Saturday, September 7 (a.k.a. today) is the birthday of ApologetiX guitarist Wayne Bartley. We’d like wish him heaping helpings of happiness on his big day. And while we’re at it, we’d like to welcome him back!

You may have noticed that we didn’t write “alum guitarist” in front of his name. That’s because Wayne has returned to active status with the band after six months of retirement. When he left on March 1, we made sure he knew the door was open for him to return at any time, and we’re so glad he did! 

Although we’re just making the announcement now, Wayne officially returned on August 9. 

Wayne recorded with us as one of our guitarists from February 2014 through February 2024 and mixed all of our singles from January 2017 through February 2024. David Michael, who took over in that capacity, will continue to mix, but Wayne will be playing guitars on ApX recordings again and is available if we do more concerts.

In fact, Wayne attended our big show last Sunday night at the Immortal festival in Versailles OH. He and ApX lead singer/lyricist J. Jackson made the 10-hour round trip together. Wayne had graciously offered to come along as a guitar tech for Tom Tincha and Tom Milnes, both of whom are remaining active with ApologetiX as well. 

We encouraged Wayne to be part of our “meet and greet” event that afternoon and also to sign autographs and say hello to fans with us after the show.

You’ll be able to hear Wayne’s excellent guitar-playing on one of the songs on our next single, which should be out by the end of this weekend. He’s already completed a second song for us, which we hope to release on the single after that. Let the Bartleymania begin!

We warned you last weekend that our next single would not be out until sometime this week because of our big concert at Immortal Fest last Sunday night. In addition to that, our mixer’s father passed away (see first article in this newsletter) Thursday afternoon. 

However, we are hoping to have the new single out by Sunday night, Lord willing. If it’s slightly delayed any longer, please bear with us.

We have already been recording new parodies for the single after that. J. and his daughter Janna recorded vocals for one of those songs in the studio with Jimmy on Friday, and J. is scheduled to be back in the studio this coming Tuesday to record vocals for the other.

Once the new single is released, we'll announce it in our news bulletin, on our website, and on our Facebook page.

We began our latest trip through the Bible on Wednesday, April 3.

Here's our Bible-reading plan for the next two weeks for those of you reading along with us:


Note: If you don't have a Bible handy, you can look up these passages for free on Bible Gateway. They have about 60 different English translations/versions there to choose from, plus translations in many other languages, many of which also have multiple translations/versions.

Our new ApologetiX USB thumb drives are now in stock!

They contain the digital versions of all 74 of our CDs, plus any singles, EPs, or rarities that aren't on CD ... including our latest single, “Smells Like Mean Assyrians / Crowd of Foreign Girls."

Emblazoned with the band's logo, they have a storage capacity of 16 GB, and they’re write-enabled, so you can add more music to them if and when you get future ApX downloads.  

They’re available for a donation of $150 or more. If you've donated for our complete library before, they're available for a donation of $50 or more.

We recently revamped the downloadable version of our complete library. Now it comes in a PDF with pictures of every album and single for easy reference. You just click on the ones you need to download them instantly.

We're giving our complete library on download to everyone who donates $100 this week.

That's 1698 tracks, including various versions (studio, live, rarity, album, single, EP, revised, remastered, etc.), plus side projects ... even our most-recent single, “Got My Mindset From You / Media Circus" and our latest CD, Unchained Medley.

J. Jackson, lead singer and lyricist for ApologetiX here again.
 
Here are the latest entries in the "albums that influenced me" series I started writing in May 2020.
 
Note: Just because an album appears on this list doesn't mean I give it a blanket endorsement. Many of the secular albums on this list are mainly there because they wound up being spoofed by ApologetiX.

1577. The Boys Aren't Backin' Down - ApologetiX 
Many talented musicians with great senses of humor have been a part of ApologetiX over the years, but the most fun I ever had touring was with the "TNT" line-up, so named because it featured Tom 'n' Tom (Milnes and Tincha) on guitars, along with Keith Haynie on bass, Jimmy "Vegas" Tanner on drums, and yours truly on vocals. Those guys were a blast to be with on stage and off; everything just clicked. Released in December 2009, The Boys Aren't Backin' Down was our 17th LP overall, and it captures the TNT line-up live in concert after a year of playing together. ApologetiX did 95 shows in 40 states in 2009. This particular one took place at Chippewa Evangelical Free Church in Beaver Falls PA on October 11, 2009. Of the 18 parodies performed, 10 had never appeared on an ApX CD before, and I'd upgraded the lyrics for the other eight. Because space was limited, the disc mainly just featured the songs we played that night, but the download version included the dialogue between the songs, which greatly increased the entertainment quotient. Although he doesn't play on this album, ApX keyboardist-guitarist Bill Hubauer produced, mixed, and mastered it. He engineered the live recording process along with audio expert Mark Bodin. Our regular soundman at the time, Greg Spack, also played an important role. That team did a superb job of miking everything, and Jimmy's drums sound incredible.  
 
