holy ghost

The Blind Boys of Alabama featuring Solomon Burke - I Pray On Christmas (from Go Tell it On The Mountain)

2011-12-12T19:54:00.004-05:00

I Pray On Christmas

Here's one that our hero Solomon Burke cut with The Blind Boys of Alabama back in 2004 for their Grammy Award winning Christmas album Go Tell It On The Mountain. Written by Harry Connick, Jr, I think Solomon is speaking for all of us when he proclaims:

"I Pray On Christmas,
That the Lord Will See Me Through.
I Pray On Christmas,
He'll Show Me What To Do...

"I Pray On Christmas,
That the Sick Will Soon Be Strong.
I Pray On Christmas,
That the Lord Will Hear My Song."

Amen.

Merry Christmas To You!

Concert of Hope for Michael Hubbard

2011-10-11T20:05:00.003-04:00

Our friends Jus B'Cuz will be holding a benefit concert for Michael Hubbard, the 14 year old Riverhead High School student who was horribly burned in a tragic accident last June.

The concert will be held at 4pm on Saturday, October 29th at the historic Jamesport Meeting House, 1590 Main Road, Jamesport, NY.

Tickets are $15, and can be purchased in advance by calling the numbers listed below:

516.885.8020
516.885.8287
631.298.7232

This concert is sure to sell out, so be sure to get your tickets soon.

We are all in this thing together... thank you!

The Jackson Southernaires - Travel On

2011-04-17T08:13:00.020-04:00

Travel On

Why Malaco Matters

On Friday, April 15th, Malaco Records' historic studio and headquarters at 3023 West Northside Drive in Jackson, Mississippi was destroyed by an EF2 Tornado. Although I've written about the company a few times in the past, I've been concerned, for the most part, with the essential role they played in keeping Southern Soul music alive during the seventies and eighties. They did something else, however, that was equally important, and I'd like to try and focus on that for a moment here.

In 1975, before Dorothy Moore's mega-hit recording of Misty Blue picked them up out of almost certain bankruptcy, Malaco founders Tommy Couch and Wolf Stephenson had the foresight and courage to read the writing on the wall and go where authentic Southern Black music was headed - back where it came from in the first place; the Church.

They made a decision to open up their own Gospel division, and brought in local legends The Jackson Southernaires to help them with the project. The group was unhappy with the fact that their Peacock contract had been sold to corporate giant ABC by Don Robey a couple of years before, and were looking to make a change. Down Home, the groundbreaking album they would record as the inaugural Malaco Gospel release in 1975, is simply fantastic, as indicated by this hauntingly deep cut we have here today. Just great stuff.

The Southernaires, who had been around since 1940, were being led at the time by the energetic Franklin Delano Williams. Couch and Stephenson were smart enough to appreciate what they had, and made Williams their 'Director of Gospel Operations'. In addition to The Southernaires' own string of nineteen top ten Gospel albums that were to follow, Williams, as A&R man and producer, would bring legends like The Soul Stirrers and The Angelic Gospel Singers into the Malaco family as well. It was during his watch that Malaco would acquire the Savoy label in 1986, making it the largest Gospel recording company in the world.

Following in the Savoy tradition, Frank Williams would go on to form The Mississippi Mass Choir in 1988. The live album they recorded as their initial Malaco release would go straight to number one, as did the follow-up God Gets The Glory. After William's unexpected death in March of 1993, the Choir's It Remains To Be Seen would stay at the top of the Gospel chart for a full year. Although a great loss to the company, Malaco's Gospel division soldiered on without him, and remains to this day the beating heart of Gospel Music in this country.

When I knocked on the door at Malaco almost five years ago, it was Jerry Masters who let me in, and allowed me to sit with him and Darrell Luster in the control room as they mixed down Apart From The Vine, a track from the soon to be released Sensational Nightingales album, The Gales. At the time, I don't think I fully appreciated how much Gospel Music had grown to become the bread & butter of the company, and how much love and attention they took in keeping things real.

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank Malaco and its employees for all the years of hard work and dedication to great American music, and offer to help in any way I can in their efforts to rebuild.

You guys rock.

The Gospel Legacy of Bishop Solomon Burke

2010-11-12T07:32:00.003-05:00

2010-10-10T22:53:00.003-04:00

Closer To You

A JOYFUL NOISE

2010-06-15T07:49:00.011-04:00

Yes, it's finally official. In conjunction with the NOFO Soul & Gospel Festival, Holy Ghost will be sponsoring an appearance by the one and only Jus B'Cuz at the historic Jamesport Meeting House on Sunday, July 11th at 2pm.

In what promises to be an unforgettable afternoon, we will be exploring the rich history of African-American Gospel Music, and celebrating its vibrant and living legacy.

Admission is only $15, with the proceeds helping to preserve the Meeting House and keep Holy Ghost Gospel up and running.

Don't Miss It!

A JOYFUL NOISE
A Celebration of Gospel Music fearuring the North Fork's own JUS B'CUZ

SUNDAY, JULY 11th - 2pm
Jamesport Meeting House
1590 Main Road
Jamesport, NY 11947

From the RIVERHEAD NEWS REVIEW:

North Fork gospel band celebrates the good
Concert this weekend traces the evolution of gospel music
BY BRIDGET DEGNAN |CONTRIBUTOR
Photo courtesy of Kevin Ford
Members of the gospel band Jus B’Cuz gather at First Baptist Church in Cutchogue. Front row, from left: Alethis Ford and Dominique Aviles. Second row: Vanessa Langhorn, Darlene Hubbard and Grace Hubbard. Back row: Richard Langhorne, Russell Smith Jr., Kevin Ford and Michael Hubbard. Not pictured: Jane Turpin.

It came to him in a vision.
South Jamesport Postmaster Kevin Ford sat in bed for three months in 2005 following a gruesome infection in his feet. A painful result of diabetes, the infection left him with nothing to do but pray.
So he did, and one night, he believes, God spoke back.
'There's a lot of bad going around, but we only know that because that's what the news covers. I can almost guarantee that there is more good in the world than there is bad.'

Kevin Ford
"I was just sitting there and all of a sudden -- bam! -- I just knew we needed to put a singing group together," Mr. Ford said. "I believe that God spoke to me and said that we needed to go spread his word through song."
That year, Mr. Ford started Jus B'Cuz, a gospel band based in the North Fork that performs in churches and concerts across Long Island. This Sunday, July 11, the group will perform at the Jamesport Meeting House at 2 p.m. Tickets are $15 a person, and all proceeds will benefit both the Jamesport Meeting House and Holy Ghost Gospel, a nonprofit organization on the North Fork dedicated to preserving the rich history of gospel music.
"We're going to be doing something like an evolution of gospel music at this concert," Mr. Ford said. "Basically, it's going to be an eclectic arrangement of gospel music. It's not just going to be the kind you hear about on TV with people clapping their hands and swaying from side to side. It's going to be a variety of songs and styles."
During the concert, the band will debut three original songs it hopes to include in a future CD. Each song, Mr. Ford said, encourages people to dwell on the good things in life, not the bad.
"There's a lot of bad going around, but we only know that because that's what the news covers," he said. "I can almost guarantee that there is more good in the world than there is bad. In fact, there's a song I like to sing called 'I Won't Complain,' and it goes, 'I won't complain, because my good days outnumber my bad days.'"
Although Mr. Ford has battled diabetes for most of his life, he believes that the debilitating illness has only made him more aware of God's goodness. The name Jus B'Cuz, Mr. Ford said, summarizes why his nine-member band exists.
"The question we asked ourselves was, 'Why do we praise God?'" he said. "And well, the answer was, 'Just because' -- just because he's been so good to us, just because he's awesome, just because he's a healer. We couldn't think of any other name. We praise him just because."
bdegnan@timesreview.com

Julius Bradley - Joy Comes In The Morning

2010-03-17T10:35:00.015-04:00

Please join me in saying goodbye to our friend Julius Bradley who left this world yesterday morning, March 16th, a victim of the cancer that had ravaged his brain. One of the most spiritual men I have ever met, he has been called home by the God he loved so much.

His good friend Sylvestor Sartor asked me to post this song, as it was one of his favorites:

Joy Comes In The Morning

Taken from the 2008 album Julius produced with the man he referred to as 'The Master', Willie Mitchell, this beautiful Bradley composition reflects the faith and hope that he brought to everyone around him. Willie Mitchell and Julius Bradley were a team, working together since The Memphians days back in the mid-seventies, right up to the last album Willie produced, Solomon Burke's Nothing Is Impossible. That CD, which will be released early next month, will feature two songs that Julius wrote especially for the project.

