Hope y'all had a great Christmas!

I haven't had many of my lists lately, though I have idea's for about 7 of them. One I've had on the burner was my favorite albums from artists that only had one album for one reason or another. One of the artists, Mark Pogue, I was lucky to catch when he came up as a "latest member!" He got right back to me and is a real cool guy. He is starting a You Tube thing which I will feature in another blog. If you want to see Mark's profile and say hi, it's www.myccm.org/MarkPogue/profile

So here is my list:

1) Mark Pogue and Fortress.."Restoration"  (1991)  For fans of Bryan Adams, his soulful raspy voice shines on rockers like "Who Do I Believe" and "Family Man" Also had a bunch of radio hits like "Love is just a Prayer Away' and the beautiful "Bride of Restoration", about  his marriage being restored after a divorce. It was great to see in his profile how great he is now doing after all these years. He now leads worship at his church.

2)  Brighton..."Brighton" (1991) This came out the same year and on the same label, John Elefante's Pakaderm, as Mark's.  All I can say is that if you liked the Beatles, this album was for you. Their cover of "Anytime at All" I actually prefer to the original Beatles version. I also liked them because at the time I lived in Brighton, New York. Now I deliver mail in Brighton! The band was named after the singer, David Brighton

3) Burlap to Cashmere.."Anyone Out There?" This won the 1999 Dove Award for top rock album, and featured the classic "Basic Instructions" They did have an EP before this album, but that won't stop it from being on this list. It was a shame they broke up so soon.

4) Kyle Henderson.."More Than the Look of Love" (1985)  He was in the big MTV band, The Producers, in the early 80's with hits like "She Sheila" and"What's He Got". In 1985 he signed with Kerry Livgren's label and had another album that you can say sounded like Bryan Adams with killer saxophone's throughout. Unlike the first 3 on this list, this sounds a little dated now, but in 1985, there wasn't much better in Christian rock.

5) Earthsuit..."Kaleidoscope Superior" (2000) Had the classic "One Time", along with a variety of sounds in each song. They kind of turned into MuteMath.

For years I would have put the classic "Vision" album by super songwriter Chris Eaton in 1986. But he finally had a follow up album in 1995. John Cox was another one to take a long time to have a follow up to "Sunny Day" in 1986.

Most of these albums you will never find anymore, but if you see them in a bargain bin of your Christian book store, pick them up. I will give you your 3 bucks back if you don't like them!

Been a while since I blogged. Wanted to wish everyone a Merry and Blessed Christmas. May we celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and not get caught in the stress of the season.

This blog will have a bunch of loose ends. First of all, I just got the latest CCM magazine in the mail. Thanks to Jay for putting my letter to the editor in there. Also props to a couple of my peeps. Kristine Anderson, for having Jay feature her story about Leeland and her friend who passed away, Hannah.

Also props to Kayla Adams for being featured in the Girls of Grace competition section. As we get more and more friends in the myCCM community, it will be fun to see who might appear in the next issue that we might know!

In my last blog about favorite CD's of the year, I forgot to mention one...top local CD of the year. It goes to an outstanding worship album from the worship team at my church. It's called "Precious Blood" by the Koinonia Praise Band. Pat Tharp writes beautiful music. He's been in metal and rock bands in the past, but here I would compare his writing style to Charles Wesley, or other noted hymnwriters. Another singer on the CD, Zalina Fedotov, has a voice of an angel. Anyone who wants to spend time worshiping the Lord will love this CD. For more info, check out their website at www.koinoniapraiseband.com

I did a blog about favorite Christmas CD's. I will definitely have to add Todd Agnew's and Third Day's from this year. The more I listen, the more I like! What I like most about Third Day's is you don't hear live Christmas music very often. Now that the season is winding down, I found the other Christmas CD's I listened to most this year were Mercy Me's, Jaci V."s, Mariah Carey's, Hanson's, and Natalie Grant's.

My peep Elizabeth had a great blog on favorite Christmas songs. Here are mine in no set order:

"O Holy Night"....."O Come All Ye Faithful"..."Silent Night"...Angels We Have Heard On High" and "The First Noel" for hymns.

