I know a lot about contemporary Christian music (CCM) and a pretty good amount about the history of CCM/ Jesus Music. Bob Ayala was a CCM Pioneer. While these first two sentences are correct, I just heard about Ayala today.
I am in a number of FB CCM groups and someone mentioned his 1976 debut album Joy By Surprise. Spotify is my go to for finding music like this but they only had one Bob Ayala album or Bob Ayalbum if you will, and it wasn't Joy By Surprise. I was able to find it on You Tube and have shared it below. My plan is to listen to it now and give you a quick as I'm hearing it review.
The album is about 33 minutes long and has 10 songs. Joy By Surprise begins with Stephanie, With Love which is a nice consoling song about a girl who loved and lost.
The next song Do You Know Him? starts with a description of God "He is a poet in the wind a sculptor of the sky line. "
Nice guitar work and some good front ground la la las which are very typical of this time frame.
Try And Keep The Pace
Opening lyrics: You were always haunted by the girl you hated standing in your mirror. The little I read about Ayala stated a couple Keith Greenesque qualities. These qualities are on full display in this song. This song also reminds me of more positive less satire look at the issues Randy Stonehill explored in cosmetic fixation and Barbie nation.
To The Ancient of Days seems to be the most famous song from this album according to notes on the FB page and the You Tube comments. One commenter stated he could not listen to it with out thinking of Narnia, this is not too difficult for an album whose cover art is the singer encountering Aslan. These songs are quick but they have good production value and I can imagine listening to them again and again,
Peace is the next song and starts with the sounds of the outdoors at night. The lyrics continue that theme with a nice guitar accompaniment. The person who shared this album on You Tube stated "that the music drifts further to the middle of the road than one would like". Speaking for myself, this one likes the middle of the road just fine.
1/2 way through the album as we pause to turn the record over I'll say that so far I like it. The songs are quick but they have good production value and I can imagine listening to them again and again.
I enjoyed Silent Witness, which seems to be a love song from an unbelieving husband to his believing wife. There was a really good lyric in the beginning that I couldn't write down quick enough. I look forward to hearing it again on a subsequent listen.
Joy By Surprise, the title track has a Don Francisco country twang to it which I quite enjoyed. The lyrics also reminded me of C.S. Lewis a) because Lewis's autobiography is called Surprised by Joy and b) since some of the lyrics talk about scales being removed which is so very Eustace Clarence Scrubb.
The Song of Joseph is next and while there are many Joseph's in the Bible, This one is definitely about Mary's husband. I found it the most uneven of the songs I've heard so far. Of course this is just one listen in, and often songs have a way of surprising me after multiple hearings.
Lord is the penultimate song on this collection. Where Joseph's song is an Advent song, Lord, is a Good Friday song. The music is slow and sad and helps you imagine Jesus carrying his cross on the way to Calvary. If it wasn't obvious before that this was a1970's album this song brings that idea home with an sledge hammer masquerading as an exclamation point.
To end an album with a song called New Beginnings is kind of different. It's a good song and is very Michael Cardish with the vocals and the orchestration.
A couple of final vinyl thoughts that I'd like to spin. I recognized the names of a couple musicians on the album. First there is Billy Batstone who wears lots of hats, singer, songwriter, worship leader, bassist, guitarist and of course becomes Captain Marvel when he say Shazam. Then I read about the drummer Al McDougal and I was thinking that name sounds very familiar. Then I realized it was probably Alex MacDougal who used to drum for Daniel Amos. Sure enough he has is credited in Discogs for his work on this album.
I like this album and kind of want to finish this review quickly so I can listen to it again. One of the blogs I read mentioned him in early 2020 as still being alive. Apparently in the Fall of that year he passed away while visiting his sister perhaps due to some vertigo issues he had been experiencing. It was kind of strangely sad discovering he died nearly 5 years prior to my discovery of him. In a sense I wish I discovered his music earlier, but in another way it's kind of nice to discover old music that's new to you.