It was Sylvester Sartor who made it possible for me to visit with both Julius and Willie this past October, and I can't thank him enough for that. Both men, who had brought so much to the rich history of Memphis music, were reaching the end of the road, and he knew it. Sylvester, who worked along with us on the O.V. Wright Memorial, continues to dedicate his life to the music, and is one of my most treasured friends. In his tireless efforts at the Public Defender's office, as in all his endeavors, he is a shining light and a credit to The City of Memphis.

Below is the biography that Sylvester wrote for his friend when he was promoting He Is Coming Back:

Julius Bradley, songwriter and composer, issued forth from the loins of his parents on March 17, 1942 in Memphis, Tennessee. Born to assimilate the muses in the medium called music. As a child, weekly, Julius climbed those steep and rocky slopes to ascend the summit of Mt. Pisgah Baptist Church where he received in earnest the sermons of his father, Rev. Archie Bradley, and heard the voices of the ethers weaved into the hymns of dedication and devotion that has now become the call of his conscience.

In 1960, Julius entered Lane College where he pursued a curriculum in the sciences and was a member of the Lane College Choir as he matriculated to the degree of Bachelor of Science in 1964. After graduation, he returned home to Memphis and joined the flock of young musicians guided and guarded by those twin Shepherds, Mr. Willie Mitchell and Mr. Onzie Horne – both masters of composition, arrangement and production in the genre of popular music titled as Rhythm and Blues.

He grazed in these lush and fertile fields until he came into his own voice, laboring brilliantly in the studios with his past accomplishments including "He Is The Light" by Al Green, "Just Another Piece Of My Heart" by Wet, Wet, Wet Band of Scotland, "I Love You, I Need You" by Otis Clay, "I Get Excited" by Paul Butterfield, "Love Me Like You Do" by Lynn White, and now "Oh What A Feeling" and "New Company" by Solomon Burke.

With the first major production entirely his own, He Is Coming Back, Julius has proven to be an original and unique storyteller. His songs are parables for the 21st Century. Passion pursued is purpose. The deeper the path penetrates into the Heart, the greater is the scope given to the pursuit. He has come home to Gospel Music clad in the raiments of a prophet, worth his weight in cloth and colors. The music is fluid and uplifting. The lyrics are clean and universally appealing. Julius has found that rare stillness in his mind that has permitted him to enter those free spaces of his heart to deliver messages of Hope, of Salvation and of Grace in his songs of faith and wisdom needed to meet the demands and challenges of this global society.

Truly, the Cross has now fallen fully to Julius and he is walking with the Spirit in He Is Coming Back. Julius has one son, Julius Brooks Bradley, a recent graduate of the University of Massachusetts, who is an aspiring guitarist in his own right...

My sincere condolences to the Bradley family, who is still mourning the loss of Julius' brother Reverend Archie Bradley, Jr. in January of 2009.

I am truly proud and honored to have known this humble and gentle man.

May he Rest In Peace.
__________________________________________________
Funeral Services for Julius Bradley:

Wake - Friday March 19th from 4-8pm
M.J. Edwards Funeral Home
1165 Airways Blvd
Memphis, TN 38114

Funeral Service - Saturday, March 20th 1pm
New Sardis Baptist Church
7739 E. Holmes Rd
Memphis, TN 38125

O.V. Wright - I'm Going Home (To Live With God) (Back Beat 631)

2010-01-05T13:21:00.009-05:00

I'm Going Home (To Live With God)

Here's Willie Mitchell's arrangement of this traditional Gospel song that he produced on his friend O.V. Wright back in 1973.

Together once more, they've gone home to Glory.

Six Trumpets - Jesus Christ, The Baby (Nashboro 707)

2009-12-18T07:29:00.004-05:00

Jesus Christ, The Baby

It's Christmas time once again, and here's a record that calls to mind 'the reason for the season'. Recorded upstairs at Ernie's Record Mart in 1961, it represents the first appearance of the Six Trumpets quartet on the Nashboro label.

It is also, as far as I can tell, the first recording by Evangelist Maggie Ingram. Although not credited on the label, that's Maggie singing her heart out on this sweet song that she wrote herself. She would go on to form her own 'family' Gospel group, The Ingramettes, and have a long career at Nashboro. A much-loved institution in her adopted hometown of Richmond, Virginia, Maggie and her Ingramettes are still going strong, performing at the Interfaith Inauguration Day Ceremonies this year at St. Paul's Episcopal Church.

Merry Christmas, one and all.

Clarence Fountain & Sam Butler - Me and Jesus

2009-11-18T09:06:00.015-05:00

Me and Jesus

Today is Clarence Fountain's eightieth birthday. With the passing of Johnny Fields last week, Clarence became the only surviving member of the original Five Blind Boys of Alabama. Truly one of the great voices of Gospel Music, you already know how I feel about him.

It did my heart good to see Clarence accept the Blind Boys' Lifetime Achievement Award at The Grammys this year, even though he is no longer with the group. I imagined it may indeed have been 'the last time' I'd ever see him... but Clarence is not through.

At Jazz Fest in New Orleans in April, Solomon Burke was kind enough to invite my wife and I backstage during his performance. I almost fell off the floor when he brought out special guest Clarence Fountain to perform a few songs from his soon to be released new album!

Accompanied by Sam Butler, Clarence just brought down the house! The fact that Butler, whose work with The Blind Boys in the eighties produced such classics as Look Where He Brought Me From and Changed Man, was back working with Clarence was music to my ears!

Fountain, who does not appear on The Blind Boys' last album Down In New Orleans, left the group last year (just as he had done in the mid-seventies) citing long time 'creative differences' with their producer Chris Goldsmith, particulary over song selection. Stepping Up and Stepping Out is a collaboration with Butler that was co-produced with Jim Tullio, the producer of Mavis Staples critically acclaimed Have A Little Faith. When Solomon Burke, himself a huge fan of Mister Fountain, came on board as Executive Producer, the project got bumped up to the next level. By arrangement with Solomon's The One World Entertainment Systems, it was released on Tyscot Records in August. You need to own a copy.

Make no mistake, Clarence Fountain is the real deal. With George Scott and now Johnny Fields passing on, he is the last of the Happyland Singers, the group he formed in 1939 that went on to become The Five Blind Boys of Alabama. He should be considered a national treasure. On this milestone in his life, please join with me in wishing him a happy and a healthy birthday, and many more years of lifting his amazing voice in praise of the God he has steadfastly refused to abandon.

Amen.

The Swan Silvertones - Great Day In December (Vee-Jay 869)

2009-01-08T08:08:00.008-05:00

Great Day In December

CLAUDE JETER
1914-2009

One of the last true pillars of Quartet Gospel has left us. I got the news this morning that Reverend Claude Jeter, the 'Father of the Falsetto' passed away on January 5th at the Doors Of Jacob Home in the Bronx.

He came up out of the coal mines of West Virginia and founded one of the most influential vocal groups of all time. Originally known as the Four Harmony Kings, by the early forties they had changed their name to The Swan Silvertones, and were heard all over the South on their popular 15 minute radio show on WDIR in Knoxville. They recorded for King and Specialty before finding a home at Chicago's Vee-Jay Records in 1955. Jeter's incredible voice helped shape the future of Black music, as his trademark falsetto left its imprint on the development of R&B and Soul, not only in Chicago, but in places like Detroit and Memphis as well.

After Vee-Jay went out of business in 1965, Jeter walked away from the music business, and was ordained as a minister by The Church Of Holiness Science. Now singing only at services, he lived quietly in Harlem for many years, as the world passed by outside his door.

There is room at the Inn, my brother... may you rest in peace.

Christian Harmonizers (featuring B. Gordon) - Brightly Bean (Rae-Cox 105)

2008-12-29T12:34:00.007-05:00

Brightly Bean

BENNY GORDON
1932-2008

This marvelous record represents Benny Gordon's first appearance on vinyl. He told me that when the Harmonizers performed it at the Apollo in 1962, they just brought down the house. They were so good, he said, that they were fired, as the rest of the acts on the bill refused to follow them!

The next day, he was summoned to Harlem to meet with Swan Silvertones founder Claude Jeter. He was scared to death. It was nothing personal, Jeter told him, but that they just couldn't abide having a young kid like Benny upstaging them night after night. That was when he decided to 'cross-over', he told me...

It was later covered by the Brooklyn All-Stars (as 'Brightly Beams', which is no doubt the actual title), and Benny was re-united with them this past summer as they celebrated their fiftieth anniversary at the Mt. Zion Church in Orangeburg, South Carolina.

Benny had a dream, he told me, that he was being called to sing Brightly Bean one more time.