For others..."Sleigh Ride"..."Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree"...."Christmastime is Here"..."Let it Snow"..."God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen"..."Christmas Don't Be Late" (The Chipmunk Song).."All I Want For Christmas is You"..."Feliz Navidad".

Hey peeps...I miss your blogs! I know this month is a busy one to write them, but some of you who I always looked forward to reading haven't done any in a while. I know sometimes it feels discouraging that no one may be reading them. I want to encourage everyone to give positive feedback when you see one. Another good idea is to try to find people through the search engine that don't have any or very few peeps, and ask to be one. We want to make more people feel at home. Christ always was reaching out to others, so it's fun to do that here!

I'm usually to cheap to get CD's when they first come out, unless it's one of my top faves. I usually have to wait about 3 months for them to show up at Sound and Spirit. I was excited to see this month's catalog finally has some that I've been wanting...Jonny Lang...Krystal Meyers...Adie...Big Daddy Weave....Brandon Heath.   All I want now is Jeremy Camp and Chris Tomlin's to appear. Now I know what I'll be spending some of my Christmas tip money on.

I am very sad that we haven't had any snow. This is the month I love it. Doesn't seem completely like Christmas without it. Maybe it will be like last year, when I didn't use my snowblower all year.

OK, all you CCM employee's who live in Nashville. (Like you Jay!) It's time for some smack...my Bills are finally going to get even for the Titans breaking our hearts in the playoffs 7 years ago. Both teams are red hot and have an outside shot for the playoffs with a win. As much as I love watching Vince Young, this week it will be Bills 24, Titans 13. I had to call my shot, now call yours! :) The sad thing is the Bills haven't sold out their last 3 home games, and this looks like #4. So it will be blacked out here. All the local money is going to the Sabres, the best team in the NHL, instead of the Bills. I would go if it wasn't Christmas Eve.

Almost got ourselves a dog last week. A friend has an 18 month old English chocolate lab that needs a home to get exercise. It already had ACL surgery and is 30 pounds overweight. It's the most loving dog you can imagine. but the medical risks are too high to accept. A friend of my wife in Maryland heard about it and offered us a free Sheltie puppy that she breeds, so we might take her up on that. As much as a love my cats, I would love a dog again too!

Well, this blog should make up for not doing one in over 2 weeks, and probably not again until after Christmas. God Bless you this Christmas.

Lots of Love...Jimbo

I feel so good tonight...I don't have to work tomorrow. The Post Office is shorthanded and I've worked my day off just about every week but 4 since June. Than to top it off I usually have to do an hour on someone else's route. In November I was getting 14 to 15 hours of overtime a week. They would have worked us more, but you have to be done by 5 o'clock. Anyway, I've done being a slave to the almighty dollar for the rest of the year, and I got off the overtime list. So I can at least have my days off besides Sunday this Holiday season.

Anyway I was listening to Focus on the Family this week, and they had on as guests Steve and Annie Chapman, who were talking about in-law conflicts. This brought back a great memory back in 1987 or so. There was a guy at Church that would just disagree with me about everything. One day, a bunch of us was eating out after service and I brought up the fact that there was a brand new artist named Steven Curtis Chapman that I was sure would be going on to great things. This guy says"He will never be as popular as Steve and Annie Chapman!" Believe me, I got to kid him about that line for years. We ended up being good enough friends that I was in his wedding. I had to admit that Steve and Annie were pretty OK in their own right:)

The best story I have is when I was dating my wife Sue. We went along with 2 other friends to see David Meece in Buffalo. At the end of the concert he was asking if anyone had a request, and my wife's girlfriend stands up and yells "All Of Me, David...ALL OF ME!" The whole place just looked at her like she was nuts. To this day I don't know if he actually has a song called "All of Me". When I think of him I think of the classic "We Are The Reason", which Avalon did a nice cover of on their Christmas CD.

OK, now I'm getting protests from cat lovers again, demanding equal time again. So to please the crowd, here are 2 cats who look just like mine!