Description
The Innocence is the solo debut album by the American singer, songwriter, guitarist, and producer Dave Perkins, released on What? Records in 1987, distributed by both Word and A&M Records. The album was recorded by Dave Perkins, Mike Fraser, Malcolm Harper, and Brian Tankersley in both Canada (at Little Mountain Sound Studios in Vancouver, British Columbia) and the US (at Reelsound Remote Bus in Sandy Cove, Northeast Maryland; and at Reelsound Remote Truck in Austin and Rivendell Recorders in Houston, Texas) with Perkins producing. All songs written by Dave Perkins except the Pete Seeger classic “Turn, Turn, Turn” (a track featuring lead vocals by both Perkins and future Chagall Guevara bandmate Steve Taylor). According to an article featured in the October 10, 1987 issue of Billboard Magazine, “What? released only three albums, and all of them received a great deal of airplay and critical acclaim: Tonio K., Ideola and Dave Perkins.”
The Innocence was Perkins’ first label release after his journeyman years as guitarist for a number of outstanding American music makers. The album drew much interest for its combination of Southern music sensibilities with Anglophile new wave and post-punk. Prominently featured on the album is Perkins’ rhythm guitar playing, performed mostly on a 1962 Stratocaster as opposed to his old Gibson Les Paul. His guitar style here is percussive with a slash and burn abandon.
Just a few years later, Perkins would found the short-lived rock combo Chagall Guevara together with Steve Taylor, Lynn Nichols, Mike Mead and Wade Jaynes. Of these musicians, everyone but Jaynes were featured on The Innocence as well, in one way or another; Nichols as the executive producer of the album. (Lynn Nichols and Perkins would as well join forces in Passafist later on.) Rob Frazier and former Outlaws bassist Rick Cua were as well among the musicians featured on The Innocence.
All music is really message music, isn’t it? Music is a communicative element that sends some kind of a signal. As an artist, I try not to edit myself on what I put into my songs. I have very strong spiritual beliefs, and I have strong socio-political beliefs, and they are deeply ingrained into my writing. Love and rage exist side by side in there as well. But this is not crusade music, simply an honest expression of what I feel and see.
My hope comes directly from God, and that hope really forms the core of my life. I trust in God, and in that trust, I find a way to look forward in life, without overwhelming dismay. [Excerpt from an interview with Dave Perkins, featured in the November 1987 issue of CCM]
Sadly one of the more overlooked geniuses of the Christian rock scene, Dave Perkins released this as his only solo album, giving only a glimpse of his untapped creative juices. The music on this release in many ways predates the alternative guitar-oriented rock that became popular in the mid-’90s, and would stand up to it very well but for the ’80s keyboard sound heard on much of the record. It is easy to see the contributions Perkins made to the short-lived Chagall Guevara. The lyrics are smart and intelligent and the album is passionate – Perkins desperately belts out each syllable as though in a fight for his life. His subject matter is generally introspective; much here is about self-examination and the personal expression of found truths. Notable is «Make Me Feel», with an irresistably catchy chorus and heartfelt expression. [Mark Allender, AMG]
After setting production standards for Christian rock albums with his work for Servant, Rick Cua, Randy Stonehill, and on the forth-coming Steve Taylor LP Dave Perkins is finally available as a solo artist on the long-awaited What? release, ‘The Innocence’. After even a brief listen to Perkins’ own effort, it’s more than clear just how much he is responsible for the rejuvenation in sound and artistic depth that sums up his work with each of the artists mentioned above.
Perkins songs have the aggressive punch and drive one might expect from any number of current guitar-oriented club bands which epitomize the new “American band” movement, yet his big guitar sound could fill arenas. Bold, not insipid; direct, yet subtle, intelligent and impressionistic, ‘The Innocence’ escapes all the easy musical categories. There are the ringing guitars one associates with The Byrds (Perkins even updates «Turn, Turn, Turn» in duet with Steve Taylor) and their school of influence (Tom Petty, R.E.M., etc.), but also the intangible impression of British “new music” bands in the atmospheric feel of the mix.
The word “impressionistic” speaks as much of the song’s meanings as it does of the actual sound of the record. With Perkins’ voice somewhat buried amidst a myriad of guitar and drum sounds, the songs suggest a meaning before you can actually sort out the lyrics. «Revolution», the album opener, stresses inner change. «(You Can) Make Me Feel» recounts the awakening of a “heart of stone,” and «Harvest Home» hungers for escape from the urban blight of contemporary existence to a time of simple clarity and relational values – or to put it another way – “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” «The Orbit» and «Fathers and Sons» connect, with different angles, to the same prayer. «The Innocence» cries out at a world that drains us of our hope and right standing from early childhood, while «Every New Day» celebrates the realization of Jeremiah in Lamentations 3:23 that God’s grace is new each morn.
Dave Perkins makes a bold musical statement, one that tears down the walls of opposition to his equally bold message. ‘The Innocence’ cuts like a knife. [Brian Quincy Newcomb, CCM, September 1987]
> Apple Music (https://music.apple.com/us/album/the-innocence/1742252193)
LP tracklist:
Side One
A1 “Revolution” – 3:33
A2 “(You Can) Make Me Feel” – 3:44
A3 “Harvest Home” – 5:00
A4 “Fathers And Sons” – 4:14
A5 “Catacombs” – 4:38
Side Two
B1 “Turn, Turn, Turn” – 3:37
B2 “Every New Day” – 5:15
B3 “The Innocence” – 4:27
B4 “Orbit” – 4:57
Note: Simultaneously released on cassette, 12-inch vinyl LP, and CD by What? Records/A&M Records. A remix of “(You Can) Make Me Feel” was released as a 12-inch single (featuring the same track on both sides).
CREDITS. Produced by Dave Perkins. Recorded at Little Mountain Sound Studios, Vancouver, BC, at Reelsound Remote Bus, Sandy Cove, Northeast MD, Nashville, TN, at Reelsound Remote Truck, Austin, TX, and at Rivendell, Houston, TX. Engineered by Mike Fraser, Malcolm Harper, Brian Tankersley, Dave Perkins. Additional engineering by Lynn Fuston and Gene Ford. Art Direction by Joan Tankersley, Phonographics. Photography by Caroline Greyshock, NYC. Cover Painting: “Untitled” By Albert Loudin, London, England. Cover Concept by Dave Perkins, Joan Tankersley, and Lynn Nichols. Graphics by Lori Cooper and Bradley Grose. Logistics by Diane Gray. Executive Producer: Lynn Nichols. All songs written by Dave Perkins except “Turn, Turn, Turn” by Pete Seeger.
Musicians: Brian Butler, Stevie Butler, Hank Carter, Lisa Cates, Rick Cua, Jackie Cusic, Rob Frazier, Tommy Greer, Gregary Husted, Mike Mead, Phil Naish, Richard Price, Ann Richards, Steve Taylor.
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