This year my first solo album, Bluer Than It’s Ever Been turns 50. It was during my first year at University of Michigan School of Music (now School of Music, Theatre and Dance) that Michael Glenn Kuzma heard me sing one of my songs on a Sunday morning at Grace Bible Church in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Mike came up to me after the service and asked me if I’d ever considered recording my music.
I started taking piano lessons from my Aunt Leota when I was six, and soon began playing in church. She taught me how to “chord” the hymns, and would lean around her organ and hold up hand signs to tell me what key we were going to play the next hymn in. I started arranging the hymns, too, changing the harmonies, and eventually started writing my own music.
For me, music has always been first and foremost an expression of who God made me to be—nothing was off limits. Everything—good and bad, faith and feeling, joy and pain, love and disappointment—makes it onto the page at some point or other. (Much more about that in my retirement calling blog post.) But I only had a few songs under my belt by the time I went to university.
Mike’s excitement was contagious, and we soon started working on a whole slew of ideas for possible projects. He was already a recording artist and producer in Detroit, so wasn’t as much of a newbie as I was, and besides that, he genuinely seemed drawn to my music. He was a deep thinker, a believer who didn’t shy away from tough questions, and we became close friends. In total, we made eight albums together from 1971–1986 (that I can think of right now, including five solo albums).
The first one is no longer generally available, and wasn’t a solo album, but a collaboration with my friend Berti Hosford, who also lived in my home Michigan county of Montcalm. She had a gorgeous voice, with a style a bit like Lulu. She was also a songwriter, so the collection included songs from both of us. We recorded at Morgan Sound Theater, home base of the locally famous rock band SRC (Scot Richard Case). It was a converted quonset hut-type building on the outskirts of Ann Arbor, with an 8-track recorder in the control room, a piano, a Hammond B3 and a studio large enough to accommodate an orchestra. Glenn Quakenbush, the bassist for SRC, engineered, along with Mike.
I arranged the songs and recruited players from both church and school for the orchestra sessions, which were recorded all at once, with Berti and I adding the vocals afterward. We named ourselves Love’s Lights, and that was the title of the album, released on Mike’s Trinity Sound Corporation label in 1971. It was distributed mainly through his fledgling business, Christian Music Warehouse, one of the earliest (if not the earliest) mail-order businesses featuring Jesus music. And if you’re paying attention, you’ll note that this album is now 54 years old!
Recording Love’s Lights was an invaluable learning experience to say the least, showing me in very practical terms what works and what doesn’t. And it got me hooked on building music step-by-step through the recording process. I don’t mention this project very much, so this post is a real departure for me, but we had quite a lot of positive feedback as well as negative. I remember one not-so-nice letter from a Christian pastor who thought we’d sold our souls to the devil because we used a drum set on the recording. Ken Scott, a well-known Jesus music archivist, had this to say in his Archivist (now in its 4th edition):
This early collaboration with female singer Berti Hosford has Howell’s trademark optimistic pop and ballads sound, typically piano-centered, backed by rhythm section, electric guitar, organ and homemade brass, woodwinds and strings. Highly mellow stuff, but contains some of Doug’s best songs, including “Substitution,” “Your Love” and the bittersweet “Why Not Happy?” Covers of the hymns “Wonderful Words Of Life” and “Just As I Am.” Berti has a warm glowing voice that gets plenty of turns in the spotlight. —Ken Scott, the Archivist
With all the stuff happening around then, I’m getting a little fuzzy myself on the exact timing of things, but I quit U-M in 1973 and started working fulltime for Huron Valley Youth for Christ (YFC) as music director—don’t worry, I went back later and finished my degree in 1981.
Then Mike and I recorded and released two 45 rpm records on Trinity Sound: “Love That Comes Too Late”/ “Roads” for me; and “The VW Song” / “Prisoner of War” for my dear friend Lonnie Hull DuPont (part of the recording for that being done in the middle of our college apartment!).
New Jerusalem had been created as a musical arm of YFC, with me and several others singing very often at a variety of area venues, rallies and churches, and soon we recorded New Jerusalem’s Shout Joyfully album at Morgan Sound Theater (released 1974, Trinity Sound Corporation).
At a 1974 Jesus music concert (a July 4th celebration?) sponsored by Ward Presbyterian Church, then in Livonia, Michigan, New Jerusalem happened to be on the same program with Good News Circle (GNC) from Elgin, Illinois, an evangelistic music group that was developing a national following and had a record contract with Light Records. Unbeknownst to me, they happened to be looking for a keyboard player. A few weeks later, I got a surprise call from them asking if I’d be interested in coming down to meet and possibly join them. And although it was extremely hard to leave New Jerusalem and YFC, I was also excited about joining GNC. So New Jerusalem continued with a couple personnel changes, and I moved to Elgin.
Around the time we were starting to record GNC’s fifth album, (We Are His People, released 1976 on Light Records), we also finished Bluer Than It’s Ever Been, which we’d recorded at Morgan Sound Theater, and released it on Trinity Sound Corporation TSLP 103 in 1975. Yup. 50 years ago!
