Michael Vena - Stone Ground Will Crumble 1980 lp Private Modern Soul AOR RARE NM

$

391

Welcome to our kick off to summer 2026 Modern Soul / Gospel / AOR / Boogie / Indie R&B / Yacht Rock / FM Global Sounds giant lp sale Part 1, a few choice 12" singles also appear, from private presses, to small obscure labels, to some of the rarest on the big labels..... no reissues! WE COMBINE SHIPPING! 

122 records all originals , many have soundclips, which are from the actual record :)

(We have so much on hand, we'll be having a Part II sometime later in the Summer (TBD), and as many top shelf ones in this set, there's just as much fire in "Part II: The Summer Sequel"!) 

This week features a really nice curated slab of rare Modern Soul, Gospel, Boogie, AOR, Yacht Rock FM Global Sounds, Electro, Indie R&B, City Pop, New Jack Swing, Street Soul, 2-Steppers, beginning with a heavy unknown Modern Soul Indie R&B grail 1992 "Gemini -Starfire", an original pressing of 1990 "Ada Dyer - s/t" lp - one of the rarest Motown lp's, a true first press original of hyper rare Gwen McRae "Melody Of Life" 1979 CAT lp, Omega Sunrise 1985 "Run From The Night" AOR Modern Soul Gospel grail on Morada lp, Michael Wycoff "Love Conquers All" 1982 RCA lp, Michael Sterling 1986 "The Artist" private press lp, Hubert Powell and The Gospel Truth 1982 grail Gospel Modern Soul lp on Sweet Rain, the 1985 Oasis "Common Ground" ultra rare grail AOR / Modern Soul Boogie private press, Roland Gresham's 1983 "All My Life"  instrumental spiritual jazz funk Gospel grail lp, to the Art Mapa produced "Val/Becki - Matter Of The Heart" 1986 lp, the 1980 lp Michael Vena - "Stone Ground Will Crumble", the last Maurice Williams 1986 "Create In Me" private press Gospel grail, Fire N' Light "Ready For The Fire" 1985 lp, Numonics 1982 "Rollin'", Anthony White 1976 "Could It Be Magic", Whitney Houston, Babyface, Nolen & Crossley "Ambience" 1982 on Motown, from ABC Peacock, HSE, Gospel Roots, Morada, Sweet Rain to Columbia, A&M, Capitol, Solar, Elektra, so many private presses, there's too many highlights to list, so much curated fire we are going to have a "end of the summer Part 2" -TBD,  12" of Billie Jean 1982 Epic promo with the instrumental flip, Anita Baker all around the alphabet back to Aquarian Dream and so much more :) 

ASSISTIVE NOTE:

To give the best  "map" for this sale, we'll have 27 leading off to give somewhat of a highlight of each area of items, then onto 1) Gospel, to 2) AOR Gospel, 3) Secular AOR, into 4) the biggest part Modern Soul / Boogie / Electro / New Jack Swing / Street Soul / Indie R&B, within each of the four sections, it will tend to be chronological, earliest year listed first, with some exceptions (including multiples by same artist), meaning listed newest will be the tail end, ending earliest is the beginning (if you filter by "ending soonest", you'll get the layout!), we hope this might help :)

**Note on grading: We have been proud to send thousands of records to delighted customers, but there is always room for improvement, we want to continually strive to be as accurate, honest, and detailed as possible. These records that have been collected and loved over the years, coming from a collector, one who listens to the records, enjoys the music, we are only growing more meticulous in our visual aspect of grading the vinyl, while also maintaining a balanced emphasis on the sound quality, utilizing sound clips (we do not manipulate them whatsoever, and we never will!), full front to back recent thorough listenings, and for the covers to use detailed photos, write detailed aspects for the grade, we want people to know exactly what they're getting, as collectors, lovers of music, we promise to always carry ourselves with integrity, we're in the business of delighting people, to treat others as the best experiences we've had as buyers, and all of our items are guaranteed. We won't stop growing, learning, and listening. A very special warm thank you to all our incredible return "customers", we really think of you all as fellow friends in vinyl, and if this is your first time bidding with us, we hope our "record" speaks for itself, ensuring a secure feeling to bid with confidence, thank you all, truly together we make this community one that spreads the love, sharing in this special thing of all of ours :) ***

