Paradise Sky

Description

Paradise Sky is a studio album by the American singer and songwriter Randy Stonehill, independently released in 2008. The album was recorded and mixed by Mike Pachelli at Fullblast Recordings in Los Angeles, California; with Randy Stonehill and Pachelli producing. The album features re-recordings of selected Stonehill classics.

“‘Paradise Sky’ is the album that best defines my past and present,” states Stonehill. “It’s a full blown studio recording of those songs that started my career and became a musical backdrop for the Jesus Movement of the ’70s.” Indeed it is. ‘Paradise Sky’ is something of a throwback, a window into a period in Christian music’s history. What we have here is a collection of re-recordings from veteran Stonehill’s classic ’70s albums ‘Born Twice‘ and ‘Welcome To Paradise‘ plus one or two songs from the later ‘The Sky Is Falling‘ and ‘Equator‘. Completed as a soundtrack to the controversial documentary Fallen Angel about Stonehill’s one-time collaborator Larry Norman, ‘Paradise Sky’ finds Stonehill in great form as he brings these songs from a bygone age to life once again. Worthy of special attention are «King Of Hearts» with its beautiful acoustic guitar work and the jangly rifforama of «The Winner». Thing is though, each song here carries enough melodic power and lyrical bite and wit to make them all worth the ears and hearts of a new audience. Randy Stonehill is, quite obviously, a stunning talent, and this collection of songs is a strong testimony to the vibrancy and consistency of his output during the 1970s. You owe it to yourself to listen, mark and inwardly digest these songs, whether they are new to you or you welcome them like old friends. Now let’s see if Christian music of our day can come up with something this good. [Haydon Spenceley, Cross Rhythms, May 2009]

Christian rock music has only a handful of legitimate icons, and Randy Stonehill is one of them. This past year we saw people like Amy Grant and Phil Keaggy celebrating twenty and thirty year anniversaries of classic works (Amy’s Lead Me On, and Phil’s The Master and the Musician, respectively), while veterans like The 77s and Kevin Max re-examined the roots of Christian/gospel/rock music with projects like Holy Ghost Building and The Blood. Retrospection seems to be in the air, and Stonehill has offered us a look back, and a reinterpretation of eleven of his own classic songs, on Paradise Sky.

There is, of course, always a danger in reinventing ‘the wheel’ of classic songs: the target audience already knows and has catalogued each nuance, each vocal inflection, each guitar lick and snare hit: the music is indelibly etched into their emotional and musical memories in a way that defines not just the music, but the entire milieu of life when the songs were new. Of course, as with any release by any artist, the music has to stand or fall on its own merits.

The truth is, that these were, and are, very good songs – good enough to stand up to scrutiny more than three decades later. These eleven songs, one from Born Twice (1971), six from Welcome to Paradise (1976), three from The Sky is Falling (1980), and one from Equator (1983) are performed by Stonehill, who reprises his vocal and acoustic guitar roles, drummer Ronnie Ciago, bass player Baba Elephante, and guitar-wizard / keyboard player / back-up vocalist / producer / arranger Mike Pachelli. Elephante and Ciago function ably as session players, but this is certainly a showcase for the talents of Stonehill (who still delivers vocals in his distinctive ‘Stonehillian’ style and has grown as a guitarist since the days of the original recordings) and Mike Pachelli, whose versatile guitar work has enough of a Keaggy edge to evoke the early days of Jesus music while providing a technical skill that will delight fret-heads everywhere.

So, did they do the songs justice? For those who laid needle-to-vinyl repeatedly through the ‘70s as they wore out copies of the original releases, it will be a hard call to make. The original arrangements were wonderful in their rock and roll simplicity, and I must admit that I miss Larry Norman’s wonderful harmonies when I hear the new versions. Emotional nostalgia aside, the original takes on songs like «Keep Me Runnin’», «King of Hearts», and «I’ve Got News For You», are pretty hard to improve on, and even though Stonehill, in his liner notes, writes that one of his goals was to strengthen the songs ‘sonically,’ I’m not really sure that these wonderful songs have gained musical strength. Certainly, as you listen to «Keep Me Runnin’» there’s an improved skill in the musicianship and a deftness in arrangement right off the bat, that makes the song more impressive, but perhaps less distinctive than the original. The same can be said of «King of Hearts», which is a delightful mix of melody (altered slightly), Stonehill’s tender acoustic, and layers of stunningly beautiful guitar-work by Pachelli. The track is wonderful as it stands, although the original is still the classic for me. On the other hand, «Trouble Coming» is somewhat lead-footed compared to the original, and might suffer from too much musical polish and too little punk.

Because of the Lennon/McCartney love/hate relationship of Norman and Stonehill (come on – that’s the 500 pound gorilla in the room, isn’t it?) there will be a level of curiosity and discussion about this project that will be less about the dynamics of the music than the dynamic between these two iconic figures that were so pivotal to the early days of Christian rock music. On the bottom of the cover of the album are the words “official soundtrack to the movie Fallen Angel,” which is David DeSabatino’s documentary/biography of Larry Norman. The CD is also being advertised (with or without Randy’s knowledge – I don’t know) as “a tribute to Larry Norman.” Side-taking aside, it’s hard to see how Randy Stonehill recording new versions of his own songs, but this time without the involvement of the late Larry Norman, is in any sense a tribute. One has to wonder about the wisdom of stirring the pot by even going there, when this could have simply been promoted as Stonehill revisiting his early work for the sake of the music, period. «Norman’s Kitchen» and the beautiful 1983 track, «Even the Best of Friends» (which features Lance Abair on sax and John Campbell on piano), are fitting enough tributes in their own right.

Certainly, this is a must-have for anyone who is a fan of Randy Stonehill, or grew up on the Jesus-rock of the ‘70s. It’s hard to say exactly where these newly-arranged songs fit on today’s musical landscape. Certainly, I don’t think I’ll be alone in saying that the spoken interlude on «Counterfeit King» was a mistake, or that Randy’s observation about his improved guitar-playing skills on «Norman’s Kitchen» are a bit too self consciously delivered – but Uncle Rand is entitled to his fair share of goofiness (I don’t think he’d have it any other way). The songs still hold up.

Ain’t that real good news? Go and hang up your blues. [Bert Saraco, The Phantom Tollbooth, 2009]

CD tracklist:

01. Keep Me Runnin’ – 4:57
02. One True Love – 4:26
03. King Of Hearts – 4:34
04. Norman’s Kitchen – 4:11
05. I’ve Got News For You – 4:30
06. Even The Best Of Friends – 4:23
07. The Winner – 3:38
08. Counterfeit King – 5:33
09. Trouble Coming – 4:33
10. First Prayer – 3:19
11. Good News – 4:10

Note: Available at Bandcamp: https://randystonehill.bandcamp.com/album/paradise-sky