Toast: A Gospel Mix

(pic via)

More straight-up gospel than last week's, except where it isn't.  It keeps an eye on the afterlife, there's the whiff of a narrative... though I wouldn't pay too much attention to themes or stories as I liberally appropriated any directional intent for the cause.  (The Staples' classic is now, of course, about nothing but Chevrolet automobiles.)  Not much in the way of brimstone, though it's hard not to admire Reverend Nix' bald contempt for his congregation.

Of the belters in these 80 minutes - Coates, Mahalia, that amazing loud-soft-loud perambulation by Bessie Griffin, etc. - I feel I should call some special glory down on Robert Lee "Little Sugar" Hightower.  The Hightowers were five Floridian brothers guided and accompanied by their father, Reverend Nick.  They recorded five tracks for New Jersey's Savoy Records before spending three years with Nashville's Nashboro label, mostly tackling the Reverend's originals.  (His best song, "Seat in the Kingdom" - a recording I've also seen attributed to "The Crumb Brothers" - was in the last mix; the two below are covers.)  Sugar had a voice as big as the best of them, sent the needle in search of new shades of red.  His mannerisms can verge on self-parody, but that's simple precociousness:  When these tracks went to tape between 1960 and 1962, according to Opal L. Nations' liner notes, the singer would have been between ten and thirteen years old.  Can I get an exclamation point?

In 1964, having spent seven years in their father's gospel group, the sibs went secular under the name "Little Mr. Lee & the Cherokees" and recorded six sides for Sure Shot Records (you can stream one here, another here).  Sugar later became guitarist and back-up singer for the Supreme Angels (myspace), first behind Howard "Slim" Hunt, now supporting the late Slim's son.

These selections have been old - some really, really old - and I don't listen to much contemporary gospel.  Other than the suspicion that there's really not much new ground covered (though there have to be new, good songs, right?), I'm scared off by the sound.  Some time during the ‘90s a lot of new soul and blues recordings got unlistenably antiseptic.  So the most recent gospelgospel track here - so spankin' that the CD on which it's included arrives this week - comes courtesy the folks at Daptone, folks smart enough to make new things sound old.  Naomi Shelton & the Gospel Queens (myspace) have their record release party at Joe's Pub on Wednesday, will be doing the free thing in Prospect Park at the end of July.  Go get your love on.

Download the full mix: Toast (Pt 1 - Pt 2)

Individual tracks:

1. Horace Sprott - Jesus is Going to Make up My Dying Bed (Excerpt)(mp3)(buy Classic African-American Gospel)
2. Bob Dylan - Gotta Serve Somebody (mp3)(buy Slow Train Coming)
3. Thomas A. Dorsey - If You See My Savior (mp3)(buy Goodbye, Babylon)
4. Blue Sky Boys - Will You Miss Me When I'm Gone (mp3)(from I Don't Feel at Home in This World Anymore)
5. R.H. Harris - Someday (mp3)(from Everybody Wants to Go to Heaven)
6. Goldia Haynes - Oh Lord, How Long?(mp3)(buy Spreading the Word)
7. Dorothy Love Coates - I Wouldn't Mind Dying (mp3)(buy The Best of...)
8. Hightower Brothers - Where Could I Go (mp3)(buy The Best of the Hightower Brothers)
9. Mahalia Jackson - I'm on My Way (mp3)(buy Live at Newport)
10. Sister Mary M. Nelson - Judgement (mp3)(buy Spreading the Word)
11. Rev. A.W. Nix - Black Diamond Express to Hell Pt II (mp3)(buy Goodbye, Babylon)
12. Dixie Hummingbirds - Testimonial(mp3)(from Everybody Wants to Go to Heaven)
13. Naomi Shelton and the Gospel Queens - What Have You Done?(mp3)(buy What Have You Done, My Brother?)(via)
14. Sister Lottie Peavy - Nobody's Fault But Mine(mp3)(buy Spreading the Word)
15. LaVice & Company - Thoughs Were the Days (mp3)(buy Good God! A Gospel Funk Hymnal)
16. Bessie Griffin - Too Close to Heaven (mp3)(buy Even Me)
17. Bill Carlisle - The Heavenly Train (mp3)(buy Prayers from Hell)
18. Sister Rosetta Tharpe & Marie Knight w/the Sam Price Trio - Up Above My Head I Hear Music in the Air (mp3)(buy Complete Recorded Works Vol 3)
19. The Staple Singers - I'll Take You There (mp3)(buy The Very Best of...)
20. Hightower Brothers - Finally Made It In (mp3)(buy The Best of the Hightower Brothers)
21. Les Troubadours du Roi Baudouin - Sanctus (mp3)(buy Missa Luba)
22. Henegar-Union Sacred Harp Convention - Antioch (mp3)(buy I Belong to This Band)
23. The John Edwards Singers - New Burying Ground (mp3)(buy Como Now)
24. Low - (That's How You Sing) Amazing Grace (mp3)(buy Trust)
25. The Brothers & Sisters Gospel Choir - I Shall Be Released (mp3)(from Dylan's Gospel)
26. Sam Cooke with the Soul Stirrers - That's Heaven to Me(Take 1)(mp3)(buy The Complete Specialty Recordings)

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Also at Joe's Pub, this coming Saturday:  These people.

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I don't want to go on any more about this Green Day record, but it keeps going on.  So: "Last Night on Earth" is a FUCKING AIR SUPPLY SONG.

Paves the way for ironic metal tributes to Green Day, I guess.

tags: gospel  mix  green day  

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