1578. Both Sides Live - The Hooters
Released on November 26, 2008, Both Sides Live was a two-disc set. The first disc captured a full-fledged rock concert — 12 tracks recorded at The Electric Factory in The Hooters' hometown of Philadelphia. The second disc featured 13 tracks recorded acoustically before a much smaller audience in a much more intimate setting — keyboardist-singer Rob Hyman's Elm Street Studios. The set lists spanned the band's entire career, and all but five of the tunes appeared on both discs, but I'm not going to complain, because I love the songs they selected, and the versions differed enough to avoid redundancy. The Electric Factory side was fun because of the energy of the band and enthusiasm of the crowd. High points for me included "South Ferry Road," "Karla With a K," "And We Danced," "Where The Wind May Blow," "All You Zombies," and "Day by Day." Meanwhile, the Elm Street Studio side was cool because of the creative unplugged arrangements, particularly on the songs "25 Hours a Day," "Johnny B," "Satellite," "All You Zombies," "And We Danced," and "Day by Day."
 
1579. John Prine - John Prine
Singer-songwriter John Prine's debut disc came out in October 1971 and only reached #154 on the Billboard 200, but the years have been kind to it. Ranked #452 on Rolling Stone magazine's 2012 list of the 500 greatest albums of all time, it moved the whole way up to #149 on the 2020 list. I first heard this record courtesy of my brother-in-law Jim, who had it playing on his kitchen stereo one Thanksgiving when my family and I visited. It's full of witty, insightful, and often-poignant counter-culture country-folk tunes. I'd heard of Prine before and had seen the iconic album cover, but this was my first exposure to his music. He reminded me a lot of Bob Dylan but with slightly more pleasant vocals and slightly less cryptic lyrics. And a little bit of Johnny Cash without the deep, booming voice. In my opinion, "Pretty Good" sounds the most like a Dylan song, and "Quiet Man" sounds the most like a Cash song ... albeit with wah-wah guitars. The most famous tracks are probably "Hello in There," "Sam Stone," "Paradise," and "Angel From Montgomery," all rightly respected for their lyrical craftsmanship. However, the tunes that grabbed me first were the amusing "Illegal Smile," "Spanish Pipedream," and "Your Flag Decal Won't Get You Into Heaven Anymore." Others that I enjoyed included "Quiet Man," "Flashback Blues," and "Far from Me." I read a charming interview with the self-effacing Prine a number of years ago in the book More Songwriters on Songwriting by Paul Zollo, and he uttered one of my favorite paragraphs ever about the process of writing songs. Zollo asked, "Is it easy for you to get to that place where songs start coming?" Prine replied, “No. It’s very elusive. Patience. You gotta learn patience. I know that I’m basically a very lazy person. At everything, including writing. As much as I enjoy writing, I would rather do anything in the world but sit down and write. But once I get into it, I’m into it. I mean, if you said, 'Let’s go get a hot dog first,' I would always go for the hot dog. I wouldn’t go, 'No, let’s finish this song.' [Laughter] I’d say, ‘Sure!' [Laughter] And I know that about myself. So I have to balance out my patience waiting for the right thing to come along with my laziness, knowing I’m trying to avoid working.” 
 
