Where Are the Downloadable Classic CCM Tunes?
February 21, 2005
Posted by Dan Edelen in : Miscellany Functions : Trackback,
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Okay, so I’m ripping some of my old CDs via iTunes and I’ve only got one question:
When is someone in the Christian music biz going to get wise and start opening up the old catalogs for digital access?
Recently, I looked back over some “ancient,” decaying cassette tapes and started looking online for some of those classic songs. 
I put about two dozen of those songs into The iTunes Store and not a single one came up. There are so many classic bands and tunes from the 1970s through mid-1990s that are simply not available by any means. And that’s a crime. We stand to lose a true library of Christian music from that era if someone doesn’t get wise to collecting it into some digital format.
I can’t get MP3 versions of far too many songs. One of my favorite songs of all time is Mark Heard’s own version of “Strong Hand of Love,” but the only downloadable version out there is a pale copy 
(sorry, Bruce) by Bruce Cockburn. Anyone remember Albrecht, Roley & Moore? I’d love to get a copy of their song “Holiday Son,” but where? One of my favorite albums ever was Terry Talbot’s A Time to Laugh, a Time to Sing which has incredible songs like “Lamplighter” and “Father, Break Me,” as well as the truly funny “Bibleland.” Sadly, my copy of that album melted in a hot car and the tape I’d made of it finally snapped a couple years later. I still get a chill when Russ Taff belts out, “I’m goin’ down to the river, gonna be buried alive…” on The Imperials classic “Water Grave.” No hope of finding any of those available for download off the Web.
And sure, you can probably find a recent compilation that features Dallas Holm’s “Rise Again,” but what if you like his classic 
“Here We Are” better? Good luck! Tear up every time you hear Billy Sprague’s version of his great “How Could You Say No?” or “I Never Should Have Left You” by Sweet Comfort Band? Remember Prodigal and their rockin’ number “Just What I Need”? Wanna compare Jacob’s Trouble’s version of “Door Into Summer” with the original Monkees version? Well maybe that’s going a little far, but you get my point.
Anyone who owns the old catalogs from Word Music, Sparrow, Benson, Light, or any of those classic labels, I think you’ve got a market out there that is going untapped. I know that I would pay good money to get some of these albums and songs. Some never made it to CD, but certainly master tapes exist somewhere.
There’s no good reason, either, that so many Christian artists are not available on iTunes or one of the other services. Too many partial catalogs exist, too. I mentioned Mark Heard—iTunes only has about half his albums. What gives on the other half?
Everyone knows that the MPAA is none too happy about copyrighted music being downloaded through sharing software. It’s wrong and Christians should not be doing it. That said, I’m guessing that some of the songs I’ve mentioned in this post were probably available online at some point through the old Napster and others. We just need legal sources—the artists or labels— to offer them for sale. I would buy them in a second if they existed.
With so much tuneless teeny-bopper drivel on most Christian radio stations, wouldn’t it be great to have some of those old catalogs available? The music from the time I became a Christian is precious to me, but it is slowly decaying and being lost forever.
How do we go about making this happen? Artists, labels…anyone listening?
(For a list of most of those old CCM artists and their discography, check out this and this.)
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I completely agree with you on this… I have tried to find 70s Christian music online and can’t find any… Especially Albrecht Roley and Moore (whom we dubbed ARM all those years)… I really wish I could get a good copy of the Starlighter album. Good memories!
I just find mine and its to scratched to listen to.I did find a web site for brush arbor though
For ages I have been looking for ARM original album (don’t know if all the vinyls were solid white, but that was the one I had before my puppy ate the first one and my roommate moved out withthe second one I bought). MY favorite song was White Seagull but NOWHERE can I find it to download. NO Tim Shepherd, no Pam Mark..I’m hoping now to find some inexpensive method to transfer my disc collection to CD.
If you want copies of any of my past CDs you may
contact me at pammarkhall@mac.com
Pam Mark Hall
You can now purchase all Pam Mark Hall CDs
direct from Pam Mark Hall@
pammarkhall@mac.com
Scott Roley is a pastor at Christ Community Church in Franklin TN. Maybe he can help you out. His email is Scott.Roley@ChristCommunity.org
I’ve got two ventage ARM vynal albums. The ‘77 and I think the ‘80.
