Wednesday, December 23, 2015

Vision sung by New Horizon

For Christmas 2015 here is the song Vision, first recorded by Parchment on Rehearsal for a Reunion, sung by the Scottish group New Horizon on an album titled Vision and produced by Sue McClellan of Parchment. Vision is almost a Christmas song - technically it's an advent song, I think.
If you think this track is okay, you should stand by for something stunning from this album. More in 2016...

 

Saturday, December 12, 2015

Covers of Parchment songs

There are surprisingly few recorded covers of Parchment songs other than Light Up the Fire. But there are some ... and they span more than 30 years.

Parchment were very influential in the 1970s CCM scene - but the songs that were copied by other artists, other than Light Up the Fire, tended to be songs that were not their own, like Denomination Blues or Pack Up Your Sorrows.

Here is what I have found:

Better than Yesterday - Aslan, Paws for Thought 1976. Original on Light Up the Fire .

Ship Out on the Ocean - Mary McKee Meanings of My Life 1977 (Pilgrim). Original on Light Up the Fire.

Vision - New Horizon Vision 1979 (Pilgrim) Original on Rehearsal for a Reunion.

Corners of My Life -  Birch Book Tomorrow's Sun Will Rise the Same 2010. Original on Shamblejam

Does anyone know of any more?

More on New Horizon soon...


Saturday, August 15, 2015

Ship Out on the Ocean - Mary McKee with Parchment

Mary Mckee is a sweet-voiced singer of country songs from Northern Ireland and mostly performed with a band called The Genesis (not the Phil Collins Genesis).

She made a solo album with the Pilgrim label in 1977 and the production team was provided by Parchment - as was the backing music.

So her album Meanings of My Life, features contributions by John Pac, Sue McClellan and Pete Yates-Round.

On the album is a cover of a Parchment song, the Keith Rycroft written, Ship Out on the Ocean, which features on the Light Up the Fire album.

The Light Up the Fire version is quite lavish - so it's intriguing to see the band working on a more stripped down version with McKee. Pete Yates-Round's guitar work is sublime.

And this raises an interesting question: is it a cover of the song by Mary McKee - or is it in truth a remake of the song by Parchment working with Mary McKee?

Here's a video we made of the track.