1580. The Singles: The First Ten Years - ABBA 
This two-disc LP arrived in stores on November 8, 1982, in time for the Christmas shopping season. The Singles: The First Ten Years contained songs from 1973-82 and went to #1 on the U.K. chart but only #62 on the Billboard 200. Nevertheless, it found favor with some surprising sources in the States: In 1983, Rolling Stone magazine gave the album five stars out of five and noted, "Abba is the greatest pop band of the last ten years." In 1995, Spin magazine gave the it a 10 out of 10 rating in the Spin Alternative Record Guide and ranked it 80th on a list of the Top 100 Alternative Albums. Who'da  thunk it? There were 23 tracks in all, including two new ones, "The Day Before You Came" (#32 U.K.) and "Under Attack" (#26 U.K.). Neither hit the Hot 100 here, but the former went to #1 in Finland and the latter went to #2 in Belgium. Each took a little while to grow on me, but now I count them among my favorite ABBA tunes. I remember listening to them repeatedly on my iPod while on a long bus trip with ApologetiX on the way home from San Antonio TX in September 2007. The Singles: The First Ten Years featured only one U.S. #1 hit, "Dancing Queen," but had nine U.K. #1 hits: "Waterloo," "Mamma Mia" (#32 U.S.), "Fernando" (#13 U.S.), "Dancing Queen," "Knowing Me, Knowing You" (#14 U.S.), "The Name of the Game" (#12 U.S.), "Take a Chance on Me" (#3 U.S.), "The Winner Takes It All" (#8 U.S.), and "Super Trouper" (#45 U.S.). It also feature nine additional Top 10 U.K. hits: "Chiquitita" (#2 U.K., #29 U.S.), "I Have a Dream" (#2 U.K.), "Money, Money, Money" (#3 U.K., #56 U.S.), "Voulez-Vous" (#3 U.K., #80 U.S.), "Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)" (#3 U.K.), "One of Us" (#3 U.K.), "Does Your Mother Know" (#4 U.K., #19 U.S.), "Summer Night City" (#5 U.K.), and "S.O.S." (#6 U.K., #15 U.S.). The Singles: The First Ten Years also includes a hit that actually did better in America than across the pond, "I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do" (#15 U.S., #38 U.K.). However, it does not include "Lay All Your Love on Me" (#7 U.K.) or these U.S.-only hits: "Honey Honey" (#27 U.S.) "When All Is Said and Done" (#27 U.S.), "The Visitors' (#63 U.S.), "Angeleyes" (#64 U.S.), and "On and On and On" (#90 U.S.). The remaining tracks on The Singles: The First Ten Years were "Ring Ring" (#32 U.K., #1 Sweden) and "So Long" (#7 Sweden). There are too many great selections on this album (and among the other missing tunes I mentioned) for me to pick favorites. What do you call a mediocre song by Sweden's foremost foursome? An ABBA-ration.
 
1581. The Very Best of Chicago: Only the Beginning - Chicago
The Very Best of Chicago: Only the Beginning was a two-CD set comprising 39 songs and over 150 minutes of music. I got a copy soon after it came out on July 2, 2002. Although the band never had another Hot 100 hit after 1997, this anthology was indeed only the beginning of their association with Rhino Entertainment. The label would go on to remaster and re-release Chicago's entire catalog from their days on Columbia, including all of their albums through the 1980 LP Chicago XIV. However, The Very Best of Chicago: Only the Beginning also featured their later hits on the Full Moon/Reprise. Consequently, you got all three of their #1 records — "If You Leave Me Now," "Hard to Say I'm Sorry," and "Look Away" — plus their 17 other Top 10 hits: "Saturday in the Park" (#3), "Hard Habit to Break" (#3), "You're the Inspiration" (#3), "Will You Still Love Me" (#3), "I Don't Wanna Live Without Your Love" (#3), "25 or 6 to 4" (#4), "Just You 'n' Me" (#4), "Baby, What a Big Surprise" (#4), "Old Days" (#5), "What Kind of Man Would I Be?" (#5), "Call On Me" (#6), "Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?" (#7), "Beginnings" (#7), "Make Me Smile" (#9), "(I've Been) Searchin' So Long" (#9), "Feelin' Stronger Every Day" (#10), and "You're Not Alone" (#10). As if that weren't enough, there were 13 additional Top 40 hits on The Very Best of Chicago: Only the Beginning: "Wishing You Were Here" (#11), "Alive Again" (#14), "No Tell Lover" (#14), "Along Comes a Woman" (#14), "Stay the Night" (#16), "If She Would Have Been Faithful ..." (#17), "Free" (#20), "Love Me Tomorrow" (#22), "Questions 67 and 68" (#24), "Dialogue (Part I & II)" (#24), "Another Rainy Day in New York City" (#32), "Lowdown" (#35), and "Chasin' the Wind" (#39). In fact, only one of Chicago's Top 40 tunes is missing ... the 1975 single "Harry Truman" (#13), probably because it had derailed the group's career in Japan, where the 33rd U.S. President was infamous for authorizing the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. The remaining six tracks on Best of Chicago: Only the Beginning were "Colour My World" (the classic flip side of the "Beginnings"), "I'm a Man" (#49), "We Can Last Forever," "Take Me Back to Chicago" (#63), "Happy Man," and "Sing, Sing, Sing" (with the Gipsy Kings). In 2011, I read the 2010 book Street Player: My Chicago Story by the group's original drummer and founding member Danny Seraphine. ApologetiX has released parodies of "Saturday in the Park," "Just You 'n' Me," "Feelin' Stronger Every Day," "Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?," "25 or 6 to 4," and "Beginnings." 
 
