with the same two chord progressions but whereas the 77’s song repeats them over and over, I continued to move them on down and make it a longer cycle.

“Wind and Wave” also bears the distinction of being the one song that we never cut from the set list. We played it every show from our first to our last. I think it’s largely due to the universal nature of the subject matter but also that it so perfectly captures the whole Jacob’s Trouble vibe. Even though we rocked it a little harder live than on Door Into Summer, it always seemed to have that JT vibe.

E-mail from a fan

I got this email a few weeks ago from a long-time Troublemaker-turned-pastor in Colorado Springs, CO. It was one of those moments where God just knew you needed an encouraging word and moved on someone to say it to you. I asked him if I could share it with you and he was very gracious to give me permission. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

Jerry,
A missionary buddy of mine sent me a blog that you had written about your
experience on stage with Third Day. I found it both nostalgic and humorous.
I am a youth pastor in Colorado Springs, and also do all of our association
work and much of the state work with youth. One of my the neat things we do
is concerts to raise money for the Colorado Baptist State Convention.
Therefore, I rottenly am around some of the bigger names in music. This year
I have done shows with Toby Mac, Newsboys, Reliant K, Newsong, Hawk Nelson,
and the likes.
I have said all this to say that, when things are slow and the bands or
artist ask me the kind of music I am into, I explain that God only made one
type of music for me... Jacob's Trouble, Lost Dogs, and The Seventy Sevens.
THIS ALWAYS CAUSES TWO RESPONSES.... The younger guys, (like Sanctus Real
and Thousand Foot Krutch) always reply...WHO? and the ones who have been
around the business, reply with great reverence for you and the dogs, and
etc..
I just wanted you to know this because your writing influenced myself and
many of our peers. We are now all spread around the globe doing God's work,
but when we get together, JT is quoted in the same conversations with the
likes of The Holy Grail, Raising Arizona, and Christmas Vacation. If we run
across a judgmental know it all.... he is a Mr. Hitler... and so on.... I
have quoted your music at youth rallies on 5 continents as well. JT was
simply part of my experience (along with Driving and Crying, Braves
Baseball, and Lewis Grizzard)
So if you are like me.... I rarely get to know when I have made a positive
impact. Now that I "stare down the barrel of a loaded microphone" 2 or 3
times a week, I know to say thank you to those who have influenced me. So
Jerry, know that your writing taught me scriptures when I didn't want to
read and inspired me when my prayer life was in the pits. God Bless You and
your work in Nevada.

(name withheld by request)
Colorado Springs, Colorado

A Christmas Gift for you!

Merry Christmas, Troublemakers young and old!

As a special Christmas present just for you loyal fans, I have made available a rare bootleg recording from my personal archives. For a limited time only, you can download "Jacob's Trouble Live in Hamilton, Ontario, New Year's Eve 1992" absolutely free! It's in an mp3 format and the recording quality is fairly decent. Just click here and drag the folder "Hamilton, Ontario 12-31-92"into your iTunes or whatever media player you use. But hurry! I will be taking it down right after the New Year.

Enjoy the tunes and have a great Christmas!

Jerry Davison

JT on Wikipedia

Check out this article at Wikipedia.com, the free online encyclopedia that's written by ordinary joes like me and you. In fact, I did write some of it. That's why it says it's being called into question for not being objective. Guilty as charged! So sue me!

My best Friday ever

I posted this on my blog at MySpace.com but I thought JT fans might enjoy reading this:

Last Friday (March 10) I went to see my good friends Third Day play in concert at the House of Blues in Las Vegas. Some of you may know that I have a friendship with them that goes way back to my Jacob's Trouble days when they were just scrawny teenagers trying to get us to listen to their demo tape (which, by the way, I still have in a box at home!).

Anyways, they came to town and Mark Lee, the guitarist, called me up and asked if I wanted tickets. So he hooked me and my family up and we went to see them. I met them backstage before the show just to say hi and thanks for the tickets. I jokingly asked them, "You're gonna do my song tonight, right? I got all my peeps here!" Mark laughed and said they'd see what they could do.

So halfway through the set they do an acoustic deal and Mac says, "One of the first things we ever did as a band was go to a Jacob's Trouble concert. We looked at them and said that's what we want to do." Well that was nice but it gets better. Mac says, "We've got a good friend here tonight, Jerry Davison from Jacob's Trouble. He didn't know we were going to do this but, Jerry, come on up and do this song with us!"