I'm sure that is just what he is doing today.

May God rest his soul.

The Soul Stirrers - Christmas Joy (Checker 5007)

2008-12-15T10:45:00.006-05:00

Christmas Joy

Here's a gem written by Arthur Crume shortly after he joined The Soul Stirrers in 1965. Produced by Sonny Thompson, it just doesn't get much better than this.

Merry Christmas, everybody!

Dixie Hummingbirds - I Want To Feel Thy Holy Spirit (Peacock 1808)

2008-07-01T09:55:00.010-04:00

I Want To Feel Thy Holy Spirit

IRA TUCKER
1925-2008

Please join me in bidding farewell to one of the most influential figures in Gospel, Ira Tucker. As the leader of the Dixie Hummingbirds for nearly seventy years, Tucker brought his own sense of style and rhythm to the music. His fabled theatrics took the quartet experience to the next level, and laid the foundation for what we now call Soul.

It would be hard to imagine American Music without him.

May he rest in peace.

The Blind Boys of Alabama - Down By The Riverside

2008-04-25T09:32:00.001-04:00

Down By The Riverside

Well folks, by now you should know that I'm down in New Orleans for my annual full immersion Gospel Tent experience at Jazz Fest. Just like we did last year, let's talk a little bit about The Blind Boys of Alabama's latest album.

With the help of Crescent City legends like Allen Toussaint and The Preservation Hall Jazz Band (both of whom are featured on our current swinging selection), The Blind Boys have come up with another winner. The Gospel roots of New Orleans run deep, and the decision to record down there was a brilliant one. In addition to some old-time Dixieland standards like this one, the Boys cover material ranging from moving Mahalia Jackson spirituals to a rousing rendition of Earl King's Make A Better World. Led by the charismatic Jimmy Carter and their newest full-time member, Ben Moore (aka Bobby Purify), they will be appearing at Tipitina's at a record release party on April 26th, along with Toussaint, The Preservation Hall Jazz Band and other special guests. It's great to see this venerable Gospel institution carrying on in such a fine manner.

...I'll tell you what, though. I miss Clarence Fountain. As we talked about a year ago, Clarence's diabetes has led to kidney problems which require ongoing dialysis. At that time, The Blind Boys released a statement that read "Clarence Fountain will be performing with The Blind Boys of Alabama whenever possible but his availability is subject to his health, which has been compromised by diabetes..." When I heard that they were recording Down in New Orleans last fall, I assumed that Clarence would be well enough to join them. Sadly, this was not the case. He is not mentioned at all in the liner notes, or on the Boys' website. Is it me, or is the fact that this is the first Blind Boys album without Clarence Fountain in over thirty years a big deal? I don't understand why more hasn't been made of that in the press...

This is one of the great voices in Gospel music, folks. In my opinion he is on a par with people like Archie Brownlee and Julius Cheeks. The fact that this voice has apparently left us... that when I saw him during Jazz Fest in 2006 it really was 'the last time', is something I can't totally take in right now. If indeed the Blind Boys have moved on without him, as it appears they have, I'd like to take a moment here to acknowledge this wonderful man for his sixty years of heartfelt praise and joyful song.

You changed my life, Mister Fountain, and I thank you from the bottom of my heart. God Is Real.

Solomon Burke - Here's My Life

2008-02-20T17:52:00.021-05:00

Here's My Life

Like many Soul singers, Solomon Burke came up out of the Gospel tradition. Unlike most of them, however, he has remained intimately involved in the Church throughout his illustrious career, and continues to act as the Apostolic and Spiritual leader of his own congregation, The House Of God For All People.

In his own words, Solomon was "born a Bishop," coming into the world in an upstairs room at his Grandmother's Church while services were being held downstairs. As we talked about a while back on The B Side, Eleanora Moore, had received a vision that her grandson was coming. "A Child shall lead them," she was told, and set about building a church for the boy preacher that had been promised them, a church that would grow into The House Of Prayer For All People in West Philadelphia. That church had been chartered from one of the most charismatic and colorful figures in the early days of Gospel, Sweet Daddy Grace.

Marceline Manuel DaGraca was born on Brava, one of the Cape Verde Islands, in the 1880s. Hearing the call early on, he left for America in 1903 and set out to establish his ministry. He built the first House of Prayer for All People of the Church on the Rock of the Apostolic Faith with his bare hands in Wareham, Massachusetts in 1919. By 1926 he was already branching out, and the congregation he set up in Charlotte, North Carolina would bring him to national prominence. A controversial figure that was years ahead of his time, Grace was preaching to blacks and whites alike, holding giant pentecostal services that included brass 'shout bands' and mass baptisms on the beach (a tradition that continues in Charlotte to this day, with the help of the local fire department).

Sweet Daddy, as his followers called him, soon expanded nationwide. His flamboyant style and sharp business acumen combined to make him both extremely popular and extremely wealthy, with extensive real estate holdings from Harlem to Oakland, as well as his "own line of 'Daddy Grace' coffee, tea, soaps, and hand creams reputed to have healing properties." By the 1930s, Newark, New Jersey would become his base of operations, and his appearances at 'charter' churches, like the one in Philadelphia, became the stuff of legend. People would clamor to 'touch the hem of his garment', a garment that became increasingly more ornate as he proclaimed his status as the one true shepherd of his followers, empowered with the multiple gifts of the Holy Ghost. This was the man that would preside at Solomon Burke's baptism, becoming his true 'Godfather'.

By the time he was seven years old, Solomon was preaching from the pulpit of the Philadelphia House Of Prayer for All People, and he became quite the local phenomenon, just as his Grandmother had been told that he would. He would begin his own radio ministry while barely into his teens, eventually (among many other enterprises) beginning his own church, The House of God for All People, which would derive its charter from the House of Prayer. That Church has grown to include Solomon's Temples of the World and The Royal Universal Triumph Dominion Center of Life and Truth, with branches throughout the world.

Sweet Daddy Grace would be proud.

Doctor Burke, while certainly making no secret of the fact that he was the Bishop of his own Church, has pretty much kept his persona as our Greatest Living Soul Singer separate from that of spiritual leader. As you may know, my wife and I were married by Solomon fifteen years ago this coming May. While we always appreciated his religious side, and understood how solid his 'Gospel Roots' were, it wasn't until this past weekend that we experienced it firsthand. After a major mix-up kept us from attending his show at B.B. King's in New York last week, we decided to make the trip to see him in his hometown of Philadelphia.

According to Solomon's website, he was going to be appearing at The Greater Bibleway Temple on North 52nd Street in a "high praise and worship service celebration with Lady Thomasina James and many special guests..." We weren't sure what to expect, but we knew it was gonna be deep. We had no idea! After Lady James led the Church in some traditional hymns from the piano, he was introduced as 'Archbishop King Solomon Burke', and presided over a two hour service that included the Bishops and Elders of many area churches, as well as a number of members of his extended family.

The occasion was "The Apostolic Consecration and Love, Joy, Praise, and Worship Celebration of Overseer Laurena Burke Corbin to the Holy Office of Apostleship." Overseer Corbin is Solomon's younger sister, and the pastor of Our First Temple of Faith Mt. Deborah Pentecostal Church on Haverford Avenue in Philadelphia. Her solemn elevation to the rank of Apostle was truly a sight to behold, as she was surrounded by the Bishops and Elders who laid hands on her and literally raised her up whilst loudly praising the Lord in the language of the Holy Ghost. Simply amazing.

Archbishop Burke then invited the congregation to rise up and stand before him, as he bestowed on each of them their own Special Blessing that spoke directly to the heart of their relationship with God.

There was Joy, there was Weeping, there was Healing and the Casting Out of Demons. This was the real thing, folks. I finally began to understand just how deep Solomon is, and just how profoundly his secular music is illuminated by his Faith in Jesus. No wonder it's so good!

Solomon performed with Ira Tucker and the Dixie Hummingbirds last month in North Carolina, and there is talk about an upcoming Gospel album... if it's half as good as the material he recorded for Savoy in the eighties (like our current selection), it should be fantastic.

Here's to a man who has managed to remain 'a prophet in his own home', while fulfilling his destiny as the one and only 'King of Rock and Soul'. We consider ourselves truly blessed to have been there on Sunday, and are thankful for the continued presence of Solomon Burke in our lives.

"So Be It, Peace. All Is Well."

