Angel 7.0: Full Circle CCM

You're kidding me, Facebook, right? It says Kemper Crabb is looking at my today's story. Do you KNOW who that is? In the 1980's I recorded my songs, "Cup of Water," and "Oh, Little Child," in his Rivendell Recording Studio near Houston, where I lived (before Chapelgate.) Wow. They were the first two songs I had written that were recorded professionally, both Contemporary Christian Music. I was going to Grace Presbyterian Church in Houston at the time, with my late husband, Robin, and our 3 young children, and we were friends with the Associate Pastor.

The Associate Pastor was interested in latch-key kids at the time, children who had a key to their home to let themselves in after school, and take care of themselves until their parents came home from work. So I offered to create a video for his after-school program he was starting for them. I joined forces with the downtown Houston Presbyterian church because they had professional video equipment. So that's how we filmed and edited it. I went to Rivendell to record two songs I wrote, one to go with the video. The second song, "Cup of Water," was one I wrote for the same Associate Pastor at Grace Presbyterian for the missionary trip he had planned for members of our congregation to go help build houses in the Yucatan. I still have both of those songs recorded in Kemper Crabb's Rivendell Recording Studio. They are on a huge, small suitcase size almost, recording tape, back then they were BIG. I still have it.

Around that same time period I was listening to KSBJ Contemporary Christian Music radio station all the time. They had a Songwriting Contest that was being judged by Morgan Cryar. I won 2nd place nationwide with my song, "Heaven." That song, the lyrics, are on my page right now, scroll down. It was one of the very first CCM songs I had written. I was about 28 or 29 years old at the time. I won a trip to Estes Park in Colorado. If I had gone I would have met the big names in Gospel and CCM music at the time. But I didn't go. Instead, my Chapelgate adventure had begun and we had left Houston, bought Chapelgate, and had moved there the month before. KSBJ was frantically trying to contact me, we had normal phones back then. Finally, I don't remember how, but I remember talking to them and thanking them but telling them I wasn't planning to go to Colorado. They said, "Well, maybe next year you can." I smiled and hung up, not planning to go.

So, in essence I sacrificed my chance to be seen and heard by the biggest Execs in CCM and Gospel music at the exact time that I was the youngest and prettiest, with the most amazing songs about God, that a person could be. I didn't care. I had sacrificed the same thing when I was young and around 16 years old, an even more promising time to be signed. RCA out of NYC had offered to sign me. I said, "no, thanks." My dad had told me that if I chose that path it would cost me my relationship with God, which he had nurtured in me, alongside my mom's nurturing, from birth. It was no big deal to me, and isn't now, looking back. Looking back I can see how God worked in my life anyway, even better. I now have 230 plus CCM songs that I've written through my daily walk since then, all pure, all true, all written from my heart and from my experiences. I don't think another artist on the planet has the same quality and amount of songs as I do. I own them. Once you are signed they tell you what to write and they own your songs. No. I wrote for God, he gave me what I have now. I need to finish recording them. I'll put a link to some of them in the Comments. xo Angel

Copyright 2025 Angel Isaacs All Rights Reserved

Written October 22, 2025 at 10:03 pm