The album got a lot of positive feedback despite its faults, some interest from the Jesus music companies of the day, and some nice reviews:
Keyboardist Doug Howell is one of the few Christian pop/MOR guys to really connect with me. He has his smarmy moments, but at his edgiest his catchy tunes and rich moving ballads have the melodic quality of artists like Todd Rundgren. He’s that rare example of a Christian songwriter that can also write a really good hook, and Bluer Than It’s Ever Been just so happens to contain his most powerful songs. Couple that with the sincerity of his lyrics and you’ve got one great record. Piano is Howell’s preferred instrument, although on several of these songs he’s also playing synthesizer. He also handles the drums and percussion, while others fill in on guitars, flute, brass and backing vocals. The rich dynamics and swelling crescendos help bring his songs to life. I rarely get too excited about piano ballads, but here I find myself incredibly moved by titles like “Brother,” “It’s a Pity,” “Life Is More” and “With You Beside Me.” Also some fine upbeat pop/light-rock songs like “Life Is Like A Melody” and “Love That Comes Too Late.” And before you rockers write this guy off, note that there’s some tantalizing fuzz guitar building up “Roads” and the title ballad. An independent release from Ann Arbor, Michigan. Gatefold cover. —Ken Scott, the Archivist
While passing through Las Vegas on a tour, I heard a song on the Christian radio station that impressed me so much that I drove to the station to find out who it was. The DJ made me a tape of it but had no address or phone number to find its writer. [The song was “Love That Comes Too Late”—ed.] So began my search for Doug Howell.
About a year later, I found Doug and recorded one of his [songs] on my third album, still not having met him personally. A week ago I had the pleasure of finally meeting who I feel is one of the most unique and talented songwriters I’ve come across in a long time. I look forward to hearing not only Doug’s [already written songs] over and over on his records but all the new songs he’ll be blessed with in the future. —Chris Christian, recording artist and producer
You’d think he was another Michael Omartian. He plays keyboards drums, synthesizer, sings the lead and background vocals, engineers some of it, and he writes—oh, how he writes. The beauty of [Doug Howell’s music] is its honesty. Besides describing the joy of being a Christian, it relates the pain. Doug dares to tell how he looks to God in the midst of trials. The pain for a friend who turns his back on God (and you), pain for someone you know who has gone after the gold that cannot glitter, the pain of wanting to do something for God more than something of God; it’s all expressed… —Harmony Magazine
Singer/songwriter Doug Howell [has] reminded some critics of Michael Omartian, recording fairly mellow, keyboard-based ’70s albums on which he did most of the [parts] and played around with some synthesizers. What is most noteworthy—especially for the time period—is that he wrote songs that departed from the standard ‘I’m so happy in Jesus’ vein and dealt with harsher realities of Christian living. This is most evident on Bluer Than It’s Ever Been. The title track recalls Elton John’s ‘Someone Saved My Life Tonight’ musically, but portrays the need for Christians to stand firm in the face of trials that cause them to second-guess their commitments. Harmony magazine reassured its readers that Howell was not ‘backslidden.’ The artist, in their words, evinces uncommon honesty in describing ‘the joy of being a Christian’ as well as ‘the pain.’ —Mark Allan Powell, Encyclopedia of Contemporary Christian Music
So Bluer joined the GNC albums on the record table after our concerts. And after leaving GNC in the fall of 1976, I began traveling and singing on my own, carrying around boxes of Bluer albums to sell at coffee houses, churches and colleges. As time marched on, it was translated into 8-track format, then cassette, then CD. These days, the album is only available digitally, and online via all major music streaming channels (see links above, and note below).*
In case you’re curious which is the most streamed song in today’s world, it’s “I Wanna Spend Time with You,” followed by the title track, “Bluer Than It’s Ever Been,” “Life Is Like a Melody,” and “Willie.”
For more album links and details, credits and reviews, please see the official album page. But I can’t close this post without thanking my friend and producer Mike Kuzma from the bottom of my heart. Without him all of this never would have happened! His belief in me stretched all the way to his pocketbook. I love you, Mike!
I remember so fondly all the wonderful musician friends who took part in the recording: Bobbi Page on those fantastic background vocals; Kathleen Janka McClatchey Whiteman on flutes; New Jerusalem (backgrounds on “Life Is Like a Melody,” and featuring Barbara Young on “Love That Comes Too Late”); Dan Leonhardt, a fellow GNC member, on guitars; Thomas S. “Hoppy” Colvin III on bass guitar. All but one of these friends were in New Jerusalem at one time or another, the others remaining good friends to this day—except for two, who departed this earth years ago now.
Oh, I remember how hard Mike and I worked on this album! We’d sit in his Allen Park living room and splice together songs in different orders, plan photos and notes, talk about upcoming concerts (he also booked me in the early days) and dream all night about the future. We prayed together that this music would somehow make the love of God more real to whomever took the time to listen. 50 years later, that is still my prayer.
*With the exception of auction sites, of course. Although I don’t know how many albums we sold, I know we did several pressings, and also produced 8-tracks, cassettes and later CDs. As far as streaming goes, it’s hard to come up with a total using the tools available (some only let you check the last couple of years, for example), but the four major channels I checked came to over 17K. Not impressive by today’s viral standards, but quite a few more people than ever heard these songs live! The wonders of the digital age…
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