Classic gospel soul from 1971, with the scorcher Hang On In There.
The Sisters were former Ikettes, who sang back-up for Norman Greenbaum on Spirit In The Sky, versioned here.
Outstanding, laid-back gospel from 1979 — possessed by the sublimity of Bobby Womack — originally issued on its own S&K label by the Sanders family, from the Witness Of Jesus Christ church in Fresno, California.
The opener is the killer shit; knockout soul music about dying. We could listen to it for days on end.
Rough, wild slide-guitar blues. “He couldn’t play shit, but he sure made it sound good,” was the guitarist’s verdict on himself.
Halfway through Sadie, his ex tells him straight: ‘Hound Dog, I can’t use you any more.’ Taylor cries his heart right out into three solos. Terrific.
This is the summary
A scorcher from the golden age of gospel, via its cardinal label.
From 1960, during the family’s second decade with Savoy, featuring Gertrude Ward, Christine Jackson, Mildred Means and Vermettya Royster — and Clara, totally riveting and in-your-face with evangelistic fervour and raw soul.
Plus a rambunctious, floor-filling Wade In The Water, by Jessy Dixon and his Singers.
Handsomely sleeved (showing a contemporary but slightly different Wards lineup).
Dedicated ‘to the United Nations and especially young people’, this is slow-burning, steeply screwed, early-seventies Atlanta funk by James Conley and co, spun out of a line from Eliza Hewett’s nineteenth-century hymn, When We All Get To Heaven.
The flip is deadly, too: a super-soulful blend of Sly & The Family Stone with Kool & The Gang, movingly confused and sincere in its pleading (without threats or machismo) to be loved back.
Both sides come with instrumentals. Check part two of Get Together.
Beautifully sleeved.
Superb soulful gospel from 1986.
Thank You Lord is a Floating Points shot.
Johnnie ‘Who’s Making Love’ Taylor, Jimmie Outler, Paul Foster, S.R. Crain and James ‘Love Is a Five-Letter Word’ Phelps; the albums Jesus Be A Fence Around Me and Encore!!, plus seven tracks recovered from singles and a label compilation, and four previously unissued — all recorded between September 1959 and July 1964. With an excellent essay, which traces the Stirrers’ story to their formation in 1926.
Stealin in the name of the Lord… this is a terrific bargain.
A terrific example of gospel in the form of soul music, so prevalent in the mid-seventies.
A family group, the Browns were from Aberdeen, Mississippi. Annie was 11, A.R.C was 12, and Edward was 13 when they got their start, building a reputation by playing school talent shows and front yards.
“We were so strange and we were so young,” says Edward, “and a lot of people didn’t understand that.”
Fabulous, rough and rare early blues and country, including two unearthed Son House treasures, with an ace Crumb cover and nice booklet.
A Hamlet moment two hours long.
The second of three volumes presents sublime crossings of gospel with the soul, funk and jazz of the Black Power era. Twenty cuts dot dazzlingly between Muscle Shoals soul, screwed breakbeat, Mizells-style fusion, disco and proto-house. Triumphant re-workings of Sly Stone, Donny Hathaway and Herbie Hancock’s Head Hunters will have listeners throwing their pew cushions into the air.