Sunday morning gospel--The Crossroads Quartet

If you came here for country gospel, boy, are you in the exact right place--pull up a chair and sit a spell. (But, if it's winter when you're reading this, keep your shoes on.) This terrific gospel quartet was led by Arthur "Guitar" Smith (of Guitar Boogie fame), and these are some of their earliest recordings for MGM, as reissued in fake--i.e., "electronically enhanced"--stereo on MGM's Metro label. The LP is from 1965; the tracks date from 1954-1957.

And you won't have to endure the fake, pushed-to-one-channel effect produced by the Metro engineers--your blogger has restored these numbers to their original one-channel glory. Luckily, Metro's brand of fake stereo is easily undone.

It just occurred to me that fake stereo could just as easily be dubbed fake mono, which would linguistically work better with the concept of "restoring to...." That is, instead of claiming that I've restored fake stereo to mono, I could boast that I've returned fake mono to authentic mono. After all, "fake" stereo sounds like something yearning to become true stereo. Discuss amongst yourselves.

This is expertly done country gospel, and you're going to love it. It's hard to review tracks like these--better to put them up and let them work their considerable magic. I've always wanted to type "work their considerable magic." Is that a young Ed Schultz on the, er, far right?

Click here to hear: Crossroads Quartet--Inspirational Songs

TRACKLIST

I've Been with Jesus (1954)
The Old Hymns (1954)
Aren't You Glad You've Got Religion (1954)
The Sunshine of His Love (1954)
I Saw a Man (1954)
I've Heard About a City (1955)
The Fourth Man (1955)
Jacob's Ladder (1956)
You Are the Finger of God (1957)

(Metro MS-528; material from 1954-57)

Lee