Seasons – a collection of creative instrumental music filled with over an hour of music that is fun for your feet and bodacious for your brain! It’s great for Christmas AND Easter!
There are 4 biblical references on the album cover.
Scroll all the way down and see if you can find them!
Take a listen over at Amazon.
Notoriety
- Several cuts from Seasons were played on Satellite Radio during Christmas 2006.
- Seasons was featured on Oasiscd.com‘s Winter 2004 Acoustic Sampler, sent to several hundred radio stations across the country. Ask YOUR favorite acoustic station to play it!
- Cuts were also played in the November and December 2005 editions of AudioStyle, on Evolving Artist Radio. You can check the show out in the show archive.
- Two cuts were featured on PBS-FM 106.7 in Melbourne, Australia on “The Gospel Show”.
- At The Cross was also selected as a featured track on the PBS-FM subscriber gift CD.
Personnel
The band that recorded Seasons included Tom Rule on keys, Dan Wallace on bass, Dennis Palmer on percussion, and a changing cast of characters that includes Dr. Ed Clark on sax, Mark Holloway on guitar, and Phil Norris and Frank Jones on guitar. This stuff is HARDLY your typical church music!
The Album
Seasons was recorded June 27 /28 and July 26, 2003 at Heritage Recording Studios in Warner Robins. Mixing was done at the studios on August 8th, 11th, and September 1st and 2nd.
- The engineer and coffee expert was Mark Baltzglier.
- Photography was by Steve Schroeder Photography.
- Graphic assistance by Ravonda Bargeron of Bargeron Designs and Michael Knapp of ImageInk.
- Food provided by Ruby Tuesday’s, al Jalisiene, Wendy’s, and Sonny’s BBQ, all of Warner Robins – though they really didn’t know what we were up to!
All tunes are in the public domain. All Arrangements are copyright 2003 Tom Rule (ASCAP). Send him an email!
Check over at MacMusicGuy.com to see if any of the arrangements/sheet music are available.
| Track# | Title | Time | Notes |
| 1 | Come Thou Long Expected Jesus | 6:28 | Uptempo smooth jazz, with a great build |
| 2 | Emmanuel | 6:04 | aka O come, O come, Emmanuel. Starts with 2:00 of gorgeous solo piano, then the band comes in with an adult comtemporary version. |
| 3 | Silent Night | 4:27 | Hodge-podge opening (can YOU name all the tunes?) and a silky-smooth adult contemporary sound |
| 4 | Gentle Mary Laid Her Child | 4:53 | aka Good King Wenceslas. Soaring sax over a peaceful synth bed |
| 5 | What Child Is This? | 3:31 | RnR version of the famous question |
| 6 | Venite | 7:50 | “O Come Let Us Adore Him”, if you aren’t up on your Latin. Starts out new agey, and breaks into an adult contemporary version at 4:17. |
| 7 | Three Kings | 5:27 | Think Renaissance band at the King’s Court, a pipe organ in a smoke-filled darkly-lit jazz club, some seriously kickin’ grooves and a surprising solo piano. A great package just filled with ear candy! |
| 8 | At the Cross | 2:20 | Reflective solo piano. Think Bill Evans, late at night, in a quiet house, trying to play and not wake the kids. |
| 9 | Christ the Lord is Risn’ Today | 3:42 | Time for some straight ahead pop! |
| 10 | Jesus Paid It All | 5:03 | Reflective, then uptempo. Just like the lyrics (though no one else seems to have noticed). |
| 11 | I surrender All | 3:42 | So, if you were in a jazz club at 2 am on Thursday – is this what this tune would sound like? |
| 12 | All Creatures of Our God & King | 3:31 | Nashville Pop. ‘Nuff said. |
| 13 | My Father’s World | 3:15 | Uptempo Pop. Check out the surprise ending! |
| 14 | Joyful, again! | 4:18 | The theme from Beethoven’s 9th symphony, aka Joyful Joyful We Adore Thee, in a 6/8 swing. At 2:02 shifts to a 5/4 uptempo Spyrogyra-like version. Serious Swing for a serious melody. |
Most of these tracks are available for licensing over at AudioSparx.
Biblical References? What Biblical References?
There REALLY ARE some Biblical references on Season’s front cover, but you have to think like a punster to get them!
- The Star of Bethlehem and the Cross on the shakers (hand painted by Michael Knapp, by the way) should be fairly obvious!
- The salt and shakers refer to the “salt of the earth” phrase Jesus used when describing the affect his disciples should have
- The salt is present at Christmas, the salt is gone at Easter (as in Jesus’ arrival and departure)
- The dim reflection is a reference to the phrase “Now we see through a glass darkly, but then we’ll see face to face”.