The World Famous Blue Ridge Quartet Sing the Old-Time Gospel

Rimrock Records put this out in at least two other editions, both with much cooler covers--I got stuck with the drab one.  But the music is fabulous.  This was one of the first LPs to turn me on to gospel music (around 1990/1991)--Bev had bought it and asked me to put it on cassette for her car player.  I was blown away by it (the LP, not the player, which wasn't bad, either).  I was just starting as a church organist, not counting my time in the Navy playing for the services on the base in Edzell, Scotland.  But I didn't have much of a background in hymns, and the only gospel-style hymns I knew were Rock of Ages, The Old Rugged Cross, Leaning on the Everlasting Arms, and a few others.  My biological family was not exactly a church family.  But Bev had a few gospel songbooks from 1911 or so (bought at antique fairs), and she suggested that, as volunteer organist, I play some of the "old tunes" mentioned by our elderly retired pastor--tunes he felt we should still be singing (Bev and John totally agreed).  Those included Send the Light--which, by now, I can't remember ever not knowing, even though I spent half my life unaware of its existence!  As I sensed right off in my church-organist duties, gospel songs are a type of sacred song, the first examples popping up around 1840, according to scholars, and probably with campmeeting roots.  It's the difference between Revive Us Again and When the Roll is Called Up Yonder and Now Thank We All Our God and O Worship the King.  And there are an amazing number of almost-gospel numbers, like Oliver Holden's Coronation (1793), which was one of the pre-Lowell Mason "fuging tunes" that Mason, Thomas Hastings, and others tried to replace with more "correct" numbers which, ironically, now sound very gospel.

No modern hymnal version of Coronation (All Hail the Power of Jesus' Name) retains the brief "fuging" section, so you'd need an old, old tunebook (or find one on line) to behold the tune as originally penned.  Despite the term, "fuging" tunes are thought to have been inspired by motets.  No fuging tunes in this collection, but they are a part of gospel history, imo.

Today's numbers totally justify the "old-time" in the LP title--older numbers like Power in the Blood, Will the Circle Be Unbroken, No Not One (they skip the punctuation), Angel Band, and 1899's There Is Power in the Blood, which a close evangelical friend from my Navy days considers "okay for a song that sounds like a soap commercial."  I get his point, and I love it anyway!  The bluegrass mega-standard Angel Band came into the world as The Land of Beulah (text: 1860, music: 1862), and, just to be showing it, here's a scan from my copy of P.P. Bliss and Ira Sankey's Gospel Hymns No. 2 (1876):

The LP pulls the usual routine of crediting all of the public-domain numbers to the arranger, so I've looked up all the actual credits and placed them in the playlist.  The E.M. (Eugene Monroe) Bartlett credits are a bit confusing.  Being more recent than the other numbers, they were still in copyright when this LP was made (1968, says one Discogs page), so Bartlett was listed rather than some arranger.  In fact, his numbers (see scans) were credited to "Bartlett-Brumley."  But which Brumley?  Given the age of the numbers, it would have to be Albert E. Brumley, but I've found nothing to support Albert having composed the tunes for the three Bartlett titles.  The "Brumley" could just as easily refer to publishers Albert E. Brumley and Sons.  I'm thinking that's the case.  Anyway, we know for sure Bartlett was there, so I gave him sole credit.  Same with Loy E. Foust.  Jesus Whispers Peace was credited to "Croots-Brumley,"  but Eldridge Murphy is the one credit I could confirm.  Ahhhh, confusion.

As far as I can tell, The Life Boat is one of those unknown-authorship deals where authorship claims have been made but not confirmed.  Will the Circle be Broken is the 1907 Charles Gabriel classic, not the Carter Family variation (?) which starts, "I was standing by the window, On one cold and cloudy day...", which they recorded as Can the Circle be Unbroken?  I've long regarded this number as just another popular gospel title swiped by A.P. Carter and thereafter mistaken for a folk number and/or a Carter composition, like 1899's Keep on the Sunny Side of Life (which A.P. would have had to have written when he was eight!).  But after buying and hearing the 1928 black gospel recording by Rev. J.C. Burnett (a marvelous side), I'm wondering if maybe it did start as a folk number, after all, despite Burnett's recording coming 11 years after the publishing of the Gabriel title.  It could well have been something that was floating around.  So, did Gabriel swipe the number?  Well, tune similarities will happen, and happen often, when tune writers are putting simple tunes over the three primary triads, plus maybe a secondary dominant, and churning them out like crazy.  And, as in country music, stock phrases abound in gospel.  So... who knows.

Update: Though Lord Lead Me On is often attributed to a Kenneth Tuttle (or, as on this disc, to no one at all!), its words and tune are by Marion W. Easterling.  Cleanse Me is much better known as Search Me, O God, its 1936 words by J. Edwin Orr, who used a Maorian melody.  Many thanks to Josh, who alerted me to the fact that my written playlist was four titles short!  I just now filled them in (it is the evening of July 1).  I blame my bronchitis.  I'm currently on meds after a weekend trip to the local urgent care and am feeling much better.

A superb collection, superbly performed.  And it was a milestone in my life, and a favorite of my late foster parents.  An absolute gem.





DOWNLOAD:  The BRQ Sing the Old-Time Gospel





Who Is that (E.M. Bartlett)
Life's Railway to Heaven (M.E. Abbey-Charles D. Tillman)
No Not One (Johnson Oatman, Jr.-George C. Hugg)
Angel Band (Jefferson Hascall-William B. Bradbury)
Near the Cross (Fanny Crosby-William B. Bradbury)
Will the Circle Be Unbroken (Ada R. Habershon-Charles H. Gabriel)
There'll Be Shouting (E.M. Bartlett)
There's Power in the Blood--real title: There Is Power in the Blood (Lewis E. Jones)
The Life Boat (Jno. R. Bryant?)
Over the Silent Sea (Loy E. Foust)
How Beautiful Heaven Must Be (Cornelia Bridgewater-Andy Bland)
Jesus Whispers Peace (Eldridge Murphy)
I'm in Love with Jesus (E.M. Bartlett)
Just a Little While (E.M. Bartlett)
Cleanse Me (aka Search Me, O God) (J. Edwin Orr-Tune: "Maori")
Shall We Gather at the River (Robert Lowry)
Lord Lead Me On (Marion W. Easterling)
Leaning on the Everlasting Arms (Hoffman-Showalter)

The World Famous Blue Ridge Quartet Sing the Old-Time Gospel (Rimrock RLP 1005; 1968?)


Lee