"The rawest, DIY gospel ever resurrected. The West Side of Chicago was
just an annex of the deep rural South for Gene Autry Cash and his flock
of recent Old Dominion transplants looking to cut their fiery, unadorned
sounds indelibly to plastic. His Jade label absorbed those God-fearing
artists: family bands with wailing kids and barely amateur groups
sourced from local parishes, infused with reverberations of country and
western and deep soul. Glinting authenticity shines from every track
like a diamond in the unpolished rough - each group completely convinced
that salvation comes through song."
12 comments:
http://www.embedupload.com/?d=2IAJHXZWCJ
Who knows, I might just get converted to the sound of Gospel music. Only one I have ever listened to was the Rev. Charlie Jackson cd.
Gospel music was not part of my religious tradition formally or at home. I would hear it at my African American friends’ homes and, for a time, found its religiosity too much of an impediment to enjoying it. Granted I saw several times and loved the film “Say Amen, Somebody” when it first came out but, having attended a Catholic high school and college, I had no desire to be hit over the head with more religion. My experiencing living as an exile in the Bible Belt for ten years only confirmed my opposition to listening to Christian religious music. I was asked too many times whether I was born again, regarded it as intrusive because I would not inquire about others' beliefs, and always replied, "No, my mother was successful the first time. " I considered Gospel music to be more of the same smug self-righteous belief that there is only one truth for all to adhere.
Or so I thought until you began posting Gospel. More importantly, a comment a couple of years ago by Poppachubby responding to my and other followers’ aversion to Gospel got me to thinking. After all, because of my love of the eclectic and esoteric, I had no qualms about listening to and buying the music of Rastafarians, monks singing Gregorian chants, singers of tuva throat singing that arose from Mongolian animism, monks singing Buddhist chants, klezmer bands and singers of sacred Yiddish and Hebrew music, singers of Sephardic religious music, singers of Hindu chants, nor Ethiopians singers of Christian, Moslem, and House of Israel music. I also enjoyed the poetry of Tagore, Rumi, Manley Hopkins, Levertov both pre-and post-conversion, and Hafez.
I mention none of the above to ostentatiously display erudition; rather, Poppachubby’s comment provoked me to reflect on why I was resistant to Gospel when I as open to other religious music. I realized that part of it was the exuberance and emotional intensity of Gospel which was very foreign to my religious experience. After all, our religious services were in Latin, a language none of us understood, and the priest didn't face the congregation throughout much of the mass until I was ten. There was certainly no call and response, no amen corner, rather we responded at the designated times in the liturgy and were otherwise silent. However, another aspect of my resistance arose from my generalization that all Christian evangelicals, Pentecostalists, and fundamentalists were inherently reactionary and intolerant. In other words, my self-scrutiny made me realize that my contempt for intolerance of any sort had caused me to generalize about Christians of those sects based on my limited experiences I had to admit that I would not generalize about religious folks of other traditions in the same way. Consequently, I took to heart Poppachubby’s comment and opened my mind to appreciating the emotions, especially the joyfulness of gospel, and learned to really appreciate it.
Now I am still a devout agnostic who dislikes the rigidity and self-righteousness of many atheists as much as I do that of many religious folks who allege that they are followers of Yeshua.. But I now make a concerted effort to put aside my negative experiences of and prejudices about others' overt Christian religiosity and instead listen to the celebratory nature of the music and lyrics. Hell, I can now even listen to Dylan during his Christian period. If Bob feels that he has to serve somebody, who am I to object as long as he doesn’t demand that I think and believe in the same way as he does. But I digress; this is yet another post that highlights the genre at its best and I thank you for it and look forward to Gospel Sunday on this blog. Pax vobiscum!
To write so much and omit the most important part, a very belated thanks to Poppachubby for prompting me to reflect on my reaction to Gospel music and, perhaps unknowingly, causing me to rethink my assumptions, acknowledge my prejudices, and open my mind a bit more. As a result, I am now able to listen to Gospel and just enjoy it.
I really like old time Gospel and how everybody in the church got into it. Thank you.
Wayne
Merci !
Firstly this looks amazing, what an incredible write up - totally caught my interest. Feilimid I am a convert just like you, with no religious affinity. I just love how pure and true the emotion is behind every note, unlike so much of today's cookie cutter "feeling". So by extension, you and I both owe KC the thanks because he is the one who snared me. But I am happy that I was able to convince you to give it a try because there's so much great stuff within the genre. I think of it like recovering 12 step alcoholics would, there's a higher power and everybody must find and acknowledge it.
