STYLE: Blues RATING OUR PRODUCT CODE: 30452- LABEL: Dynamite FORMAT: Cassette Album
Reviewed by Tony May
In the revered traditions of legendary "guitar evangelists", Charlie's life has known its poverty and hard knocks. Born in 1932 to a rural Mississippi sharecropping family, and sharing in his family's ministry to rural Black Baptist churches, our man soaked up those powerful Deep South music influences. He's allied it to his ferocious singing and hard driving electric guitar to produce 12 of the most devastating gospel songs you're ever likely to hear. Some tracks include a small ensemble, with some female voices which, good as they are, are hard put to stay with Charlie's overwhelming and dynamic performance. On slower tracks like "I Gave Up All I Had To Serve The Lord", his voice wavers from the straight and narrow, but when he crawls up that chugging electric guitar you could forgive him anything. Here's all the sizzling power of early Staple Singers' music, and the incessant inspiration emanating from such as The Five Blind Boys Of Alabama. Our esteemed American correspondent Rev. Al Mighty says "Imbibe, brethren, imbibe!" The stuff of legends.
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