Bishop Joe Simon - There's A God Somewhere

2008-01-17T08:15:00.000-05:00

There's A God Somewhere

Well, the word is out. Bishop Joe Simon will be headlining the 21st Annual Soul Festival in Porretta Terme, Italy this coming July. Considered one of the premier events of the European summer concert season, this year's lineup will also feature Etta James, Mabel John and Sugar Pie DeSanto in what promises to be some show! As I'm sure you know, Joe Simon was one of the true superstars of Soul, with no less then 48 appearances on Billboard's R&B chart between 1965 and 1981, including 38 that reached the top forty, 12 that broke into the top ten, and 3 number one smash hits... wow!

An absolute natural, to say that he was the 'real deal' would be an understatement. I've featured Joe a couple of times on The B Side, and he's been a major part of our Case Five investigation over at soul detective on Allen Orange and Sound Stage 7. In the early eighties, Simon walked away from R&B, and devoted his life to God. He is quoted on his excellent MySpace page as saying "My greatest joy in life was the day I met Christ." Over the years, he has built the Bishop Joe Simon Ministries Community Crusade into a positive global force that invites those of us in need to "Make Your Future Better Than Your Past - Reach Out for Help and Reach Up to Life."

I was completely amazed when I received an email last week asking me to contact Bishop Simon! No stranger to the world wide web, he had visited my site and read what I had written about all of the people he used to work with back in his Nashville days. He had lost track of everybody years ago, he said, and was looking to try and re-connect. I'm happy to report that I was able to get him back in touch with our man Bob Wilson, who was the keyboard man and session leader on so many of Simon's big records. Such is the power of the internet, folks!

Bishop Simon was kind enough to speak with me at length about his days as an R&B powerhouse, and his partnership with the legendary John R, who was the man behind his meteoric rise to the top. Above all, however, it was all about that voice. Simon's smoky velvet baritone, his soaring soulful delivery, carved out a unique place in the history of R&B. I'll tell you what, this excellent selection we have here today shows that he's still got it, man. The vocals are every bit as powerful as they were back then. Isn't it great to hear him singing like that again! This track is taken from the phenomenal Gospel album he recorded in 2006 for Parliament Records, Time To Change, available both on CD, and as a digital download on his MySpace page. Go ahead and buy one.

As a part of Bishop Simon's Community Crusade, he has become involved with the Avenue D Boys Choir, a heroic group of young men from Fort Pierce, Florida whose after school program has provided an alternative to the mean streets around them. After performing with the Choir several times down on the 'Treasure Coast', he invited them to Chicago to record with him. Simon would now like to bring the Boys to Italy to sing with him at Porretta. If you would like to donate something, however small, to help make that dream a reality, please contact:

The Bishop Joe Simon Community Crusade/Avenue D Boys Choir
PO Box 2046
Fort Pierce, FL 34954
772-342-6317

I asked Bishop Simon if he will be performing any of his 'secular' R&B material at the festival... he's not talking.

Sister Lucille Pope and the Pearly Gates - Merry Christmas

2007-12-20T08:56:00.000-05:00

Merry Christmas

As you may know, I am a big fan of Sister Lucille Pope.

Through the efforts of my friend Pam Willis-Hovey, I was able to speak with Sister Pope on the telephone not too long ago. Truly a remarkable woman, we spoke for the better part of an hour. She and her Pearly Gates are still out there performing, staying pretty close to their home base near Atlanta nowadays. Although many of the original 'Gates' have passed on, it's still a family operation, led by her husband of 33 years, Brother Lewis Alexander and now including her grandson, Tuqwan Jordan. Sister Lucille told me that she's been called 'the best kept secret in Gospel Music'.

I'd like to change that.

I found today's great selection on a Nashboro cassette I picked up recently. If you listen closely, you can hear the pops and ticks of the vinyl source it was taken from. Although it says on the tape that all the songs were produced by Shannon Williams, I believe it comes from her pre-Nashville days, when she recorded for Ed Sheahan's Eddo label in the early sixties. In any event, it's just great. I love the way Sister Lucille just kind of tells the story of Christmas over the lone guitar and harmony chorus of the Gates.

"Jesus is real," Sister Pope told me. Let's wish him a Happy Birthday.

"Merry, Merry Christmas to you..."
________________________________________________________
1/17/08

This just in:

Sister Lucille Pope called me the other night to tell me about her big annual birthday celebration, going on this weekend just outside of Atlanta. She sent along the flyer above, and I'd like to do my part to try and spread the word.

The Celebration will be held this Sunday, January 20th at 5pm at:

The Paradise Church of God in Christ
4234 Hendrix Drive
Forest Park, GA 30297
404-361-0260

The program will include not only Sister Pope and the Pearly Gates, but The Mighty Sons of Zion, The Young Believers of Christ, Sister Sarah McKinnie and many more. If you are anywhere near the Atlanta area, you owe it to yourself to go hear this great woman of God lift her voice in praise!

Best kept secret no more!

Julius Bradley - Another Chance

2007-08-28T10:29:00.000-04:00

Another Chance

Hey, everybody. I'm not sure if you remember this but, back in May of 2006, I told you about a trip I made to Royal Studio in Memphis. I spoke about a great guy I met while I was there, who was kind enough to show me around. He was working on a Gospel album at Royal, he told me, and promised that when it was finished he'd send us a copy.

Well, here it is.

Julius Bradley was born in Memphis. As the son of the Reverend Archie Bradley, he grew up surrounded by music at the Mount Pisgah Baptist Church. He became a member of the Concert Choir at Lane College in the early sixties, further developing his appreciation and love of African-American music. Graduating in 1964, he returned home to a city that was just entering it's 'golden age' of Soul. As a young musician, he studied under the great Onzie Horne, and began a lifelong association with Willie Mitchell.

Over the course of time, Julius became a regular at Royal, involved in all aspects of recording and production. Working with Willie, he also developed his songwriting skills, composing songs for Al Green, Otis Clay, Lynn White and others. He Is Coming Back is the culmination of those years of study, and represents the fulfillment of a lifelong dream. With Bradley writing and aranging all the tunes on the album, it was also "mixed, engineered and co-produced under the tutelage and by the Learned Hand of 'The Master' - Mr. Willie Mitchell."

A collaboration between two old friends, the album is a warm and welcome affirmation of life. I know I can certainly relate to what Julius is saying here in today's selection... we could all use Another Chance.

While the details of sales and distribution are still being sorted out, you can order a copy of the CD from:
RESARTUS MANAGEMENT GROUP
PO Box 1972
Memphis, TN 38101
901.774.6385

Thank You, Julius, for remembering us.

The Blind Boys Of Alabama - Demons

2007-04-17T16:42:00.000-04:00

Demons

Hey everybody. As you may have noticed, I've been working on a four part series on The Blind Boys Of Alabama. I had every intention of tackling the post dealing with their new millenium work with producer John Chelew on Peter Gabriel's Real World label before I left to go to Jazz Fest in New Orleans, but I kinda ran out of time...

As Dan Phillips can tell you, I spend an inordinate amount of time down there in the Gospel tent. Last year, the Blind Boys were playing at the House Of Blues on the Saturday night of the second weekend of the Fest. I was shot... burnt out. I called my wife and told her about it. We knew that George Scott had just passed away in 2005. "How would you feel," she said, "if you didn't go and something happened to Clarence Fountain?" So I went.

I had to.

Jimmy Carter (the other surviving original member) was ill, and couldn't make it. But Clarence was there. The man just has this 'presence', you know? He has lived a life in the Spirit, and it shows. He was nothing short of fantastic, and that incredible voice just shook the place as he sang out "This May Be The Last Time"...

I was so glad I went.

"Behold, I make all things new!" may well be the Blind Boys' motto. They have truly embraced that concept, and great albums like Spirit of the Century and There Will Be A Light (with Ben Harper) have showcased their ability to let the Holy Ghost shine through all kinds of music. Today's selection, taken from their most recent album Atom Bomb, is a major case in point.

A song co-written by Bill Withers that features David Hidalgo on guitar and Billy Preston (in one of his final appearances) on organ, it just knocks me out. Again on the cutting edge, the marriage of Gift Of Gab's brand of west coast Hip-Hop with the Blind Boys' soulful moan brings Gospel music to a whole new place. I love it, man.

I heard that Clarence was sick this past Christmas, and couldn't make it to an appearance on the Tonight Show. I just found this on their website:

"Clarence Fountain will be performing with The Blind Boys of Alabama whenever possible but his availability is subject to his health, which has been compromised by diabetes..."

Good Lord. I'm not sure how serious Clarence's condition is, but I'm sure you'll join me in offering him our sincere wishes for a speedy recovery...

I'm so glad I went.

