I'm always looking for outstanding family-gospel albums, and this one (thrifted from Volunteers of America for 90 cents) looked like a likely suspect: Cool group photo, great stock front-jacket art, and a promising song listing. And... it turns out to be terrific. The label is Reynolds Records (wonder how the Reynolds Family came up with that?), and the group's address is given as Route No. 1, Milton WV. Meanwhile, the back jacket tells us this was recorded in (ominous city name alert) Hurricane WV. Luckily for us, the album was manufactured by Queen City Albums of Cincinnati OH, which makes it easy to determine the exact date: July 25, 1968.
And things are a little weird in regard to the catalog number, since, in addition to using the matrix number (80725) as the main number, the label also says "Record No. 6801." I don't know what to make of this, but maybe I wasn't meant to.
There's a superb balance throughout, with the numbers consistently switching between uptempo "Hallelujah!"-type numbers and slower, soulful ones. The singing is very competent, and the instrumental blend is excellent. Whoever engineered this wasn't gifted in the editing department, with many instances of noise (in one case, loud hum) happening seconds before the tracks begin (and, sometimes, after). However, your friendly blogger/editor fixed these goofs so that you won't have to deal with them. The liner notes had me slightly confused at first, since they describe both the original and the then-current group line-up, but I think I got it straight: Clyde Reynolds--bass; Louise Reynolds--alto; daughter Betty Jean--lead and piano; daughter Carolyn--organ; Bob Morris--bass guitar and occasional lead; and Earl Higginbotham--tenor.
Great versions of Sweeter as the Days Go By, I Can Almost See the Lights of Home, and Ring the Bells of Heaven (by Albert Brumley and Marion Easterling, 1947--i.e., not the 19th century classic by that title), and just a generally fine program which had me in family-gospel heaven.
As for the front jacket scan, I have no idea why it turned out like that--I gave it two tries, with the same result (the second time practically in the dark). Maybe it's time for a new scanner. Anyway, time to let the Singing Reynolds Family be your friends. They will not disappoint.
DOWNLOAD: I'll Be a Friend--The Singing Reynolds Family (Reynolds Records 80725; 1968)
When Morning Sweeps the Sky
Closer to Thee
Ring the Bells of Heaven
I Can Almost See the Lights of Home
When Judgement Reaches Home
Glory, Glory, Amen
Sweeters as the Days Go By
Until You've Known
I'll Be a Friend to Jesus
Saviour Gently Take Me Home
Each Step I Take
Hallelujah
The Singing Reynolds Family--I'll Be a Friend (Reynolds Records 80725; 1968)
Lee
6 comments:
Just realized, Cincinnati is called the Queen City, yet King Records was based there. (Yes, my mind spends time pondering such things. It explains so much.)
Diane,
I never thought about that!
Hey Lee,
Are you talking about the color shift in the blue running vertically through the R in Reynolds? In my experience, you might be using some automatic settings on the scanner, so it exposes the two halves of the cover image differently. I run into the same things with my digital camera if I'm trying to shoot a stitched panorama. If you don't lock down the settings from one view to the next, the camera makes small adjustments to try and make a better picture for you each time, and then the individual pictures don't match. If you can fix all your settings to be the same from scan to scan, the colors between them should come out much closer. Easier said than done, but I don't think you need a new scanner. :)
Ernie,
Thanks! But, as far as I know, the settings stay in place, unless there's some feature I'm not aware of (which is possible)...
It might, but if there's any sort of automatic anything, it'll try to adjust your picture just for the fun of it. Took me a while to get my scanner to not do that...
I'm thinking that you're probably right. And, ironically, the fact that my scanner does this only occasionally would support the possibility of such a feature. There's probably some simple adjustment I can make. The scanner is quite old, but there should be an online manual...
Post a Comment