Sunday morning gospel: The Country Gentlemen--One Wide River to Cross (1971)

Excellent bluegrass gospel from the famous Country Gentlemen, who happened to show up for me in one of the local Goodwill store bins.  Excellent musicians, all, but I nevertheless couldn't stand by and let them take the author and composer credits for One Wide River to Cross, I Am a Pilgrim, Little White Church, and definitely not Elisha A. Hoffman's 1878 Are You Washed in the Blood?  I'm fussy about such things, you know.  The first title is, in fact, a black spiritual, the second a famous folk hymn, the third a composition and text by one Charles Pleasant, and we've already discussed the fourth.  I don't know why gospel LPs so often play such games with the song credits.  Oh, and speaking of, I have no idea who "LaRue" might be--his or her name was placed behind Albert E. Brumley's Rank Stranger and H.W. Ballew and Mrs. L.L. Brackett's mega-classic He Will Set Your Fields on Fire.  I didn't check out Sunny Side of Life, which is credited to the group--we'll just assume it's theirs.  It's not Keep on the Sunny Side of Life (Ada Blenkhorn and J. Howard Entwisle), anyway. 

The seven numbers attributed to the group or to "LaRue" are all followed by asterisks, the function of which the back jacket does not make clear.  Maybe it means "arranged by"?

The Rebel label of Mt. Rainier, Maryland obviously issued this LP in so-called compatible stereo--"This record will play on stereo or hi-fi phonographs," says the cover.  This, of course, meant that listeners of 1971 who still had monaural pickups didn't have to switch out to a stereo model.  Very nice stereo in these grooves, as far as the dual-pickup variety goes, and the music has the typical drive of bluegrass gospel--it faithfully chugs along in the best top-tapping fashion, even if the vocals don't have quite the mountain sound of Carl Story, Bill Monroe, or Wilma Lee and Stoney Cooper.  The vocalists try, however.

According to Wikipedia, the Country Gentlemen were a progressive bluegrass band.  I'll take Wiki's word for it, though the Gentlemen seem to be covering the same stylistic ground as Story, Monroe, the Stanley Brothers, and other famous "traditional" bluegrass names.  I didn't have to time to study up on the distinction(s) between conventional and "progressive" bluegrass, so I'll get back to you on that.  It's possible that the Gentlemen's less rural sound is the reason for the progressive label, because otherwise they sound to me like the real deal.

To the bluegrass:

DOWNLOAD: The Country Gentlemen: One Wide River to Cross (Rebel SLP-1479; 1971)

One Wide River to Cross

Born Again

Heaven

Sunny Side of Life

Gone Home

Little White Church

I Am a Pilgrim

Rank Stranger

He Will Set Your Fields on Fire

Weapon of Prayer

Using My Bible for a Road Map

Are You Washed in the Blood of the Lamb

Lee