Reviewed by Tony Cummings

An album of this name was originally released by Columbia to accompany the seminal book by Tony Heilbut, The Gospel Sound. This is almost a reissue of that album. Why "almost"? Well, rather peculiarly three tracks (one by Blind Willie Johnson and two by Rev J M Gates) have been dropped from the original 14. But as this CD version has been expanded to a generous 26 tracks (including five tracks from Blind Willie Johnson) this is still a fascinating and at times exhilarating celebration of the sounds of gospel from the 1920s to the 1950s. The legendary street musician Johnson quite rightly gets pride of place on this set and his stunning slide guitar and guttural rasp vocals are still one of the most amazing sounds in recording history. The legend's definitive original of "Nobody's Fault But Mine" (covered by acts like Led Zeppelin, the 77s and Tom Jones) and "God Moves On The Water", the street evangelist's unforgettable account of the Titanic disaster. Elsewhere the album offers Arizona Dranes on "My Soul Is A Witness" whose stomping piano accompaniment shows that the Church made a big contribution in the development of boogie and rock, while the "doodling bass and tin whistle falsetto" (to use a phrase from Heilbut) of the Golden Gate Jubilee Quartet (five tracks here) and Mitchell's Christian Singers (four tracks) show that doowop had its roots in the prewar jubilee groups. For the postwar music compiler Clive Richardson has wisely added three tracks from the singer most consider gospel's finest ever vocalist, Mahalia Jackson, and here her majestic contralto is heard in all its glory on "Just A Little While" while "God Is Good" is distinguished by an ad libbed sermonette when she forgot the second verse. Then we have a track by Bessie Grifin, who Heilbut described as "the mightiest voiced singer of her generation", and a delightful "Today" when Philadelphia's downhome Angelic Gospel Singers are joined by one of the great quartets, the Dixie Hummingbirds. There are other tracks by the Birds, another fine quartet the Pilgrim Travelers and one of the greats of postwar gospel, Dorothy Love Coates. Quite a few of these recordings are available on other CD compilations but if you haven't already got them this is an album you should investigate, shining light as it does on gospel's rich history.

The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those held by Cross Rhythms. Any expressed views were accurate at the time of publishing but may or may not reflect the views of the individuals concerned at a later date.

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