How Sweet It Was—The Sights and Sounds of Gospel’s Golden Age

2010: Shanachie 6901-CD

1. Stand by Me

   Sister Rosetta Tharpe / 1941

2. I Am Bound for Canaan Land

   Silas Steele and the Famous Blue Jay Singers / 1947

3. How Sweet It Is

   Professor J Earle Hines and the St Paul Baptist Church Choir / 1948

4. No Room at the Inn

   Sam McCrary and the Fairfield Four / 1951

5. Somebody Touched Me

   Edna Gallmon Cooke and the Radio Four / 1953

6. My Imagination of Heaven

   Morgan Babb and the Radio Four / 1955

7. He’s a High-Class Physician

   Marion Williams / 1959

8. I Thank You Lord

   B R H Harris and the Soul Stirrers / 1947

9. I’m Waiting for Jesus

   The Georgia Peach and Lois Russell / 1947

10. We Shall Walk through the Valley

    Madame Ernestine B Washington / 1948

11. Medley: Going On with the Spirit / Didn’t It Rain

    Mahalia Jackson / 1951 (previously unreleased)

12. Will My Jesus Be Waiting

    Archie Brownlee and the Five Blind Boys of Mississippi / 1952

13. The Pilgrim’s Song

    Clara Ward / 1951

14. Stand by Me

    Imogene Green and the Famous Davis Sisters / 1952 (previously unreleased)

15. I’m Not Uneasy

    Ira Tucker and the Dixie Hummingbirds / 1953

16. These Are They

    Mahalia Jackson / 1952 (previously unreleased)

17. Medley: What Could I Do / Search Me Lord

    Brother Joe May / 1953 (previously unreleased)

18. Satisfied

    Eugene Smith and the Roberta Martin Singers / 1949

19. The Angels Keep Watching over Me

    Albertina Walker and the Caravans / 1955 (previously unreleased)

20. When the Gates Swing Open

    Inez Andrews / 1966

21. John Saw

    Reverend Robert Ballinger and the Gospel Chimes / 1963

22. Dot’s Testimony, Part Two

    Dorothy Love Coates / 1969 (previously unreleased)

23. Coming Home [some distortion]

    Dorothy Love and the Original Gospel Harmonettes; and Claude Jeter and the Swan Silvertones / 1953 (previously unreleased and should have stayed that way)

24. The Prodigal Son

    Ruth Davis and the Famous Davis Sisters / 1964 (previously unreleased)

25. Jesus Met the Woman at the Well

    Sister Rosetta Tharpe / 1969 (previously unreleased)

26. Something Within Me

    Marion Williams / 1984 (previously unreleased)

This is the companion CD to the DVD compilation which first attracted me (specifically because of the Meditation Singers’ fantastic and rollicking “Sanctified Lord” and Sister Rosetta Tharpe’s blistering guitar work on “Up Above My Head I Hear Music in the Air”). I haven’t had a chance yet to give the CD more than a single play-through, but even that once was enough to alert me to this tip I pass along to you: SKIP TRACK 23, which is so excruciating as to be almost unlistenable both aesthetically and aurally.

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Comments © 2019 Mark Ellis Walker, except as noted, and no claim is made to the images and quoted lyrics.