Angel Isaacs is considered by many to have been the first national level Contemporary Christian music recording artist. Today she also has the honor of being the most highly trained theologian in ccm, as she finishes her second Master's degree in Religion, a Master of Divinity, at Lipscomb University in Nashville. Angel's story goes deeper than this, however. She rose to the top of financial success as the owner of the most advanced satellite and computer aided drilling technology. Her husband, Robin, was the original inventor whose work became the foundation for the entire oil industry and ExxonMobil today. He did this from Chapelgate, their private estate, near Nashville, that Angel turned into a retreat for ccm artists including Amy Grant (who made her "Lead Me On" #1 ccm music video at Angel's waterfalls.) Angel walked the highest clouds of success only to be plunged to the deepest depths of poverty when Robin died unexpectedly of a heart attack on Christmas Eve. After his death her beautiful Chapelgate was taken from her by its current owners, she lost everything she had ever possessed, and she spent 5 years in Federal Court in a $690,000,000 battle with Mobil over Robin's inventions and drilling technology, which she lost. As a poor widow with 4 children she then quietly began to study the ancient languages of the Bible, Hebrew and Greek, to try to understand God and what had happened. Today she has studied these precious manuscripts over 10,000 hours and can read them fluently. She believes there are untranslatable ideas full of so much truth and beauty as to staggar the imagination. Angel's story gives her the ability to write lyrics of amazing beauty and insight into a lifetime walk with God.
"Degrees of Glory" was the first album Angel ever recorded. She did it at "Chapelgate," near Nashville, Tennessee in 1989. Her husband Robin was the engineer. Angel wrote and sang all twelve songs. They recorded it in their home studio, which was the first home studio ever available to an independent artist because it used an AKAI 1212 12-track board. This board was revolutionary and sold for $10,000. at the time & theirs was one of the first produced. Angel's home studio included a grand piano, the very first Apple Mac, Apple Laserwriter, and Compaq. These cost $7500. each at the time. So Angel's home studio was an amazing studio, and her "Degrees of Glory" album was probably the very first time an independent Christian artist had produced a national level album in a home studio. Robin was a world-class engineer. He had produced shows in the Astrodome as the sound tech. Robin and Angel brought Dwight Liles into the project as Angel's producer. Dwight was the premier Christian songwriter at the time, working as a writer for Star Song in Nashville. Dwight listened to Angel's soft, gentle songs of insight into God and used his Korg keyboard to come up with arrangements for each one. Angel gave him complete artistic freedom to arrange her songs. They spent about 4-10 hours on each one. As each was being developed and recorded, Robin and Angel would meet
in the kitchen of their Lodge (the studio was in the Library) as each sought constant cups of coffee. They would hug, and with eyes aglow, exclaim, "It's magic! Wow! Beautiful!" This was the way that "Degrees of Glory" was born. Angel has been selling it independently since 1989. This is the first time it has been sold on the scale CD Baby has made available, so thank you listener, and thank you CD Baby.
Angel's full bio and the story of "Chapelgate" is available on her website. It is a story about an awesome forest with canyons, waterfalls, and ancient buildings, like a Lodge on a cliff and a 200 year old Gristmill, that Robin & Angel owned & restored as their home. Robin was a genius inventor who created the first system to monitor the drilling of oilwells (the foundational technology for Exxon-Mobil today), from "Chapelgate." Angel was a Christian songwriter who turned Chapelgate into a private hideaway for Contemporary Christian Music recording artists. Amy Grant made her "Lead Me On" music video at Angel's waterfall, the #1 Christian video of all time (pictures on website). Angel wrote a fiction series called "The Chapelgate Adventure Series" based on these events and sells her fiction at her website.
Check out the artist's website:
http://www.ChapelgateAngel.comTrack List:
1. Degrees of Glory
2. Prayer Shadows
3. Cast Out of Paradise
4. Rebuild the Temple
5. Queens & Maids
6. Soldier of a Lifetime
7. Eagle Wings
8. Pride
9. Gold On the Foundation
10. Part the Red Sea
11. Heartstrings
12. Racing Horses
Other Genres:
