Today's selection, on Gloryland Records, was recorded at Rome Recording Studios in Columbus OH. When, I don't know, but I'm guessing 1970-ish. Remarkably, that recording site is still around, only it's now called Rome Recording, and it's moved from Columbus OH to a suburb thereof. I wonder if it still uses stock images for its front jackets. If it's still pressing vinyl, that is....
Good, solid group, good selections, and a pressing with issues. I believe this was sealed when I found it, which would rule out needle wear as the source of the thumps and wobbly channel balance in spots. Those two things could be caused by a huge stylus and someone leaning into the tonearm, but then the surface would look like a war zone, and this surface looks clean. Just a mildly defective pressing--nothing too major. I edited out the thumps, though I couldn't get rid of the swish or the semi-dropouts in the two channels. The latter are definitely a result of an inadequate pressing. But we can expect cheap pressings to sound... cheap. On occasion.
I'd call this country gospel, though it seems nowadays that nearly everything that involves a gospel quartet falls under the heading of Southern gospel. Which is okay with me, because I believe in erring on the side of inclusiveness and limiting the number of labels we're tossing around. But when there's an Appalachian, even bluegrass-y sound to the vocals (as there is here), but the background is conventional Southern gospel, I go for country gospel as the label. And I'm not sure that sentence made sense, but I'm getting tired, so I'll leave it be. The MAGIX portion of my editing took longer than I expected, given the less than terrific pressing, so this post didn't go nearly as smoothly or swiftly as I expected. There's a lesson there. Someplace. I have no idea what it is, but I'm sure there is one.
I'm always complaining about how gospel LPs never provide a left-to-right identification of the group members, so I'm happy to say this release parts with convention in that regard. The four folks at the top of the photo are tenor Leonard Preston (who write the title song), alto Louise Bowens, bass Jack Bowens, and lead L.T. Preston. Kneeling are bass and rhythm guitar player John Fox and piano player Jerry Thornhill. Drummer Rod Salyers (the newest member) gets his own photo below the main shot. See how easy that was? Why don't more of these albums do this?
Very good, very professional sounding country gospel, and I think it makes a nice contrast to the extremely down home material (no less good) that I've been putting up lately. And I'm right now spot-listening to next week's selection, and it's pure, solid Southern gospel, so I won't have to worry about labels. To our offering for this Sunday....
DOWNLOAD: The Gospel Bells Quartet--This Man Called Jesus
I Wanna Go There (Spiritual)
I Have Found Somebody (Garrison)
More to Go to Heaven For (Campbell)
I Saw the Man (Adams)
When I Walk on the Streets of Gold (Reeves)
What a Beautiful Day (Wilburn and Cook)
This Man Called Jesus (Leonard Preston)
Ready to Leave (Hemphill)
Hard Working Pilgrim (Unknown)
Look for Me at Jesus' Feet (Squire Parsons)
The Glory Road (Cook)
One Day at a Time (Kris Kristofferson-Mary John Wilkins)
This Man Called Jesus--The Gospel Bells Quartet (Gloryland Records 750722)
Lee
8 comments:
Hi there - "One Day at a Time" was first released in 1974, so this LP was issued after that date.
Thanks. I should have thought to look that up!
Didn't catch/latch? ( in the sense of "like", dunno how to translate my french thought with the acuity of it's sayin ) much of your gospel lately, but i sure loved this one, feels more bluegrass oriented to me. Thanks a lot!
I agree--very bluegrass-sounding in the vocals. The absence of banjo and mandolin would have many questioning the label, but there are no actual rules governing these things. Just the ones people make up to please themselves!
Indeed about labels, so many different things under a same label anyway. Depends if you're listening to the rhytmics, the instrument as you mentionned, the singing, or even what you're singing about ( since if you talk about / praise god, you're automatically in the Gospel block ) . Country Gospel works as fine for me :)
Lee,
Thanks for this good album. It's a little more down-home than the other songs I've heard from them in your previous posts, but still good ol' SGM to my ears! I'd say the vocals are a little more Bluegrassy as well, even the song selection with Hard Working Pilgrim thrown in there for good measure LOL! Yeah, I'd say the album is from about 1975 myself, even before reading Buster's first comment, given the song list. The Singing Echos of Cleveland, TN, were the first to record a Squire Parsons song, which was (in fact) Look For Me At Jesus' Feet, on their Come And See Me album, don't know when that was released though. The Kingsmen (not sure if I spelled that right) took and ran with it, on their Big And Live album, released in (I believe) 1973, which also had The Glory Road on it, which was written by Conrad Cook. The Kingsmen actually changed the last chorus of the Parsons song, from look to wait, can't remember how the song is listed on the album though, got it somewhere. Ironically, Squire Parsons sung Lead with them for a little while, a little later in the '70s, but more about that maybe another time, since my fingers are getting crossed up and I need to get two boys to bed, eat a bite, then hit the hay. Thanks again and 'til later, love and prayin' for ya!
Romans 11:33-36 KJB
Josh
Podcast: http://www.jeremiah616.sermon.net
Callcast: (563) 999-3967
Blog: http://www.brojoshowens.wordpress.com
Google Group: http://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/preacher-friends
Josh--Thanks for the info! And I didn't realize I'd previous put up some Gospel Bells tracks--I must have another LP sitting around. My problem is that I'm too organized! Actually, I posted them when I was doing my "favorite gospel record tracks" series, and that was too many LPs to remember. But I'll search my rows for their other effort and put it up. I was rushing to deadline with this post, which may be why it didn't occur to me to check on the original year for One Day at a Time. I wonder if it ran into copyright issues with the TV show, or vice-versa? (-: Anyway, great to hear from you, as always!
You're welcome Lee, glad to get ya to thinkin' LOL! Speaking of thinking, something I forgot to mention (probably because I'm not a big fan of the song in the first place), One Day At A Time as sung by The Thrasher Brothers (guess I spelled their name right), was Song Of The Year for 1975, so another way to date the album. Yeah, I've wondered the same thing about the TV show and song LOL! Hitting the hay, love and prayin' for ya!
Romans 11:33-36 KJB
Josh
Podcast: http://www.jeremiah616.sermon.net
Callcast: (563) 999-3967
Blog: http://www.brojoshowens.wordpress.com
Google Group: http://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/preacher-friends
Post a Comment