* After this week's auction, (In no particular order) we have in the auction pipeline:
A "Golden Era" late 60's-Early 70's Rare Groove Funk/Soul lp's
2nd Modern Soul / Gospel / Boogie / AOR, Part "II"
More Deep Funk / Soul, as well as AOR / Power Pop / Rock 45rpm 7"
A few more cooking, not to mention our exciting, anticipated:
Part 4 "Giant Jazz"; jazz funk, spiritual, fusion, electronic, sale lp's

*^(Each are loaded with some of the rarest, high end stuff, plenty that haven't shown up in years, unknown mind-blowers, Grail Pieces, like always, all original editions!)
We'd be honored if you'd consider saving us as a favorite seller :)***

All soundclips used are unedited directly from the item up for sale :). See below for detailed grading!
***Everything is 100% guaranteed! We've sold over 1,500+ records in the past year alone, with 100% positive feedback, bid with confidence :)

Feel free to message any questions!

*Note: Any Item that does not have a soundclip, feel free to message us, and we can make one for you :) 

**Note: for items with multiple players, the title of track is above each player; the player enables scrolling through!**


Soundclip info: A1 "Heaven Only Knows", B3 "Stone Ground", A4 "With His Love", b3 begins at 1:07, a4 begins at 2:22    
Soundclip:  Update your internet browser to latest version in order to play audio clip.

Media Grade:  NM (incredible, top copy, peep the soundclips!) 
Sleeve Grade:  NM (still in shrink! See photos!)
Year / Label / Catalogue #:   1980  /  Vision Records (Indie PAC NW one-off Gospel label)  / VIS 801 (1st press, stereo) 
Brief Comments: Extremely scarce one-off by Washington state (Kent, WA) composer / singer songwriter / keyboard player Michael Vena! Imagine Matthew Larkin Cassell (Pieces 1977 grail lp), meets Bobby Caldwell a la West Coast Gospel of AOR / Modern Soul, with that "jazzy" touch similar to Cassell, and the singing chops similar to Caldwell!
All compositions are originals by Vena, joined by a serious ensemble, including percussionist Michael Spiro (whose credits include Archie James Cavanaugh 1980 "Black and White Raven" grail private press among others), in fact numerous musicians on this one, including Grant Reeves, Dave Perry, also play on "Black and White Raven", bass player Dan Dean comes with a jazz funk/fusion/modern soul background, playing on Cheri Adams rare 1977 "Sweet & Sour" lp (we also have that one!), the Jack Daughtery Orchestra lp on Caramel from 1976, Don Brown 1979 "Come On!", Ernie Watts, Diane Schuur's jazz-funk/fusion lp.....Jerry Frank, Chris Leyton, John Morton all coming from jazz funk / modern soul / AOR backgrounds, bringing ace solid musicianship for buttery smooth silk production....
Even harder to find, and more consistent than the excellent Jim Schmidt "Somethin' Right" 1983 lp, Fernando Quinde, Alan Kuatt, etc. (all worth checking out!), this was basically pressed as a self-released placeholder, with the hopes of a label like Myrrh, Light, Milk & Honey, Morada, etc. picking it up, and giving it national distribution, had Heritage not had Art Mapa, it's possible they would have snapped it up. Basically it was sent to a few local retailers in the PAC NW, Northern California region, a few to radio stations, A+R reps, and a record store in Kent, WA did have a box apparently back in the day (canned when the store went defunct in the 90's), to find a nice copy of this one is extremely difficult, I got mine years ago from the drummer, who still had a sealed spare copy, even longtime PAC NW diggers can attest, this is just one we don't see, not even at conventions like Night Owl in PDX, or on the Wall of Seattle shops, I could be wrong or misrembering the story, but even legendary Groove Merchant in the Bay Area has only had two copies ever. 
Michael Vena, unable to secure a bigger label deal, went back to his career, having a great family man life, with wife and kids in Washington, making peace with his music ambitions. He truly had a spectacular talent, a background of jazz, AOR, Modern Soul, SSW, with a particular feel for the groove, compositions, playing, singing....but he did record this, and no matter how rare, it's one of those magical records that you put on front to back, consistently supreme each and every track, without growing stale, it refreshes, renews, continually reaching into that magical thread binding us like Siamese twins in a dream.... Way overdo for a reissue, it's never been re-released on any format (the demand in Japan is giant), one of the top, if not tied for best of the era, but enough said by me, I'll let Mike take the mic ;)
Peep the soundclips :)  



