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

Hits a Poppin' (Prom 212)--Sugar Beat, Pat Vale, Donnie Rounds. (Donnie Rounds??)

And so we have a new batch of fake hits.  A new album of fake hits, to be more precise.  1959 is the year, and the guilty party is the Synthetic Plastics Co., on its Prom label.  Discogs disagrees with me on the "label" part, noting on its Prom page: "Not a label but a company.  Please only use for manufacturing credits etc."  Synthetic Plastics Co. is listed as the parent label of Prom.  Wikipedia, meanwhile, calls SPC a "manufacturing company."  Ohhhh-kay.  Well, I'm going to continue regarding Prom as a label in the SPC stable, and that was an unintentional rhyme (label in the stable)--but a very good one.  Oddly enough, two of these Prom tracks showed up on Broadway Records, though I know of no Broadway/SPC connection.  More on that later.

As you can see by the scans, no artist credits appeared on this album, so I referred to my EP singles on the Promenade label (same as Prom, basically), and now we know who sang and/or played what--according to Prom, at least.  (See playlist.)  And we can be fairly sure some of the names weren't for real.  I mean, "Sugar Beat"?  "Jennie Feathers"also sounds fake, though who can say?  I will say that Jennie doesn't sound like a Jennie.  And we have the named-after-the-label Promineers, and we have Glitters.  Not "The Glitters," but "Glitters."  It's a group, so logically there should have been a "The," but the Promenade EP label credit just says "Glitters."  Logic plays no role in the Cheap Label Zone.

The EP track credit that really has me wondering is "Donnie Rounds."  Donnie Rounds??  That's the person or outfit credited for Theme from A Summer Place, the Max Steiner composition from the hit 1959 film.  A theme featuring clinking triplets--from the man who gave us the King Kong soundtrack!  Anyway, Donnie Rounds?

Donnie Rounds?  Better than Ronnie Dounds, I guess.

To my surprise, this LP's version of El Paso also showed up on Broadway Records.  So did this LP's version of Way Down Yonder...  What kind of shake-up happened in 1959?  What are we witnessing here?

The bonus tracks are all fake versions of Way Down Yonder..., starting with the edited-down version that appeared on Promenade EP A-55-112, and continuing with the versions on Broadway Records and the Evon label--both the same performance, except that the Evon clocks in at about 2:27 and the Broadway at 1:26.  These junk labels did expert track-trimming, something we might not have expected, given their tiny budgets.  And considering the fact that, in those days, editing meant splicing and rejoining magnetic tape.  I'm only now realizing how frequently cheap-label fakes were trimmed down to fit cramped EP groove space.  Makes sense.  I just wouldn't have thought they were so skilled at it.

A thirteen-track playlist.  And it's not even Halloween!






DOWNLOAD: Hits a Poppin' (Prom 212)




Harbor Lights--The Promineers
Way Down Yonder in New Orleans--Pat Vale
Theme from a Summer Place--Donnie Rounds
El Paso--Bill Baron
Handy Man--Michael Reed
Beyond the Sea--Jim Everett
Country Boy--Sugar Beat
Down by the Station--Glitters
Little Bitty Girl--Dottie Grey
You've Got What it Takes--Jennie Feathers
Way Down Yonder in New Orleans--No credit (Broadway 181; 45 rpm EP)
Way Down Yonder in New Orleans--Pat Vale (Promenade A-55-112; 45 rpm EP)
Way Down Yonder in New Orleans--Stumpy Anderson and his Stompers (Let's All Do the Twist--Evon 351)


Lee

Kipepeo Publishing--Nineteen of my rips, stolen and offered as CDs at Amazon

I have a respiratory infection going, and I'm hoping it doesn't get worse.  I've been too dazed and drained to get a post together.

Anyway, reader Steph Lambert just alerted me to this.  A joint called Kipepeo Publishing ripped off two ninetten of my posts, including my jacket scans, and are selling them at Amazon.  I'm not kidding:

Nineteen of my rips, stolen and placed on Amazon

The release dates the first two are June 26, 2019. The posts were June 18 and June 21.  Just counted seventeen more.  Those creeps have stolen a boatload of my files.