Next thing I know, there's a security guy at my side ushering me through the crowd up to the stage. The whole time I'm thinking, "This would be the wrong place to stink! Please God help me not to sound horrible!" So I went out on stage and sat on a stool between Brad and Mac and sang my llittle heart out. After about 10 seconds it alll came back to me and I even did the vamp we used to do in JT. It was a blast!

The coolest part was getting to share that mmoment with my family. And I had a lot of people from my church family there, too! At one point I looked up in the balcony and saw a couple from my small group going crazy. It was just a great experience and the Third Day guys were so gracious and encouraging. After the song, Mac hugged me and said, "Man, you still have a great voice!" Pretty cool, coming from him, don't you think?

Through it all, I felt God speaking to me saying, "This is just to remind you how much I love you." Wow.

As a side note, I saw this on the Third Day website and it was such a nice compliment I had to share it with my friends.

"We weren't sure how it would be playing in a club on this tour, but this ended up being a special night. The House of Blues is a great venue. Very intimate and cool. In the interest of shaking it up and giving Las Vegas something special, we changed our set pretty dramatically for this show. And a special treat was having Jerry Davison, singer of Jacob's Trouble and writer of "These Thousand Hills", sit in with us on that tune. If you haven't heard his stuff, try to track it down. We used to go to Jacob's Trouble shows in Atlanta, and Jerry's literally one of our heroes. It was almost like having one of the Beatles onstage with us in our book."
click here to read the whole article.

One of the Beatles, huh? Which one, Ringo? :-)
That was a very nice thing to say and I am deeply flattered. My wife says there will be no living with me now. Not to worry honey. I mean, Yoko.

"These Thousand Hills"

Since this is by far the most high profile song from our back catalog (Thank you, Third Day!) I thought it would be a good place to start blogging about our songs. If you are interested in all that behind-the-scenes VH1 stuff, you'll like this. If not, well... move along. There's nothing to see here. So, here I go with a little story I like to call "These Thousand Hills: The Best I Remember It."

In between the recording of Door Into Summer (spring 1989) and writing new songs for what would become Knock, Breathe, Shine, I took a vacation with my wife to Florida. While we were there we stayed with a friend whose family was from England. On the coffee table in their living room was a huge book about Scotland. I have always wanted to visit Scotland. I just love the green rolling hills, the castles, the rich history. And I had recently seen the movie Local Hero (rent it! You’ll love it!) and just fell in love with the people and traditions of Scotland.

I was flipping through this book just soaking in the pictures of the people and places and this song just sort of welled up inside me. The words “These thousand hills” I had remembered from an old western I saw on cable a few months back. I always liked the sound of it and had it in mind to use in a song whenever the right opportunity arose.

I jotted it down and as soon as we got back from vacation, I took it to the band. All I had were a few verses and the chorus. It was not anywhere near finished in my mind. The response from Mark and Steve was lackluster at best. Steve sort of liked it but Mark said it sounded too much like the U2 song “Van Diemen’s Land” from Rattle and Hum. In fact, the melody was remarkably similar. So we just sort of shelved it for the time being and moved on to other songs.

Fast forward to the recording of Knock, Breathe, Shine (spring 1990): We are sitting in the studio putting the finishing touches on basic tracks and Terry (Taylor, the producer) says, “Well, is there anything else you guys have?” I said, “Well, there is this one song but it’s not really finished.”

“Let’s hear it, “ he says. So Mark breaks out the acoustic and I sang it to him. Terry sort of lit up. He caught the whole “Mull of Kintyre” thing I was after and we tracked the drums and scratch guitar and vocals.

During overdubs, he had Greg Flesch play the bagpipe parts on a keyboard. He called in everybody from Frontline, artists and office workers and they came down and made an impromptu choir. And we had Tim Chandler play bass on it, not because Steve couldn’t but because Steve was a huge Chandler fan and specifically requested that Tim play it.

It turned out better than anyone anticipated and we suggested Frontline release it as the AC single they were always trying to get from us. They took one listen and turned us down flat. “Songs with bagpipes don’t get played on Christian radio,” they said. And that was that. Never mind that, only a few short years later, Rich Mullins’ “Step By Step” complete with REAL bagpipes shot to the top of the Christian radio AC charts.