*Tariffs aren't going to impact used vinyl records / music media, we wish they were never in place at all, so for international buyers, don't worry on that account!
For our record grading, we stand by the merits outlined in the scale below, anything VG or below will have a detailed explanation in brackets next to the grade.
For sleeves, we will mention anytime there is split, or defect not visible in the photos in brackets next to the grade, otherwise we refer to the photos for the merit of the grade. Of course any questions, concerns, are always welcome :) 
Our media grading scale is as follows: [*Quick note, our VPI is still in storage on the other side of the US, we do brush clean many  items carefully, but we have to prioritize, we won't leave anyone stranded with a filthy record, only "filthy" good! We don't factor dust particles into the grading]
NM = Essentially a pristine album, like new, rarely used.
EX = Under bright light if there is any scuffs or mark, which will be inaudible, most collectors and sellers would tend to consider it closer to NM, EX is also the grade others might call VG++ under the same level of conservative scrutiny.
VG+ = More then a small handful of scuffs, light marks, nothing feelable, will have high-gloss, a thoroughly enjoyable copy that may only have tiny moments of barely perceptible surface noise overpowered by the music. Our VG+ will satisfy the vast majority of collectors as a nice keeper copy, as collector's ourselves for nearly two decades, this grade is aimed to be a great keeper. Note if say the record has a light DNAP warp, but otherwise is NM, we will automatically put it to VG+ and detail that. Another scenario is if a copy plays at a solid EX, but visually is VG, the composite grade will be VG+, and detailed as such.
VG = More hairlines, more marks, maybe a few visible scratches, no more then two feelable scratches (which automatically lowers to VG-), there likely will be surface noise, but will play through, still being an enjoyable copy, the audio quality will satisfy most collector's (the golden rule: if it doesn't satisfy us, it won't be VG), if a record is otherwise EX, but has a slight momentary skip, where 99% of the record is EX, we will note that, and put it at VG. Usually will retain a nice gloss.
VG- = More Scratches than VG, surface noise will jump out more, it be overpowered for longer stretches, or compete with the music in places, it will likely play all the way through on most turntables, a copy that you can still get a decent play enjoyment from.
G+ = Lots of scratches, deeper ones, surface noise now mostly overpowers or competes with the music. It may skip in some places. We don't tend to sell G+ copies, unless the rarity is so great, and that will be precisely detailed.
Thrashed = Pretty much a "Theoretical Grade" for us, it be for all intents & purposes virtually unplayable, it would be for display purposes, or perhaps if you needed the cover but not the record. It's "theoretical" because so far we haven't sold or identified anything intended to sell at this bottom level.
Every item is guaranteed to YOUR satisfaction, no questions asked, 100% refund. We stand by our integrity, our goal is to make sure you are absolutely delighted with your purchase, to deliver a cherished album to your collection :). On the slightest chance of human error, if we make a mistake, we take accountability for that, we don't anyone to have a record they aren't happy with! Bid with confidence :)
If you have multiple items, please wait for us to combine shipping for you! We can combine up to 4 items for the standard shipping rate, and save you $ on additional items. We don't charge a single penny over what the shipping costs, so you are paying only the amount the postal service receives!
Default shipping is USPS media mail, USPS International mail. If you prefer a different carrier, or expedited shipping, please message us before payment, so we can set up the invoice for you :)
We have it set to 5 day shipping / handling time, as a just in case, typically about 98.7% of our orders are shipped out the day of payment (first day the post office is open), with the vast majority being the second day. We'll message on the extraordinary off-chance if doesn't go out on Tuesday (our auctions mostly ending on Saturdays, Sundays), with the reason and day it will go out, so far that's only happened once on a giant order, and all was well.
Thank you from EnfieldVinyl, a family business, and the auction venture of EnfieldRecords :)
Kindly,
-Alec :D
&
-Ellie :)