These two discs are a collection of various stopping points along the way – from my earliest recordings as a Christian musician to the very last recording I’ve done to date at this point (being September 2022).

As mentioned in the Explanation for The Isaiah 55 Suite, I was given a way to pull some songs off of the cassette tapes that I made when I first started serving the Lord with music. These are the first eleven tracks on Disc 1. There were many more, but these are the ones that were either never re-recorded for TFM Albums or are included here to show how much a song can change over a couple of decades. Sometimes it’s just fun to see the beginning point of a concept.

The final three tracks on Disc 1 and the first four tracks on Disc 2 (plus the 9th track) were recorded either with equipment I borrowed from people (mainly Jim Livi) over the years, or with a program I had on the computer early on that just stopped working one day – never to be used again. From these I was able to record CD initial versions of the songs, and these have just been tucked away for quite a while.

The 5th track on Disc 2 was from the very first version of Alive in the Chapel by What Then? It’s something that I spliced together using the old software mentioned above (before it quit working obviously…).

Tracks 6, 7 and 8 of Disc 2 were recorded by a guy who helped out at The Way Inn in Evans Mills NY. We’d go up there (an hour or so north of Syracuse) to play coffeehouses and Farmer’s Markets at the request of the amazing Pastor Bob Sly. You can probably google his music under the name Heavenbound Gospel. Anyway, this one particular evening was apparently being recorded and we were given a CD copy of it before we left. Some of those tracks wound up on the final version of the Alive in the Chapel Albums on this website. The ones here on Disc 2 are some of the remaining tracks from that night.

The rest of the tracks on Disc 2 are mostly alternative versions that didn’t make the cut for the various TFM Albums. As mentioned throughout the rest of this website, I record these tracks 100% live. So what I would do was to record several versions of them and then listen to all of the versions back-to-back and eventually decide which was the best version and select that one for the Album. For the earlier Albums I would only record two or three versions. For the later Albums I found myself recording five to ten versions of each song in hopes of getting one really great one – but the time and effort it took to go back through them all was often lengthy and quite painstaking. One version would have a really strong guitar, but a weaker vocal than the others. Another would have a great vocal performance, but a couple less than perfect guitar parts. So I would have to go back and forth, back and forth, listening to them over and over, to decide which was going to be the final version for the Album. As Rich Mullins put it, never picture perfect…

So I thought it would be fun to include a few of the ones here which I had noted along the way as being the stronger of the many alternative versions.

Hopefully these are fun or interesting for you to listen to. I enjoy them, and I especially hope that they please the Lord in some way.

One day I’ll know for sure whether they do or not. 1 Corinthians 3:10-15 says this (the Apostle Paul writing):

According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise master builder I have laid the foundation, and another builds on it. But let each one take heed how he builds on it.
For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each one’s work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one’s work, of what sort it is.
If anyone’s work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward.
If anyone’s work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.

May God the Father bless you through the finished work of His Son, Jesus Christ, revealed to us by the Holy Spirit. Amen. Amen. Amen.