I recently fixed an old turntable and I’m am thinking about digitizing all my old christian vynl.
I have the Albrecht Roley and Moore album that has Holiday Son on it. I have 3 of their albums on vinyl. How do feel about me tranferring albums to CD’s and then just giving them away. I would be willing to do that for you. Let me know on this blog.
WOW!! Another good music lover!! You are so totally right!! I was listening to White Heart “God Made Convertables” on the way in to work and was thinking, “Where is all the good Christian music from the 80’s these days??” I hope someone takes your advise and soon!!!
Jesus Never Fails,
Becky
Amen.
Did anything ever come of this? I’m in the same boat. I’d love to have any form of copy of this album. I still have the words to “Eyes On The Clouds” wandering around in my mind some 25+yrs. after I’ve listened to it. I did finally find vintage reproduction of “Shotgun Angel” by Daniel Amos and thats fun to play for my kids. (They laugh at the idea of us old folks looking like “Hippies”.) If you know any way to get A.R.M. or any of their old songs please let me know.
Thank You.
I grew up with the Jesus music of the 70s and got into the business for 16 years. I share the concerns of the author about the lack of availability on many of these older artists. I did see where “Forgiven” by Ron Salsbury & the JC Power Outlet has just made it to CD. Some of these older titles are slowly being picked up by independant labels and redistributed, some are available on artist websites like Farrell and Farrell, Honeytree and Stephanie Booshada. Some older titles have already come and gone in limited CD releases such as Kerry Livgren and Paul Clark. I got a Bruce Hibbard “Never Turnin Back” Cd as a japanese import.
A good friend of mine and I (right or wrong) share songs back and forth digitally. I own the albums but cannot get them digitized. And I have some stuff he doesn’t have so we swap. We have a pretty incredible collection of older CCM. But alas, I still have holes I wish to fill. I would die to get Lenny LeBlanc’s “Say A Prayer” on CD…or Pam Mark Hall’s 1st two albums.
Finally, there are direct to computer turntables on the market whereby you can convert your vinyl to mp3 files. Ion makes one for about $100 bucks. So it is not as hopeless as one might think. I do think the CCM industry as a whole has shamelessly allowed its history to slide into the abyss.
I was wondering if anyone remembers a song that I think Pam Mark Hall recorded called “Let Your Mind Dwell On These Things”? If so does anyone know what album it’s on and where on earth I could find it??? It’s a gorgeous song and I loved it back when I first got saved but have forgotten it over the years. I hope that I can find it.
Isn’t it on…”This is Not a Dream” album (cassette or LP).
I too have been looking for the cassette; thus far no luck
I was raised listening to the CCM of the early 80’s and it brings back so many wonderful memories of my childhood and i soo do miss the music. And its just not easy pulling out my dads old albums to listen to them whenever i want. So i did a little digging so far and have found a few artist still around with some best of cd’s like Dion Dimucci, Reggie Vinson, Stephanie Booshada, But finding anything on andres, blackwood, & company or Morris Chapman and others is proving hard. Im really tempted to just hook my turntable to my comp and upload stuff but im wondering would we get in trouble if we share it with others like us who enjoy that part of history and would it still be under copyright or would it matter if were not selling it?
this isn’t going to be solved unless some bigwig buys the rights and markets them. Maybe Degarmo or Key or Bob Hartman can help influence somebody. It won’t happen unless there’s an organized effort and even then the possible person wouldn’t do it for sentimental reasons. There would have to be a profit involved.
HI, i think i have a record from Terry Talbot that has the lamplighter song it may be his greatest hits im not sure i havent looked at it in a long time since its hard to get playres these days but let me know if you need help with this.
I tell you what would be great. If there were one site you could go to see what old CCM titles or songs had been released on CD. I know I can’t keep up with all the little independent little labels out there that buy the masters or the rights to manufacture….plus many artists own their own masters. For example, the band Parable (remember them) offers a 25th anniversay CD of their two albums together. Now if you weren’t ferociously looking you probably wouldn’t know that….or that Farrell & Farrell offer many of their early Christian classics on CD through their own site.