Thanks, Kipepeo Publishing.   Naturally, I did all that work so you could use it to turn a profit.  Discogs gives a page to these folks.

Should I leave reviews at each rip-off, letting buyers know where they came from?

Oh, and more fun.  Windows 10, this time.  Windows Live Mail is no longer supported, so Microsoft has this new, embarrassingly cheap-looking program.  Well, I was wondering why it was taking stuff so long to show up in my inbox, so I found out I had to go into Settings and adjust the "sync."  Or something like that.  Just what I'm "syncing" with, I have no idea.  Email goes out and it comes in.  Do the send and receive rhythms have to align with the moons of Jupiter or something?

 Anyway, the program was defaulted to check for new email... every two hours.  I've reduced that to 15 minutes.  I've synced it.  With Father Time, I guess.



Lee

Sunday post in progress

Hopefully, I'll get a Sunday gospel offering up today.  It's the Blue Ridge Quartet on the Rimrock label--a great LP that I've been loving for 30 years now.  Had you asked me at any point before yesterday for a description of the thing, I'd have called it a fine collection of old-time gospel songs--in fact "the old-time gospel" is part of the title.  So what a surprise, when researching the numbers, to discover that about half were actually written around the same time the LP was released (possibly 1968).  That's maybe "old-time" in the life of an insect with a two-week lifespan, but otherwise it's an epic misuse of the phrase, even by gospel LP standards.  Half of the selections are gospel oldies, which may explain my decades-long confusion.  And I'm just now noticing this.  It shows you how much we can miss if we're not listening or looking closely enough.  Or how much I can miss.  Whatever.

So, the write-up I thought would take me maybe 20 minutes became two hours or more, and I just finally let it wait for today.  I'll probably start from scratch, using the data I've found so far.  The time I spent on the post is part of the reason that, when the alarm went off this morning, it took me about a full minute to realize what that sound was.  Three hours of sleep is better than three minutes, I suppose, but it's still not ideal.  Without caffeine, I wouldn't have been able to function at the church organ.  Save for snoring, my face on the music.  And my hands probably resting on the keys, playing a nonstop, Schoenberg-sounding chord.

Hopefully, I'll get the post done today.  Info on the traditional numbers is a piece of cake; the newer stuff, nothing close.  Twice, where I've encountered more than one song with a given title, I've had to search using the opening lines.  And the credits on the LP label are a mess.

Ahhhh, Sunday....


Lee

Three tracks from last time, in much better (mono) sound

If anyone wants the entire LP pictured above (ripped, not mailed to you), I can probably do that.  But for this post, I've grabbed only Country Boy (a fake version of the Fats Domino hit) from it.  Wings of a Dove and Running Bear were taken from two other Prom LPs (one of which doesn't bother to list its label title!), so now we have these three tracks in much better sound than before.  Which is to say, no fake stereo this time around.

No artist credits, as usual.  The singles would have had (likely fake) artist credits, and I'm about to check at 45cat, except my username and password are not working--that's wonderful.  I just changed the password using their procedure, and they are still refusing to let me log in.  I sent them a message asking why this is happening.  "Do you want members or not?"  You might be able to tell I'm slightly angry.

And 45cat's Prom section is pathetically bare.  I could double or triple it with my own input--though, of course, they'd have to let me in for that to happen.  And then my info probably wouldn't take.  Discogs is less of a mess, but searching for anything there is a nightmare unless it's a straightforward hunt--label, name.  Even then, you might end up with a thousand useless results.  Fine-tune my search, you say?  Yeah, but there's that word--search.  It means you're looking for something.  If I knew the precise, pick-from-500-options search parameters to choose, maybe I wouldn't have to be looking in the first place.  I go there to find information, not confirm it.  It's like having to know the meaning of a word before you can look it up in the dictionary.

Sites of this type need to become organized or call it a day.  The internet is a potentially wonderful network of stored data--too bad we haven't figured out how to manage that data. Computers, alone or connected together, would function better without human ineptitude getting in the way.





DOWNLOAD: Three tracks from last time, in better sound





Country Boy--Hits a Poppin' (Prom 212)
Running Bear--Top Hits (Prom 112)
Wings of a Dove--Top Hits 116 (No label name; probably Prom)



Lee