Original Five Blind Boys - Lord, Lord You've Been So Good To Me (Peacock 1824)

2007-03-18T10:04:00.000-04:00

Lord, Lord You've Been So Good To Me

In 1947, R.H. Harris, the famed leader of The Soul Stirrers, was instrumental in forming the 'National Quartet Association Of America', a group dedicated to promoting the 'quartet style' of Gospel music by organizing and training teenaged singing groups in their own image and likeness. There were chapters in seven states, like the 'Quartet Union Of Indiana' in Gary, home to a young Roscoe Robinson. Roscoe was recruited as a member of a group of kids that called themselves Joiner's Five Trumpets that were being groomed to represent the style for their particular city. They would perform in programs set up by the Association that featured the best of these young singing groups in 'battle of the bands' type competitions. This not only helped to promote the organization, but inspired the participants to give their all to try and 'cut' the groups from rival cities.

It was at one such program that he met Sam Cooke in 1949. Cooke was a member of The Highway QCs, a group that hung around the main office of the Quartet Association in Chicago, and were undeniably the best of the bunch. "The first time I heard Sam, he was shouting with the pretty voice..." Roscoe has said, "So I come up to him and started talking to him and he said, 'Well, man, I like your singing.' I said, 'I just can't sing like you!' He said, 'Man, you ought to come over to Chicago sometime.' And from then on I started coming over, and I rehearsed with them and stayed at Sam's house. His mama would cook for everyone!"

As Cooke moved on to replace Harris in The Soul Stirrers, Robinson would become one of the most seasoned travellers on the 'Gospel Highway'. During the 1950s, the 'golden age' of Quartet Gospel, Roscoe would sing with The Southern Sons, The Silver Quintette, The Royal Quartet, The Kelly Brothers, The Norfolk Singers, The Fairfield Four, The Gospel Jays and The Paramount Singers... talk about a veteran! Small wonder, then, that when the legendary Archie Brownlee took sick he hand-picked Robinson to be his successor in the Five Blind Boys Of Mississippi.

When Brownlee died of pneumonia in February of 1960, Roscoe began sharing lead vocal duties with Wilmer 'Little Ax' Broadnax, formerly of the Spirit Of Memphis Quartet. The incredible record you're listening to now (the flip of the traditional hymn "Sending Up My Timber"), features Robinson's mighty voice just ripping it up, y'all! Archie would have been proud.

Shortly after Archie's death, The Blind Boys' contract with Peacock expired. They asked proprietor Don Robey for a new car before they agreed to re-sign with the label. With Brownlee dead, Robey probably had no intention of signing them anyway, and used it as an excuse to send them on their way. Robinson used his Chicago connections to secure a deal with Leonard Chess, who was only too happy to buy them the car. they recorded an album for Checker called "I'll Go", and did just that, going right back out on the road. When they came through Houston, Robey came to see them. "Chess has a lot of money," he said, "why don't you tell them you're still under contract to me, and we'll sue them for big bucks!" (a typical Don Robey story). He had a pre-dated contract all ready, and everyone signed it but Roscoe and Shorty Abrams, who refused to be a part of something they knew was wrong.

They were thrown out of the group. As the lawsuit progressed, the word on the street was that Roscoe had 'sold out' to the white man (Chess) and turned his back on his own kind (Robey). Nothing could have been further from the truth. He and Shorty formed their own group, The Blind Boys Of Ohio, but despite a rousing release on Constellation, promoters refused to book them. It was at this point that Roscoe decided he had no choice but to 'cross-over' (for more on that part of the story, please visit The B Side)...

By 1972, frustrated with a perennial lack of promotion on the part of the record companies, and a public that seemed increasingly indifferent to his music, Roscoe decided to return to the Lord. As he told David Cole a few years back, “I decided to go back into singing Gospel, mainly because nothing was happening with the R&B, and I felt that by me going back into the Gospel field that I could get more work, which I did. My heart was more into Gospel than into R&B anyway.” The resulting album (Jewel LPS 0066), He Still Lives In Me, showed that Robinson remained at the top of his game. It has recently been re-issued on the sublime P-Vine Japanese release Heavenly Soul Music. Say Amen, somebody!

His next stop would be with T.K. Records subsidiary Gospel Roots, where he would work with the legendary Ralph Bass to produce the long out of print "Time To Live" in 1977. A track from the album, Jesus Is Enough (a sanctified version of Roscoe's biggest hit), can be heard over at Sir Shambling's Deep Soul Heaven as part of the excellent Soul Of Gospel page put together by Gospel afficianados Karl Tsigdinos & John Glassburner.

In 1979, Robinson became a member of The Five Blind Boys Of Alabama. It's unclear whether this was before or after the return of prodigal son Clarence Fountain (who was recording for Jewel at the same time as Roscoe). In any event, they were both aboard for the great 1982 album I'm A Soldier In The Army Of The Lord, which Roscoe co-produced with Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff. It was re-released on CD in 2004. Roscoe still performs with 'The Boys' occasionally today.

As MCA began re-issuing much of the Chess catalog in the mid-eighties, the album Roscoe and the Blind Boys Of Mississippi had recorded for Checker in 1960 was released on audio cassette as Soon I'll Be Done. At around the same time, he began working as a producer for the Malaco owned Savoy label, which would release an album on him called High On Jesus, which remains, sadly, out of print. Interestingly, cassettes seemed to be the medium of choice for Gospel music during this period, and if you check out the Gospel Catalogue at Malaco, much of it is still only available in that format.

Happily for us, archivist Opal Nations has put together Roscoe's early quartet recordings, along with the original Peacock and Checker material he recorded with the 'Boys' on a Pewburner CDR - PB 658 Roscoe Robinson (1950-1964). Go ahead and buy one.

Robinson himself has re-activated his Gerri label, and released an excellent album called The Gospel Stroll in 2005. In addition to the almost 'hip-hop' flava of the title track, he joins together with old friend Clarence Fountain for the amazing I Am Pressing On. Pressing on indeed, these two men are among the last living links to the 'golden age' of Quartet Gospel.

We should all bow down before them.

Sister Lucille Pope - Do You Know What Time It Is (Nashboro 1039)

2007-02-09T08:45:00.000-05:00

Do You Know What Time It Is

Back in the eighties, I bought this LP from my friend Laura on the streets of Manhattan. It's one of those records that literally changed my life. Up till then I really didn't understand the raw power and soulful simplicity that Gospel Music had to offer. Sister Lucille Pope and The Pearly Gates changed all that. It became one of my favorite albums, in any 'genre', and I played it to death (still do). Titled Our Silver Anniversary In Gospel Music, it was released in 1974.

If you do the math, that means they'd been out there testifying since 1949. Sister Lucille grew up the youngest child in a large family down in Concord, Georgia. By the time she was in her teens, she was fronting The Pearly Gates, an all-male harmony group that included two of her brothers. Before long, they landed a regular spot on dee-jay Ed Sheahan's popular Gospel program on WGRI, where they reportedly influenced a young Otis Redding. Sheahan recorded them for his own Eddo label, and their lone 45 "Almighty God" was picked up for national distribution by Vee-Jay (#943) in 1964. Once Vee-Jay went under, they were signed by Chess, an arrangement that produced only one single, "Jesus Tore My Heart To Pieces" (Checker 5004) the following year.

Their next recordings were with Nashboro nine years later for the 25th Anniversary album mentioned above. Recorded in Nashville at Woodland Sound Studios, it was produced by Shannon Williams, who ran A&R at Nashboro, and eventually became a vice-president of the company. Williams wisely included both sides of their Eddo single, and great new songs like "99 1/2 Won't Do" and "Somebody's Gone" helped make the album a big hit down South. It's a record that continues to astound me every time I play it.

With all of that said, you can understand how cool it was to find today's selection floating around on eBay a while back. Is it great, or what? I'm not sure why the Pearly Gates aren't given any label credit here (or on the 1976 LP it's taken from, Holding On), but it sure sounds like them singing the background vocals. Written by Sister Lucille, and produced by Williams, I just love it, man. Check out that bass player!

Sister Lucille would make two more albums for Nashboro, Jesus Is On My Side and In Touch, both of which were produced by Williams as well. The label would also release a Greatest Hits package in 1979. There is apparently a CD of some of her Nashboro material still in print... more on that in a minute.

When Nashboro went belly up, Sister Lucille and The Gates signed with Atlanta International Records (AIR) in 1982. Some of that material is still only available on cassette, while some is actually listed on iTunes (go figure). There's also a live album called Real Christians Stand Up out there that was apparently released in 1999.