Over the next several months after the album’s release we got tons of fan mail saying “These Thousand Hills” was the best song on the album, and they sang it in their church youth group meetings. Still Frontline refused to even hear of releasing it to radio. Even in 1998, when KMG was putting together a greatest hits package, they refused to put “These Thousand Hills" on the track listing. Two years later, Third Day recorded it and had a Top 3 radio hit with it.

And the moral of this story is: When the A&R guys at your record label say one thing and everybody else in the whole world says the opposite, don’t listen to the A&R guys.

A lot of people ask me, "Do you mind Third Day covering your song and having a big hit with it? Now veryone thinks it's their song!" Heck, no! I'm thrilled! Those guys are good friends and great encouragers. If they think a song we wrote is will encourage the church and help people see Jesus clearly then I'm all for it.

Another question I hear all the time is, "I'll bet you guys made a bun dle off that song!" You would think. The CD went gold and continues to sell very well. The song got tons of airplay and still gets a decent amount. But the truth is that back when we were first signed, our contract stipulated that we sign over 100% of our publishing rights. What that means in everyday terms is that we don't own one single song we wrote. While we did see some money, our individual shares were only about 1/16 of the total monies generated by that song.

Let me just stop here and say this: Despite the sheer wrongness of the record deal we signed and in spite of all that we have suffered financially as a result of it, I cannot honestly say I regret signing with Frontline. Maybe we should have stuck to our guns and held out for more equitable terms, I don’t know. Hindsight is always 20/20 but I’m pretty myopic when it comes to the future. I don’t see it until it’s about to run over me.

When I think about all that being signed with Frontline did for us – exposing our music to thousands of fans worldwide, the friendships that followed, the places we got to go to and people we met along the way, the experiences – man, none of it would have happened if we hadn’t signed that contract. Who knows? Maybe if we had turned Frontline down, some other label might have stepped up with a better deal. Then again, maybe we would have gigged around another year or so and then disappeared back into obscurity. Heck, we’re dang close to obscurity as it is!

All I know is that when I said that being in Jacob’s Trouble was one of the greatest things that ever happened to me, most of it happened as a part of the Frontline Music Group. And like the deal or not, it was a way cool label to be on in those days. It was kind of like an honor, you know? And to have the chance to not only work with, but get to know one of my personal spiritual heroes, Terry Taylor, and to spend time in his home with his family…well, that’s a small price to pay for a handful of songs that most folks will never hear anyway.

Well, there you have it. If any of you have any questions or comments, feel free to leave them and I will respond as best I can. Thanks, and check back soon for more fun from the musty memories of an aging poser.

The Jacob's Trouble MySpace.com page

You may want to click on over to our JT page on MySpace.com where I recently posted 4 songs from the old JT archives. Every couple of months or so I dig through the old stacks of tapes and CDs to find rare live tracks, unreleased demos, or just the hits you've all come to know and love and stick them up on the site. While you're there, check out some of my solo stuff.

I've been getting some emails and messages on MySpace.com asking, "Jerry, where the heck can I buy new CDs to replace my aging JT cassettes, 8-tracks and Edison wax cylinders?!" Just kidding about the Edison thing. The truth is, you can find pretty much everything we did and dang-it cheap, too, over at eBay. Most people will sell them for a dollar but you have the occasional goofball who thinks an autographed copy of Knock, Breathe, Shine is going to be worth a small fortune. Sheesh! If I thought writing my name on something would make it valuable, I would sign my name on everything in my house and sell it. What a maroon! Anyways check out this search and see what you can find. Happy hunting!

Jerry Davison,
poseur extraordinaire, Jacob's Trouble

It's about dadgum time!

There just wasn't anywhere you few and feircely loyal Troublemakers could gather and talk about, well...us! So I thought it was high time I step into the 21st century and start a blog for fans of our defunct Christian alterna-pop band, Jacob's Trouble. I know there's a few of you guys out there still so feel free to add comments. I'll be posting things from time to time about the band and I'll be happy to answer any questiuons you guys might have.

Also, be sure to pop on over to http://www.myspace.com/jacobstrouble for a sneak peek in my personal archgives. I rotate the songs out every few months or so. They range from the hits to the obscure demo to the bootleg live recordings. I will also be posting links to the other former JT members sites as soon as I can gather them all all.

Menawhile, check back soon as I will be updating this blog soon.

Rooty-toot-toot! And God bless.

Jerry Davison
singer/songwriter/drummer/poser
Jacob's Trouble