Maybe for us the higher power is music...
Some real gems here. So glad labels like Jade were around to save all this gospel talent for posterity! Thanks.
Thanks, Poppa, that's what is so great about this blog; that it creates community across the miles, provides enjoyment and deep satisfaction, educates, and always provokes thought. Gus refers to us as invisible friends. In fact, we are visible, just separated by distance that modern technology makes far less of an obstacle to communication than it once was. I often think of my great-grandparents leaving destitute Galway and Kerry as young adolescents and never seeing their home country nor communicating with their people after a period of time and how very fortunate we are today to be able to transcend the miles with minimum effort. To think an old guy on the western shore in Maryland can write without the obstacle of slow delivery to a King in New Orleans; jazz savant and singer in Columbia in western Canada (I hope that Gus will respect that it's as difficult for me to write British Columbia as it is Londonderry as the name of the town either in Northern Ireland or my former neighboring state of New Hampshire. It’s difficult enough for a Harp to say that he or she comes from, or that his people voluntarily emigrated to, New England); passionate bluesman and musician in London; technological wizards, and eclectic music lovers and concert goers in Toronto and New Orleans, respectively, or even to collector and poster of fine music just thirty miles away here in the Free State! All this comes from guy who, as a confirmed Luddite, detests anti-Social Media such as Wastebook, yet forces himself to overcome fear of embarrassment and ridicule to note his inane and uninformed remarks here.
Again, your comments got me to seriously thinking about my aversion to celebratory emotional Christian music and I realized that, when one is raised in a tradition in which one is told that one observes or participates in religious worship out of duty and obligation, and is not supposed to enjoy it (the response my mother gave me whenever my young rheumatoid arthritic knees began to rebel against the pain of prolonged kneeling and my rear slid precariously close to leaning on the pew for relief), a religious experience which encompasses the unrestrained joy of folks filled with the spirit is very foreign and alarming at first but only because it makes the familiar so foreign and raises questions about what we may be missing.
Ironically, I discussed this topic and gospel music just last night with another Bostonian friend raised in the same Church land he, too, acknowledged that folks singing enthusiastically, speaking out spontaneously and loud in response to the equivalent of our priest, and dancing to express religious fervor struck him at first as dangerously uncontrolled and inappropriate. Religious anarchism, if you will. And that's without even discussing what the Church did to shape (or warp) our feelings about sex. Let's just say that all of my friends from my religious tradition are either observant or still reacting emotionally against the religious instruction of their youth no matter how distant in years or thought they believe they are from being influenced by the doctrine. The Soviets and Chinese had nothing over the ability of the nuns to indoctrinate. However, after reading your comment to those of us who expressed an instinctive negative reaction to the lyrics of gospel, I got to thinking that I had no problem listening to all of my Exuma the Obeah man or Haitian voodoo albums, Coltrane's "A Love Supreme" or Pharoah Sander's wonderful musical response “The Creator Has A Master Plan”, of course, with Leon Thomas’ warbling. A minor epiphany and realization of a double standard arose in the clouded mind of yours truly, if you will.
Sometimes when le Roi of this small musical royaume threatens to shut down for lack of comments, I think what a loss it would be because I find the commentary of you, Gus, P-Mac, Lazz, PresLives, and others whom I don't mention because of my senility, rather than any assumption about their lack of importance, as interesting and informative as the music and information Le Roi provides. There are a lot of great blogs around but that aspect of commitment and deeply held convictions about music that necessitate comments from so many interesting people are what make this one rare, indeed. As for me, I am always glad when I am forced to rethink my assumptions and look anew at something. I can tell you that there is one sister friend in Dallas who is smiling broadly at the thought of her northern Mick colleague looking at gospel anew. And you're right, le Roi presented the forum and music to promote the change but, still, your words provoked me to ask myself, "What gives, O'Broin? How can you dislike religious music from your own culture without listening to it yet have no qualms about enjoying and collecting the religious music of other cultures?" After all, being religious and a believer are not the issues, recognizing the worth of the music is.
As for your second remark, I have studied languages and linguistics since I was a teenager and majored in foreign languages in college but there is no doubt in my mind that music is a universal language that transcends the need for speech and reaches our innermost selves. Again, I thank you for your prior response because it allowed me to enjoy much more the music posted here Sundays. I am fortunate for that. (Man, if le Roi every begins charging me by the word, I’ll have to immediately file bankruptcy).
Another unknown (to me) treasure trove of classic Gospel! It's amazing how much Gospel has been recorded! Thanks so much for sharing this!
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.