Dr. Edward Daniel Taylor "The Miracle Faith Telethon"

Dr. Edward Daniel Taylor

The Miracle Faith Telethon

1990 Alarma Records

Produced By: Terry Taylor

album cover

insert (back)

insert 

back

disc

Track Listings

The Pool (1990 version) (3:38)

Riders in the Sky (4:26)

I'm On Your Team (2:24)

The Miracle Faith Prickly Heat Telethon of Love (1:49)

Hide the Beer, the Pastor's Here (party version) (3:15)

Young Peoples Ethnic Ministry (:55)

Don't Hate Yourself / Pulpit Masters (extended Undanceable remix) (1:40)

Fruit O' Ministry (1:35)

Sprinkler Head (2:57)

The Large Family We Always Wanted (:30)

Untitled (Lost Eddies Instrumental) (1:25)

All Things To All Men (:50)

Big Guns 1990 (2:58)

Little Dumbo (1:48)

What A World, What A World ('Mellow' version) (3:50)

Beyond the Wall of Sleep (3:09)

Changeless (3:28)

A Briefing for the Ascent (3:54)

Only One (3:12)

The Unattainable Earth (remix) (3:42)

Catch That Angel (remix) (4:15)

Sudden Heaven (remix) (3:20)

Soon! (4:14)

Pretentious Poetry Readings (3:15)

Musicians

Terry Taylor: Lead Vocals, guitars

Ed McTaggert: Drums, percussion, lead guitar on Sprinkler Head

Greg Flesch: Guitars, keyboards

Tim Chandler: Bass

Background Vocals: Jerry Chamberlain, Sharon McCall, Tom Howard, Rob Watson, Terry Taylor, Crystal Lewis, Tim Changler, Sharon Croghan, Riki Michele, Mike Knott and Kenny Samuels

Telethon text by: Tom Gulotta, Terry Taylor, Gene Eugene and Jerry Chamberlain

Peformed by: Tom, Terry, Jerry and Gene on church organ

OK, where to start with this one. Growing up listening to Christian music in the late 80's and throughout the 90's I feel as if I should be more familiar with Terry Taylor, Gene Eugene and others. However I wouldn't be exposed to Daniel Amos collectively until years later with their Kalhoun album. I loved what I heard and started exploring the back catalog. Eventually I stumbled across the cassette of The Miracle Faith Telethon. I thought what an odd album, but I enjoyed the humor of the speech segments. Because I liked to skip around the music and just listen to the telethon portions, I wasn't all that familiar with most of the music outside a few select tracks. Now that I have the CD I can fully enjoy the whole project.

The premise of the album is it's a satirical take on one of those television healing telethons you might have seen on TV all those years ago. Its very cleverly written and listening to it again the other day still makes me laugh out loud. I swear every time I listen to this I catch something a different that I missed before. Terry and the gang really nailed this. Who knew they were that funny?! 

Now the music on the other hand...now that I've got the CD in hand and have listened to the full album from beginning to end a few times, man I've missed out on some great songs! The songs that led into the telethon commentary I vividly remember. Sprinkler Head in particular is pretty awesome.

Hide the Beer, the Pastor's Here...well let's just look at the liner notes for this one:

Presented here for the first time is the full tilt 1990 "party" version of the Swirling Eddie's Outdoor Elvis' recording, circa 1989. Believe it or not, the original recording went to number one on the Pure Rock reports, despite threatened lawsuits from several prominent Christian colleges. Careful listening to the lyrics reveal this is NOT a pro-drinking song, however, nor is it a swipe at Christian colleges, but a deadly aimed denunciation of self-righteousness. Terry's decision to list the colleges at the end of the song was a creative afterthought and a subtle salute to the Beachboy's 'Surfin' USA' in which several famous California surfing spots were named.

Once you get past the Telethon segments and songs, which is basically the first half of the album, the rest of the songs have been taken from previous Daniel Amos or Swirling Eddie's albums, just remixed and re-recorded. While I wasn't as familiar with these, I really enjoyed the varied musical styles. If you are a fan of Daniel Amos then you know what you are getting here. This is one of the most unique Christian albums of all time in my opinion and one that wasn't easy for me to track down on CD. However I recently bought it from a eBay seller with a bunch of other albums for what I thought was a great price. It usually commands $25+ on the secondary market...if you can find it. I have no idea how many copies is sold back in 1990, but it couldn't have been a lot. Just my guess. If you don't have to have the Alarma Records original, you can pick up a CDR version of the album direct from Daniel Amos' online store. If you are a DA fan then this album is a must. Witty dialogue combined with humor and some great music equals a great entertainment experience.

If you want more of the Right Reverend Dr. Edward Daniel Taylor, check out this great YouTube video for their 2012 Kickstarter!