Jack Campbell & the Ambassadors – “Gloryland is Not Far Away”

I have been holding off on this one because it just looks so promising, the front cover, the guy on the far right and then just the track listing sounds amazing. I’ve never heard any of these songs before, but here we are!

The album opens with the title track of course, “It Happened with Me in Mind” and you know, just from the first line I already know to expect good things from this album. The vocals are good, the musicianship is good. All in all, a good solid first opening track. We continue on with the country sounding “Keeper of the Door” and it’s a good upbeat gospel track, with just happy lyrics. It’s a nice track. “Where the Roses Never Fade” comes next, and it’s a slower paced gospel track but it comes in nicely as some sort of a down pace. There seems to be two different vocalists on this track. Surely enough we go onto one of my favorite tracks, “Ten Thousand Years“! and this gentleman singing, definitely needs to pick up the pace just a bit. It is a nice rendition of the song though, just not my preference. We end the A-Side with the track “Robe of White” – and it is upbeat, happy and just one of those songs you can really get into. It’s a fantastic addition to the album.

The B-Side opens with “Angels Are Hard to Find” and it’s got that nice guitar playing going on, upbeat with a few nice licks. Then we go into the vocals, and I have to say that so far, except for the ones on “Ten Thousand Years” have been exceptionally good! Jack Campbell and the Ambassadors have been proving themselves thoroughly on this album. We go onto the next track “There is a River”, which slows down a bit with some piano playing by Dennis Autry (Possible relation to Gene?) as Mindy Smith delivers the vocals, I know it’s Mindy because she is the only female vocalist in the group. The song is slow paced for sure, but Mindy does have really good vocals, so it’s all okay! We continue on with another slow paced song, titled “Child, Child” and you know, I’m digging the country vibes on this album. I preferred the A-Side over the B-Side so far, I find the B-Side is a bit more downtempo and slow. We continue on with the song “In the City, Where the Lamb is the Light” and I’m sure that the title does have some meaning to it, but I’m just imagining a city filled with street lights that look like lambs, the song itself is good though. So, we really can’t complain. Anyway, we end the album with the track “Look for Me” and it’s the same vocalist who sung “Ten Thousand Years” and we end on the slow, downtempo moments, but all in all, Jack and the Ambassadors did release a good album on the Cab Records label.

Oddly enough, the track listing on the back cover and the track listing on the record sleeve do not match.

Catalog Number:
CAB 15

Credits:
Backing Vocals & Piano – Dennis Autry
Backing Vocals & Drums – Tony Bizzell
Backing Vocals, Producer, Bass & Rhythm Guitar – Chris Campbell
Backing Vocals, Violin, Steel Guitar, Lead Guitar & Banjo – Steve Wilkerson
Backing Vocals & Engineer – Joe Keene
Backing Vocals & Producer – Charlene Campbell
Producer & Vocals – Jack Campbell
Vocals – Troy Campbell, Mindy Smith & Kit Campbell
Photography Tom McDonald Studio, Bragg City, MO.
Gloryland Sign Art Work – Roy Shears

Related Vinyls:

Jerry D. Brown – “A Crippled Boys Prayer” Carolyn – “Gospel Music Queen” Dale Coody – “Heaven Came Down” W.V. Grant, Jr. – “Grant Country”