In the 2005 edition of Uncloudy Days, Sister Lucille had this to say about those Nashboro re-issue CDs, which are apparently made up of demo tapes:
"A lot of people would have sued them... They put it out and refused to let us fix it. Shannon Williams laid back in his chair and said, 'Sue Me.' I said, 'God got it now,' but I'll go to my grave and the world won't know it... They don't believe in God, because otherwise they would know God's going to get them. Vengeance is His!"

Do You Know What Time It Is?

Clarence Fountain & The Five Blind Boys - Look Where He Brought Me From (from Wajji LP 1305)

2007-01-03T15:13:00.000-05:00

Look Where He Brought Me From

Part Three

In 1979, The Blind Boys were joined by the great Roscoe Robinson. As far as I can tell, that was right before the return of our man Clarence Fountain in 1980.

They apparently recorded for a number of labels (like Trip and H.O.B.) during this period, and it's difficult to accurately date those 45s. I have yet to turn up any recordings that the Blind Boys made without Clarence (during the ten years he was on Jewel), but they may be out there. The only discography I can find for them is the spotty one on their current website, which doesn't cover single releases at all.

The Blind Boys joined with Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff in 1982 to record a great 'disco Gospel' album called I'm A Soldier In The Army Of The Lord. It's recently been released on CD, check it out. The very cool photograph above is taken from the liner notes. I'm lovin' Clarence's 'natural'!

In 1983, Lee Breuer, a founding member (along with Philip Glass) of the Mabou Mines Theater Company, approached the Blind Boys about appearing in his new work, The Gospel At Colonus. The play was an adatation of Sophocles' Theban Greek tragedy Oedipus Coloneus, that tells of the torment and redemption of that pathetic figure in a modern day Pentecostalist setting. It would win an Obie Award in 1984, and Breuer would 'take the show on the road' the following year.

Playing to sold out houses throughout Europe, The Blind Boys were taking American Gospel to places it had never been before, becoming internationally known in the process. Upon their triumphant return to the States in 1987, they were featured in an Emmy award winning PBS television presentation of the play, which then moved to Broadway for a Tony nominated run in 1988.

They were on a roll.

Once Oedipus had run its course, Clarence and The Boys signed with Wajji Records in Washington DC, and produced some of the best music of their career. Here they would begin their long association with Sam Butler Jr., and the Holy Ghost was in the house! That's Butler playing the incredible bass and guitar on today's selection, taken from the Wajji album Changed Man. Great God Almighty!

I was at a Red Hot Louisiana Band show at the Stephen Talkhouse out here on eastern Long Island, and I won tickets to an upcoming show by answering some trivia question (...actually, "What was Robert Duvall's first film role?") correctly. As it turned out, the tickets were to see The Five Blind Boys Of Alabama, fresh from recording this album. To say that the show 'blew me away' would be an understatement. I had no idea what I was in for, and it literally changed my life. To this day I have never seen a more powerful performance than Clarence, The Boys, and their band put on that night.

I sat and spoke with Clarence after the show (he sold me the record you're listening to now), and he was just so real, man. I've been a major fan ever since...

(to be continued)

The Soul Stirrers - Stand By Me Father (SAR 101)

2006-10-29T07:06:00.000-05:00

Stand By Me Father

When Sam Cooke 'crossed-over' in 1956, it's important to remember that he was not only changing the nature of the material he covered, he was also walking away from what many consider to be the best Gospel 'quartet' of all time. That was something that neither he nor the rest of The Soul Stirrers ever really got over.

Faced with the loss of their charismatic and immensely popular lead vocalist, the group was hard pressed to come up with a replacement. According to Sam Moore, who had opened for the Stirrers as a member of Miami Gospel group The Melionaires, they offered him the job. The night before he was supposed to join the group, Sam went to see Jackie Wilson. "I saw the electrification, the excitement... that's what I want to do," Moore said, and when the Soul Stirrers came looking for him he was gone. They then hired Little Johnny Jones, who was the lead singer of The Swanee Quintet, but he couldn't handle it, and quit to return to Georgia in the Summer of 1957.

They next turned to Chicago, and the place where they had found Sam Cooke in the first place, local gospel quartet The Highway QCs. The QCs had recently added a brash young singer who, everybody agreed, sounded almost exactly like Cooke (for more info on that, please check out the B side). Soul Stirrer guitarist Leroy Crume went to visit him in the wee hours of the morning one day in June of 1957, and sat with the then 19 year old Johnnie Taylor on the steps of his house explaining what it would take for him to become their new lead vocalist. He told him he'd have to make up his mind right then and there, and Johnnie ended up leaving with Crume for Atlanta as the Stirrers' newest member.

They would tour that summer, and were one of the headliners in the 'Big Gospel Cavalcade', an ambitious traveling Gospel revue that included Clara Ward, The Sensational Nightingales, and The Five Blind Boys Of Alabama. Although none too happy about it, Art Rupe continued to record them, but his focus was already shifting away from Gospel at this point. When their new releases failed to sell the way they used to, The Soul Stirrers were dropped by Specialty Records in late 1958. They were offered a contract by Vee-Jay in Chicago, but Sam Cooke convinced them to let him record them instead.

With his best friend and business partner J.W. ('Alex') Alexander (pictured here with fellow Pilgrim Traveler Lou Rawls), Sam decided to start a new record company specifically for that purpose. It would be called SAR, as in Sam, Alex and Roy - the Roy being Roy Crain, the founding member of the Stirrers that Sam insisted on including in the deal.

They began working up material for them right away, with Sam and Alex taking an old Charles Tindley hymn called Stand By Me and turning it into the phenomenal song that you're listening to now. Flying to Chicago, they booked studio time for early September of 1959.

They brought Sam's regular studio guitar wizard (and former Ink Spot), Clif White with them to join with Leroy Crume on the session. With the rest of the group's mournful wail behind him, Johnnie Taylor lays down an incredibly soulful vocal here that makes this one of my favorite Soul Stirrers records ever.

Released as SAR's first single later that year, J.W. Alexander thought it had serious 'crossover potential', and was able to garner some airplay on top 40 radio shows like Alan Freed's. The fact that the general public thought it was Sam Cooke singing lead (and nobody said anything to make them think otherwise) helped, I'm sure.

In early 1960, the car Johnnie Taylor was driving struck a young girl who had run out in front of him. Although the girl wasn't seriously hurt, when the police responded they locked Taylor up for driving 'under the influence of marijuana'. When the rest of the Soul Stirrers showed up to bail him out, it was obvious that they were concerned about how this might affect the group's image. Johnnie decided to quit before he was fired, becoming an itinerant preacher named "The Reverend Johnnie Taylor (formerly of The Soul Stirrers)".

He would be back knocking on SAR's door by April of 1961... (you can read more about that, here.)

Brother Joe May - When The Lord Gets Ready (Nashboro 657)

2006-10-16T08:35:00.000-04:00

When The Lord Gets Ready

Ernie Young operated a jukebox route in the Nashville area in the 1940's, and when the records came out of the juke joints, he sold them in his 'record mart' on 3rd Avenue North. Randy Wood (who would later go on to form Dot Records) owned 'the world's largest mail-order phonograph record shop' in Gallatin, Tennessee. His store was the sponsor of 'Randy's Record Highlights' the immensely popular 'boogie-woogie' show hosted by Gene Nobles on WLAC. Ernie wanted in on the action.

When John R returned from World War II in 1946, he became the voice behind 'Ernie's Record Parade', a nightly show that feaured the latest in Blues and R&B. On Sunday nights, the program was strictly 'spiritual', and focused on Gospel. Young's small store was soon inundated with mail-orders, and he realized that the demand for Gospel records by John's mostly black, mostly Southern audience far outweighed the supply on hand. He decided to start his own label to meet that demand in 1951.

That label, Nashboro, was in the unique position of being able to promote its records on the air almost immediately. The first sides were actually recorded late at night in the WLAC studios with John R acting as the producer. Eventually, Ernie set up a primitive studio in the attic of his shop, and set about recording local talent like The Skylarks and The Silvertone Jubilee Singers. He hired the Reverend Doctor Morgan Babb, the leader of The Radio Four, to act as his community liaison and A&R man, and the label was on its way.

Young would start a subsidiary label named Excello in 1952 (for more on the Excello story, please check out the good ol' B side). The first five releases on Excello were Gospel as well, but Young soon used the label exclusively for R&B and Blues.

As time went on, Nashboro established itself as one of the leaders in the Gospel field, especially in the South. WLAC's 50,000 watts, as well as John R's great 'shtick', helped see to that. When labels like Specialty began concentrating on rock & roll in the late fifties, Nashboro was positioned to pick up some of the pieces. Such was the case with today's selection.