1582. Old School Volume 7 - Various Artists
Released in 2000, Old School Volume 7 featured a baker's dozen funky jams from the '80s. It's the only album I ever owned with back-to-back tracks by different people named Jermaine. That's actually germane to the topic, because the reason I purchased this CD was to get "We Don't Have to Take Our Clothes Off" by Jermaine Stewart (#5 pop, #64 R&B), which I needed for my playlist of #5 hits. The title sounds risqué until you hear it in context of the lyrics: "So, come on, baby, won't you show some class? Why do you have to move so fast? We don't have to take our clothes off to have a good time." Stewart's song was directly preceded by "Let's Get Serious" by Jermaine Jackson (#9 pop, #1 R&B), one of four selections on Old School Volume 7 that topped the R&B chart while doing well on the pop charts. The others were "Rumors" by Timex Social Club (#8 pop, #1 R&B), "Just Got Paid" by Johnny Kemp (#10 pop, #1 R&B), and "Candy" by Cameo (#21 pop, #1 R&B). Additional notable cuts included "Planet Rock" by Afrika Bambaata/Soul Sonic Force" (#48 pop, #4 R&B), "Shake It Up Tonight" by Cheryl Lynn (#70 pop, #5 R&B), and "Last Night a DJ Saved by Life" by Indeep (#101 pop, #10 R&B). For a complete track listing, go here.
 
1583. Gold - Rod Stewart
Rod Stewart has had a sublimely successful solo career (not to mention his work with The Jeff Beck Group and Faces), still going strong, including an amazing array of styles, but ... the first cuts are the deepest. Released in 2005, Gold was a two-disc anthology of the man's music from 1969-74, featuring 35 tracks from his first five studio LPs ... four out of eight from An Old Raincoat Won't Ever Let You Down (a.k.a. The Rod Stewart Album) (1969), eight of nine from Gasoline Alley (1970), all nine from Every Picture Tells a Story (1971), six of nine from Never a Dull Moment (1972), five from Smiler (1974), and four additional selections from that era not on those albums. There were only five Top 40 hits — the double-sided #1, "Maggie May"/"Reason to Believe" (#1 U.S., #1 U.K.) plus "Henry," the instrumental intro to "Maggie May"; "You Wear It Well" (#13 U.S., #1 U.K.); "(I Know) I'm Losing You" (#24 U.S.), and "Angel" (#40 U.S.) — but that picture only tells a fraction of the story. I love this collection. There are so many wonderful tunes, I hate to pick favorites. However, aside from the aforementioned hits, the creme de la creme for me are "Handbags and Gladrags" "Man of Constant Sorrow," "Street Fighting Man," "An Old Raincoat Won't Ever Let You Down," "Gasoline Alley," "It's All Over Now," "My Way of Giving," "Cut Across Shorty," "Mandolin Wind," "Every Picture Tells a Story," "That's Allright/Amazing Grace," "Tomorrow Is a Long Time," "Mine for Me," and "Farewell." I get geeked just typing the titles. This is an autumn album for me. Perhaps that's when I first purchased it ... I'm not sure ... but I usually dig it out when the leaves turn brown and the frost is on the way. I've also bought, read, and enjoyed two books about Mr. Stewart — Rod Stewart: The New Biography by Tim Ewbank & Stafford Hildred (2005) and Rod: The Autobiography by the man himself (2012). Spare the Rod, spoil the record collection. 

If you'd like to donate to the ministry of ApologetiX, there are a couple ways you can do it. 

If you prefer to mail a check or money order, please make it out to "ApologetiX" and send it to: 

ApologetiX
208 Charlemma Drive
Pittsburgh PA 15214-1414

Although the donations are not tax-deductible, they will be received very gratefully and used immediately. Thank you!