Jim Yackel

The road that Jim Yackel took to the Cross was a winding and rocky one...

Yackel wrote his first song, entitled "Where Have You Been" at the age of 13 in 1975. Being that the Beatles were his favorite music, that colorful melody and chord styling permeated Jim's composing. Listeners would comment--often critically--that his compositions sounded too much like the Beatles. Yackel's only reply would be "I can't help it."

From the late 1970's through the mid 1990's, Jim Yackel gigged the club scene on the "Thruway Circuit" in upstate New York with an ever changing cast of characters making up constantly shifting pop/rock bands. Never much for playing cover material, Yackel highlighted his original compositions in his bands. Good or bad, Jim never worked well with other songwriters being that his writing style would always be significantly different from those other composers. This would ultimately lead to the "ever changing cast of characters making up constantly shifting pop/rock bands" to continue in that vein.

During the 1980's and early 1990's, Jim submitted hundreds of demo packages to countless record labels of various calibers. While some of these labels expressed interest in his musical pipedreams, a record deal was never signed.

The spring of the year 1994 A.D. saw the self-release of a CD and cassette by Jim's band "Groovetown Fire Department." While the album was critically acclaimed in the Central New York press, even compared to "Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" by one reviewer, it didn't break the band onto the national scene. Yackel believes that more copies of the GFD record were shoplifted than purchased.

Although the GFD album was compared to Sergeant Pepper, the band was already in its "Let It Be" stage by the time the record was released. Disharmony and apathy were festering in the Groovetown ranks, and by the spring of 1995 the band was no more.

Sick of nightclubs and drunks, Jim Yackel released a cassette-only solo album entitled "Petition" in 1996. The production was bare-bones, better to represent Jim as he now was; the solo singer/songwriter performing in coffee houses with one voice and one guitar. The material was beginning to venture into politically conservative and family-values themes, and the seeking of a higher power in one's life. Yes, something was beginning to ever slow slowly stir in Jim's soul...

Because of its political lyrical themes and lo-tech production, Petition was roundly trashed in the upstate N.Y. music press. Despite the critical excoriation, the cassette garnered better sales numbers than the GFD project did!

By 1999, Jim Yackel was pouring himself into his new online sports memorabilia venture and music was becoming a fast-fading memory. Whether it was just burnout or legitimate retirement, Jim considered himself finished with public music making.

After being a "Cultural Christian" since childhood, Jim Yackel earnestly went to the cross and gave his life to the Lord Jesus Christ in the year 2000. Yes, that "something" that was stirring in his soul became realized. That something was the Holy Spirit.

It was 2005 A.D. when the Holy Spirit insisted that Jim make music again, and do it this time in an evangelical capacity. Like in the Bible's book of Habakkuk, he became a runner carrying the message on a tablet and began to compose scripturally based lyrics while falling back into that old Lennon/McCartney/Harrison musical framework. Friends, this makes for an interesting and intriguing musical combination!

With his friend Andy Rudy, Jim recorded the tracks that make up the album "Agape'". Jim and Andy played all of the instruments with Jim handling the lead vocals and majority of the vocal harmonies.

The "So Very Soon" E.P. was released in July of 2009, with Jim, Mike Case, and Andy Rudy handling all of the instruments. Andy and Mike also contributed backing vocals.

All of the praise and thanks go to the Lord Jesus in making these CD's possible. The music of Jim Yackel is more alive than ever before, and it is his fervent hope and prayer that you will partake of it. Maranatha!