Mother Willie Mae Ford Smith was an evangelical 'anointed singer' whose spirit-filled solos at Thomas Dorsey's annual Gospel Conventions in the 1930s paved the way for Gospel as we know it today. She has been compared with Bessie Smith (Dorsey said she was better!), and was the acknowledged inspiration for vocalists from Mahalia Jackson to O.V. Wright. Although she was the 'mentor' for many an aspiring singer in those days, her favorite by far was Brother Joe May, a man she would christen "The Thunderbolt Of The Middle West".

May grew up singing Gospel as a member of The Church Of God in Mississippi, but moved to East St. Louis in 1941 to find work. He soon became a disciple of the amazing Mother Smith, and sang with her every chance he got. Before long, Smith was taking him with her to the Gospel Conventions and he began to make a name for himself. When Pilgrim Traveler J.W. Alexander saw him perform at the 1949 convention he was blown away, and recommended him to Art Rupe at Specialty Records.

His first single for the label, Dorsey's Search Me Lord, would become a million-seller, and May was able to 'quit his day job' to become one of the premier voices in post-war Gospel music. His high energy delivery and powerful voice had people calling him 'the male Mahalia', but in reality he was the creation of Mother Smith, carrying her 'holy ghost' style forward to a new generation. He became one of the top-selling artists for Specialty, and appeared in the 'package shows' organized by the record company. One such performance is captured in the live recording of the famous 1955 Shrine Auditorium Summer Festival Of Gospel Music. Alongside Sam Cooke's Soul Stirrers, Dorothy Love Coates, and Alexander's Pilgrim Travelers, Brother Joe is at the top of his game.

Just like the Blind Boys before him, May saw the handwriting on the wall and, refusing to 'cross-over' he left Specialty for Nashboro in 1958. In many ways, this only solidified his reputation with his southern Gospel audience, and The Thunderbolt Of The Middle West became even more popular down south (I'm sure having his new records broadcast on WLAC didn't hurt either). Today's featured selection was his third release for Nashboro, and is just plain awesome. Check out that voice, huh? "...Tell the government, get ready too. Tell everybody - The Internal Revenue" Just amazing.

Now, as I'm sure you've noticed, this is essentially the same song (with better lyrics) as the one the Rolling Stones covered as You Gotta Move on Sticky Fingers in 1971. They list Mississippi Fred McDowell as the composer, but the earliest recorded version I can find by him is from a 1964 album called Amazing Grace on which he collaborates with The Hunter's Chapel Singers on some Gospel standards. Although it's not unusual in the Gospel field to claim the songwriting and publishing on songs that have already entered the 'public domain' (witness the fact that Stan Lewis is listed as the composer of Just A Closer Walk in our last post!), I just wonder if Brother Joe actually wrote this one himself. It rocks.

Brother Joe would go on to tour Europe, and star on Broadway opposite Marion Williams in Black Nativity (a role later filled by Alex Bradford). Despite declining health, he continued to tour extensively. On July 14, 1972, the Thunderbolt was struck down by a massive stroke on his way to a performance in Thomasville, Georgia. Mother Willie Mae said, "I never thought I'd be saying goodbye to my child... He was my Joe baby, and he knew how to stir me, no doubt about it."

When the Lord gets ready...

Clarence Fountain - Just A Closer Walk (Jewel 160)

2006-10-11T06:55:00.001-04:00

Just A Closer Walk

Part Two of Four

When The Five Blind Boys of Mississippi left Vee-Jay Records for Don Robey's Peacock label in the late fifties, Vee-Jay came knocking on the door of The Five Blind Boys of Alabama. Once their contract with Savoy was up, they signed with the better known (in the Gospel field, anyway) Chicago label, which was clearly seen as a step up.

Vee-Jay, who had released the Mississippi group's records as 'The Original Five Blind Boys', now billed them as the 'Original Blind Boys Of Alabama'. The Blind Boys had found a home, and their records from this period show it... great high energy stuff that demonstrates how far they had come, not only as vocalists, but as a band as well. Unfortunately for them, (and us, too) Vee-Jay went bankrupt in 1965, and left 'The Boys' without a contract.

These were trying times for traditional Gospel 'quartets', as there was not much of a market for their music outside of Church. Although they continued to get work, the 'money was gettin' funny', and arguments within the group began to drive them apart. Clarence Fountain apparently felt that he was the 'star', and that he should be paid more than the other founding members. This wasn't going to fly, and so he left The Blind Boys in 1969.

Stan Lewis signed him up as a solo artist for his Shreveport, Louisiana based Jewel label. Lewis had started out with a jukebox route, and was able to open his own record store in 1948. He was quite the entrepreneur, and built up his mail-order business by advertising on the radio, especially on John R's fabled WLAC broadcasts. Before long, Stan became the 'go-to' distributor in the region for all the major labels, developing close ties with Chess in particular. He started his own label, Jewel, in 1963 and soon branched out to form the Paula and Ronn labels as well. Originally producing swamp pop and R&B records by local talent like Cookie and the Cupcakes, John Fred, and Bobby Charles, Lewis began his Gospel 'Devotional Series' in 1966. Signing the great Clarence Fountain must have been seen as quite the 'feather in his cap'.

By the early seventies, many of the independent labels had either gone out of business, or were being sold off to the big corporations. Lewis, kind of like the 'last man standing', was able to pick up some of the pieces (just as Malaco would a decade later). Great artists like Charles Brown, Lowell Fulson and Lightnin' Hopkins found themselves without a contract, and were soon recording for Jewel. In addition to the performers, great producers & arrangers were also suddenly available, and Lewis snatched 'em up.

The record you're listening to now is a case in point. The producer, Ralph Bass, has absolutely incredible credentials. He came up in the forties with the Black and White and Savoy labels, recording people like Roosevelt Sykes, T-Bone Walker, and Big Joe Turner, as well as the best of the 52nd Street Jazz scene in New York. In 1951, Bass signed with Syd Nathan's King Records where he was assigned his own subsidiary label, Federal. He produced some of the best R&B records ever made (like Sixty Minute Man and Work With Me Annie) and, in 1955 (legend has it) he drove from Atlanta to Macon in the middle of the night to sign James Brown and the Famous Flames before Leonard Chess did. Chess got his revenge a few years later when he hired Bass away from Federal and put him in charge of production for his own labels. It boggles the mind to think of the records that he worked on while he was there in Chicago (think Howlin' Wolf, Muddy Waters, Etta James...). Unreal.

The arranger, Sonny Thompson, has quite the history as well. Sonny had a couple of #1 R&B hits in 1948 (Long Gone and Late Freight) on Miracle Records, and would continue to chart when he moved to King in 1952. He eventually became the head of A&R for the label (I'm assuming he took Bass' place in 1958), and was the man behind all those great Freddie King instrumentals, producing and arranging them as well as ticklin' the ol' ivories... imagine?

Anyway, the point is that by the time this record was made in 1971, Clarence Fountain found himself hooked up with some of the heaviest hitters in the business, and was really going for it. Check out the big production, with the background singers and everything! Even though Clarence was sticking to his promise to 'stay out in the Gospel field', his amazing vocals here would have put many a secular soul singer to shame.

Unfortunately, despite their quality, none of Fountain's Jewel LPs would sell much, and his career was going nowhere.

He would rejoin the Blind Boys in 1980.

The Five Blind Boys Of Alabama - Something Got Hold Of Me (Gospel 1047)

2006-09-27T08:24:00.001-04:00

Something Got Hold Of Me

Part One of Four

Clarence Fountain, blind from his birth in 1929, was sent to the Talladega School for the Negro Deaf and Blind in eastern Alabama. By the time he was 12 years old, he was singing white traditional music in the school's 'glee club' by day, and tuning in to WSGN in Birmingham at night to hear The Golden Gate Quartet do their thing. He and his pals tried to imitate their Jubilee style of singing, and before long were performing together as a group in the area.

Pictured here in the only known photograph from that period, they called themselves The Happy Land Jubilee Singers, and began touring the southern Gospel circuit. By 1946, they were singing regularly on WDOD in Chatanooga, Tennessee, and had made quite a name for themselves. In early 1947, founding member Velma Bozeman Traylor died in some kind of shooting accident, leaving Fountain, George Scott, J.T. Hutton, Olice Thomas and Johnny Fields to carry on.

Their radio broadcasts caught the ear of The Coleman Brothers, a Jubillee styled group that had performed at FDR's funeral, and had a few hit records under their belt. The brothers had formed their own record company up in Newark, New Jersey, and invited The Happy Land Singers to record for them. They covered a song that The Colemans had already released on DECCA, I Can See Everybody's Mother But Mine, and it "sold like mad".

