Seasons
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. Seriously, there are. But you have the think creatively – Loosen up with some good puns first
.
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.
Purchase your copy or Stream it on
Amazon | Apple Music | Pandora | Spotify
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/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).
| Title | Time | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Come Thou Long Expected Jesus | 6:28 | Shouldn’t we be happy, anticipating? Uptempo smooth jazz, with a great build |
| Emmanuel | 6:04 | aka O come, O come, Emmanuel. |
| Silent Night | 4:27 | Can YOU name all the tunes quoted at the beginning? |
| Gentle Mary Laid Her Child | 4:53 | Soaring sax, peaceful synth bed, and lots of ear candy. Listen with headphones! |
| What Child Is This? | 3:31 | Yes, we played rock in church. |
| Venite | 7:50 | “O Come Let Us Adore Him”, if you aren’t up on your Latin. Don’t judge the tune by it’s opening….. |
| Three Kings | 5:27 | Let’s see –> a 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. |
| At the Cross | 2:20 | Pondering what the words mean. Think Bill Evans, late at night, in a quiet house, trying to play and not wake the kids. |
| Christ the Lord is Risn’ Today | 3:42 | Time for some straight ahead pop – good news, indeed! |
| Jesus Paid It All | 5:03 | Reflective, then uptempo. Just like the lyrics (though few seem to have noticed). |
| 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? |
| All Creatures of Our God & King | 3:31 | Nashville Pop. ‘Nuff said. |
| My Father’s World | 3:15 | Wait for the surprise at the end. |
| Joyful, again! | 4:18 | The theme from Beethoven’s 9th symphony, aka Joyful Joyful We Adore Thee. Serious Swing for a serious melody. |
Here is your reward for making it this far down the page – the list of the front cover biblical references:
- 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”.
