605633134926
605633134940

The Rough Guide To Gospel Blues

Various Artists

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Format: LP

Cat No: RGNET1349LP

Release Date:  27 May 2016

Label:  World Music Network

Packaging Type:  Digipak

No of Units:  1

Barcode:  605633134926

Genres:  Blues  Gospel  

Release Date:  21 April 2017

Label:  World Music Network

Packaging Type:  Slip Sleeve (CD or Vinyl)

No of Units:  1

Barcode:  605633134940

Genres:  Blues  Gospel  

  • Description

    The huge musical influence of the church has meant that gospel music and the blues have long been intertwined. From the true guitar evangelists such as Blind Willie Johnson and Reverend Gary Davis to blues legends Charley Patton and Skip James, these recordings illustrate how the line separating the Lord's song and 'the devil's music' was very thin.

    Description

    Although the blues and gospel music of the African American in the pre-war era seem quite distinct, they were essentially two sides of the same coin. Both genres shared the same longing for a better life and an almost blind hope in deliverance and redemption. The musical influence of the church was profound on many blues singers, as this was often where they started out. Many early bluesmen would freely switch between playing blues and gospel and it was not uncommon for artists to go back and forth between careers as preachers and blues performers.

    Ultimately famed for his 'devil's music', Blind Lemon Jefferson's version of 'All I Want Is That Pure Religion' was one of two recordings from his first session in 1926 which were gospel songs, released under the name Deacon L. J. Bates. Later that year Blind Joe Taggart and Edward W. Clayborn were the first genuine guitar evangelists to record. Clayborn only performed gospel tunes but Taggart also recorded secular music under a number of different pseudonyms. The success of these early recordings led to other singer-guitarists being sought out and recorded.

    Like the itinerant bluesmen, the guitar evangelists had to ply their trade on street corners and anywhere that would allow them to scrape a meagre living together. One such artist was Blind Willie Johnson who, although a devout Christian performing only religious material, became a seminal figure in the history of the blues. From the dazzling slide guitar playing and earthy, pained vocals on Johnson's extraordinary recordings one can draw an obvious musical comparison with the blues. It is, however, the shared subject matter of human struggle that connects the blues and gospel which resonates at the deepest level. After Johnson's initial recordings sold very well, many star bluesmen of the time such as Barbecue Bob followed suit with versions of Negro spirituals, often credited under pseudonyms in order not to offend the church.

    Undoubtedly, the most technically adept of the true guitar evangelists was Reverend Gary Davis, whose incredible ragtime-infused style has been a huge inspiration to guitar fingerpickers ever since. Davis was an important inspiration to the folk music revival alongside other featured bluesmen such as Skip James (who was later ordained as a minister) and Bukka White, all of whom had recorded a small number of spirituals and were given a new lease of life in the 1960s. Josh white was another and here he teams up with Blind Joe Taggart, a man whom he later described as 'tricky, nasty and mean'. The pointed 'Scandalous And A Shame' was his first popular Paramount recording. Blind Willie McTell was an active preacher later in life playing only religious material but sadly died a few years too early to benefit from the 1960s blues revival.

    It has been said that the 'Queen Of Country Blues' Memphis Minnie only once went to church to see a gospel group perform, but you wouldn't know this when hearing her take on 'Let Me Ride' which evokes the mood and fervour of Southern black worship. Likewise, many of Bessie Smith's classic blues songs have a hymn-like quality as a result of the fusion of the sacred and the secular in her delivery. Her beautiful version of 'On Revival Day' undoubtedly reflects the dynamics she would have heard in the sacred songs in her childhood church. Less is known about Mother McCollum whose stompin' masterpiece 'Jesus Is My Air-O-plane' displays her wonderful guitar-playing and soulful vocals, and like all of the featured tracks illustrates how the line separating the Lord's song and that of the blues was very, very thin.

  • Tracklisting

      Disc 1

      Side 1

      • 1. Reverend Gary Davis - I Am The Light
      • 2. Blind Willie Johnson - I Know His Blood Can Make Me Whole
      • 3. Mississippi John Hurt - Praying On The Old Camp Ground
      • 4. Bukka White - The Promise True And Grand
      • 5. Rev. Edward W. Clayborn - Your Enemy Cannot Harm You
      • 6. Blind Roosevelt Graves & Brother - I'll Be Rested (When The Roll Is Called)
      • 7. Blind Boy Fuller - Twelve Gates To The City
      • 8. Blind Joe Taggart & Josh White - Scandalous And A Shame
      • 9. Mother McCollum - Jesus Is My Air-O-Plane
      • 10. Tallahassee Tight - Got Heaven In My View
      • 11. Skip James - Be Ready When He Comes
      • 12. Julius Daniels - Slippin' And Slidin' Up The Golden Street
      • 13. Blind Mamie Forehand - Wouldn't Mind Dying If Dying Was All
      • 14. Lil McClintock - Mother Called Her Child To Her Dying Bed
      • 15. Bo Weavil Jackson - I'm On My Way To The Kingdom Land
      • 16. Memphis Minnie - Let Me Ride
      • 17. Blind Gussie Nesbit - I’ll Just Stand And Wring My Hands And Cry
      • 18. Blind Willie & Kate McTell - I Got Religion, I'm So Glad
      • 19. Blind Willie Davis - I've Got A Key To The Kingdom
      • 20. Henry Thomas - Jonah In The Wilderness
      • 21. Barbecue Bob - When The Saints Go Marching In
      • 22. Bessie Smith - On Revival Day
      • 23. Charley Patton - Jesus Is A Dying Bed Maker
      • 24. Sam Collins - Lead Me All The Way
      • 25. Blind Lemon Jefferson - All I Want Is That Pure Religion

    Tracklisting

      Disc 1

      Side 1

      • 1. Reverend Gary Davis - I Am The Light
      • 2. Blind Willie Johnson - I Know His Blood Can Make Me Whole
      • 3. Bukka White - The Promise True And Grand
      • 4. Rev. Edward W. Clayborn - Your Enemy Cannot Harm You
      • 5. Blind Joe Taggart & Josh White - Scandalous And A Shame
      • 6. Mother McCollum - Jesus Is My Air-O-Plane

      Disc 2

      • 1. Blind Willie & Kate McTell - I Got Religion, I'm So Glad
      • 2. Skip James - Be Ready When He Comes
      • 3. Memphis Minnie - Let Me Ride
      • 4. Barbecue Bob - When The Saints Go Marching In
      • 5. Bessie Smith - On Revival Day
      • 6. Blind Lemon Jefferson - All I Want Is That Pure Religion