A Newark promoter named Ronnie Fields had booked both the Jackson Harmoneers and The Happy Land Singers and billed the show as "The Battle Of The Blind Boys". The raucous competition between Clarence Fountain and Harmoneers' lead singer Archie Brownlee to 'tear down the house' was a huge success, and led to both groups changing their names to "The Five Blind Boys", of Mississippi and Alabama respectively. They took the show on the road, traveling together, just layin' em out in the aisles (In a brilliant promotional move, they always had a couple of ambulances lined up outside to transport any of the faithful that were about to be 'slain in the spirit'!). Fountain has said of that period, "...it was just what the doctor ordered. We learned how to love each other, to be brothers, and put things together and go all over the country. The audience loved it, and ate it up like cornbread and black-eyed peas."

Pilgrim Traveler J.W. Alexander caught their act in Detroit, and convinced Art Rupe to sign them to his Specialty label in 1953. Their first release for the label, "When I Lost My Mother", showcased their new 'hard gospel' style and just took off - selling over a hundred thousand copies - more than label mates the Travelers and the Soul Stirrers combined. They began to travel the 'Gospel Highway' together in package tours put together by the record company, and the Blind Boys were basically stealing the show.

George Scott's groundbreaking electric guitar work was a big part of the group's 'sound' and (reportedly after they just 'killed' the Soul Stirrers at a show in Passaic, New Jersey) was instrumental in the Stirrers hiring guitarist Bob King in 1955. (As you may recall, King was the man who wrote It Must Be Jesus, the 1954 Southern Tones hit that Ray Charles 'borrowed' to create I Got A Woman...).

Fountain also befriended the Stirrers' new vocalist, a kid from Chicago named Sam Cooke. He was only 14 months older than Sam, and recalls that he was "...an all right cat. He had a good solid mind, and he could just stop and read you a book... He didn't mind taking you to the bathroom, doing things with blind people that a lot of people don't like to do. Sam was all right when he was all right".

When asked about Cooke's 'crossing over' in 1956 he said, "We were there, we knew exactly what went down... I was in the studio with Sam Cooke when he signed his contract. The man offered me one just like he did him, but I turned it down because that ain't what I told the Lord I wanted to do... I told the Lord 'if you do this, and you do that, then I'll stay out in the Gospel field and work for You alone...' It's what I promised Him. When you promise God something, you don't go back on that." Fountain goes on to say that Sam "got to be too big for his own self... he was a good arranger, he could write, he could do everything he had to do, but my theory is that he failed to realize that God is in control, and if you promise the Lord you're going to do something, you need to follow that..." He feels that "Sam was the turncoat in Gospel, and that tore the Gospel circuit down to the ground, because people didn't believe we were sincere".

In any event, The Blind Boys left Specialty, who had begun focusing its energy on its rock & roll artists like Little Richard and Larry Williams, in 1957. By 1959, they were back in Newark, and had signed with Herman Lubinsky's Savoy label. Their records were released on his Gospel subsidiary under the direction of Ozzie Cadena, and they just cooked!

By the time our current selection was released in January of 1961, Archie Brownlee had died, The Pilgrim Travelers had thrown in the towel, and the 'golden age of Gospel' had essentially come to an end. Nobody told the Blind Boys, I guess... Check out George Scott's blistering guitar, and Fountain's unbelievable vocals... great God almighty! When Clarence starts testifying about how the 'holy ghost got in his body', it just knocks me out, man. You (astute observer that you are) can't help but notice the 'similarity' to Etta James' monster 1962 hit Something's Got A Hold On Me, right? Although the label on our single credits Blind Boys' baritone Johnny Fields as the composer, his name isn't mentioned in the BMI listing for the Etta tune... just a liitle more 'secularization', I suppose.

...to be continued

Aretha Franklin - What A Friend We Have In Jesus

2006-09-23T09:52:00.000-04:00

What A Friend We Have In Jesus

Well folks, I'm not sure if you noticed this, but over on our 'B' side post of Bobby Womack's A Lonesome Man, soulbrotha left this in the comments:

"Wait one cotton-pickin' minute!

"A Lonesome Man" is "What A Friend We Have In Jesus"! Every Baptist church sings this hymn to this day. I was raised on this song. The writers are Joseph Scriven & Charles Converse. It's funny how Bobby got mad about the Rolling Stones snatching his song, but he then goes and lifts the entire melody of another song and just changes the words. Hmm...

By the way, "What A Friend We Have In Jesus" has a fascinating history behind it! Would you believe that this is the most popular song in Japan? (23 million Japanese sing it every year!) Somebody needs to send "A Lonesome Man" over there. Bobby could make a fortune!"

So, I checked out the song's history at the great link he provided, and then started searching around. Sure enough, the Womack tune seems to be pretty much a note by note transcription of what has become a traditional Southern Baptist hymn (not to even mention the whole Japanese angle). It's been covered by everybody from Tennessee Ernie Ford to Leontyne Price, The Pilgrim Travelers and even Merle Haggard!

It is this Aretha Franklin rendition, however, that may be the most loved.

At the height of Aretha's reign as Atlantic's "Queen Of Soul", it was Jerry Wexler who put together the Amazing Grace project. Over the course of two days in early 1972, Aretha joined forces with her former piano teacher and vocal coach, James Cleveland, to create what many consider to be her greatest work. The concerts, at the New Temple Missionary Baptist Church in Los Angeles, featured Cleveland's incredible Southern California Community Choir along with Atlantic session stalwarts like Cornell Dupree, Chuck Rainey and Bernard Purdie. Warner Brothers filmed the proceedings, and the resulting double LP (with production assistance from Arif Mardin), sold over two million copies, broke into the top ten on Billboard's Pop album chart, and won Aretha her second Grammy that year (for 'Best Soul Gospel Performance'). A single from the record, a cover of Marvin Gaye's Wholy Holy, made the R&B top 50.

Franklin's 'Gospel roots' came roarin' back, and proved, as she herself had always maintained, that she "never left the Church".

This awesome version of the Baptist hymn that you're listening to is as fine an example of the "mass choir" Gospel style as you're likely to find. Reverend Cleveland, known by then as the "Crown Prince Of Gospel", had taken the lead in the development of the 'sound', and is at the top of his game here. That's him playing the piano as well. Aretha, in addition to delivering one of her all time greatest vocal performances, is also playing the celeste! Powerful stuff, man. I love the way they come building back up there at the end to deliver the knockout punch... Lord have mercy!

Anyway, I agree with ol' soulbrotha that, yes, The Womack lifted the melody wholesale. I'm kind of surprised that Leonard Chess didn't pick up on it, I mean they had their own Gospel division at Checker and everything, but then again, I'm sure the hymn had passed into the "public domain" by then...

Good lookin' out, brotha, thanks!

Here He Goes Again...

2006-09-19T13:55:00.000-04:00

Hey everybody, it's me. You know, I been thinkin'...

Again and again in the course of researching the soul records we've been listening to together this past year, I keep running into one of my first loves, Gospel music. It's influence is everywhere, and while soul music may indeed have risen out of Gospel, Gospel never went anywhere. As a matter of fact, even though it has become extremely difficult to find 'authentic' soul music around anymore, authentic Gospel is alive and well and, most probably, right there in your town.

We are the ones who are obsessed with this notion of 'crossing over'. We are the 'genre police'. I mean, do you really think that when Al Green talks about "The Power" in songs like Love And Happiness, that it's a different power than the one that shakes the walls of his Full Gospel Tabernacle every Sunday? I don't. I believe it is this same power, this 'holy ghost', that shines through the best Gospel and soul records.

As Mavis Staples says, "The devil doesn't have any music."

Anyway, this is the place to celebrate that power. Say Amen, somebody!

In keeping with my credo, 'In Vinyl Veritas', we'll be focusing primarily on 45s. With that said, I want to start things off with a song that came up today on my iPod and just KNOCKED ME DOWN!

Father, Father

Roebuck 'Pops' Staples was a true giant. A man who walked the line between the 'sacred and the profane' with ease... whose faith in his own vision of God and family never let him down. I will (definitely) be profiling Pops, Mavis and the rest of the 'Singers' in upcoming posts.

Let's just listen for now.

This incredible tune comes from the last album he ever recorded, a Pointblank CD of the same name released in 1994. Guests like Ry Cooder and Jim Keltner helped the record win the Grammy for "Best Contemporary Blues Album" (go figure) that year, but Pops' message came through loud and clear. Daughter Mavis, who produced this title track, joins her dad in updating the 'sound' that kept the holy ghost rumblin' through the pop charts in the 1970s.

Pops passed away on December 19, 2000. His music will live forever.