There are literally dozens of great CCM classic albums or songs available that many have never heard about.
p.s. I read a post where Pam Mark Hall is working on getting the rights to her early releases. Possibly available on CD down the road?
I have been trying to preserve my musical heritage from the vinyl days, too. In the old days, I made copies of albums onto cassettes to preserve the grooves in my LPs. I could also make best of and favorites cassettes. I sometimes made mixed sampler cassettes to give to friends and family that I was trying to get swithched over from secular to Christian music. I since discontinued this. I won’t own a pirated copy by itself. I figure that if I bought a licensed or copyrighted version, then making a copy to listen to and preserve my original is a reasonable use of the product(There are services available on the Web that do this to, but I found it easy to do it on my own with a PC, a turntable, cassette deck, cabling and software like MAGIX Audio Cleaning Lab). I’m pretty sure this has held up in court in test cases. In an attempt to respect copyrights, I often search for old cassette or vinyl originals to give to someone along with the digital copies ripped from good playing originals. Of course I’m always on the lookout for original CDs and authorized re-issues on CD. Smetimes these can be expensive! I paid $100 for an original David Meece 7 CD. I have bought some original Larry Norman that I haven’t even heard yet because the cartrige broke on my turntable. I sometimes loan original CDs, and too often never get them back. Looking for old music? I have many of the recordings referred to above incuding ARM. However, I’m not selling. I find most of my stuff in thrift stores and on the Internet. Do a google search every now and then and, if you’re persistent, one will show up. I’ve bought a lot through RadRockers.com through the years, too. The more people working on this, the better chance more of it survives and eventually may even get re-released. I really believe prayer can make a difference too!
Good post Lloyd. Since I last posted things have changed a lot for me. I have been a collector of CCM ever since I was a teenager back in the 70s. My record collection is in the thousands. There are very few things I don’t have. And then I got into the Christian music industry and that gave birth to my sizeable CD collection. But I still have a fondness for those old Jesus music days. The very thing that is hardest to find and get transferred to a digital format. Fortunately, I have a friend who is set up to make those transfers and I now have an incredible library of MP3s from artists like ARM, Pam Mark Hall, Agape, Randy Matthews, Dogwood, Wall Bros Band, Terry Talbot….all from my own LP collection.
Lloyd is right. There are services out there that offer CD-Rs of old Christian recordings. Some are doing it right I believe by selling you an original copy of the LP with the CD-R or at least requiring proof you own an original copy. And some just have the means and are trying to make a buck. Do not support these types of users. In the mean time there are more and more artists or companies that offer legit Cd copies from original masters or at least the rights to transfer from LP. I just got a copy of Malcolm & Alwyn’s Wildwall from a company in conjunction with Alwyn Wall’s church in Florida. I am also getting a CD copy of Fresh Surrender (remastered) from Tim Archer’s own website. If you look hard enough they are out there. Good Luck…and God Bless.
Hi David,
Your comment: “. . . very few things I don’t have” motivated me to submit a “name that artist” quiz. Here’s a ’70s lyric:
“17, and I’m, living a life, maybe I’ll reach 70, and then I’ll die. 17 and I’m, havin’ fun, but I’m kinda wonderin’ just who the last laugh will be on; 17 and I, just heard today, someone’s wanting to change my life in every way, but you won’t read it in the headlines, you won’t hear it on the news, there’s a Savior there who loves us all his life is what we choose; all we have to do is take a step of faith to see it throughhhhhh.”
And one more: “”Blinded by the rays of our own sunshine, we search in vain to see, reflections of a garden lost and forgotten in the shadows of our dreams.” Heard it on the Scott Ross Show in my dorm room at the University of Tulsa on a Sunday morning in ‘73. I’ve even tracked down Scott Ross via CBN, but he can’t remember it.
I was hoping to put together an MP3 compilation for my 17 year old son, thus my interest in “17″ above. Any memory bells ringing? Thanks, Dale