Clay Collins

Descending an Uphill Climb is a blues and rock album that takes a hard, and often humorous look at the state of the socio-political-religious world of the late eighties and early nineties.

By ’92, the band had a new drummer, Peter Vann, and a more skeptical edge. It is not a religious album, per se, although its perspective still comes from a place of Christian faith. As one critic has said, the album “challenges the culture away from cold and insular dogma,” and, as it turns out, was far more prophetic in some of its observations than anyone could have known at the time. Everybody's a Fundamentalist (Except Me) became an audience favorite, with some fans knowing all the words!

It was first released in 1992 under a different title, and then re-imagined, re-mixed and re-mastered in 2024.

A highlight of the recording sessions was Paul’s runaway freight train of a blues harp solo on The Knee Jerk. The second half of the solo section was supposed to be saved for guitar, but Paul was on a roll, and we just let him fly!

 Credits                                                                                                                                                                                                          Produced by Clay Collins and Jeff Dykhouse                                                                                                                                                        All songs written by Clay Collins, except Valley of the Shadow, music by Larry Norman                                                                            Recorded and mixed by Jeff Dykhouse at Jephtha Studios, Temecula, CA, 1992                                                                                                  Additional engineering by Eddie Keaggy and Brian Quick                                                                                                                                  Re-imagined, re-mixed and re-mastered by Clay Collins at St. Thomas Studios, Pleasant Hill, CA, 2024                                            Photography by Amy Sibiga                                                                                                                                                                              Nurse voice by Kelly Chittenden

The Band                                                                                                                                                                                                              Clay Collins: acoustic guitar, electric rhythm and lead guitars, slide guitar, lead and background vocals, bass, keyboards, piano, percussion      Andy Kern: electric guitar, background vocals                                                                                                                                                  Brian Quick: bass, background vocals                                                                                                                                                                Peter Vann: drums, percussion, background vocals

Additional musicians:                                                                                                                                                                                            Jeff Dykhouse: keyboards, piano on Fundamentalist, arrangement of Street Sweeper                                                                                       Bob Hartry: electric guitar on Street Sweeper

Special thanks to: Larry Norman, Mark Heard, Pat Terry; Carl Sandburg and Billy Gibbons for the inspiration; Paul and Melinda, Steve Kalkwarf, Dan Strain, aka “Dr. Whammy", for the Joe Perry imitation; Martha for the Indian on the veranda; and Dave Zavatti for the original fish joke.