A Salute to Gospel Music - Black Gospel & Southern Gospel...

I really like this.

Hezekiah Walker - Every Praise

Southern Gospel is an underappreciated genre IMHO, and has had an enormous impact on countless artists.

I'm not really a fan of current gospel music. The Blackwood Brothers, The Statesmen, The Stamps, The Speers, The Happy Goodmans, The Cathedrals, etc. are all top-notch.

Blackwood Brothers - Rolling, Riding, Rocking

The Cathedrals - Boundless Love

The Speers - I Shall Never Forget The Day

The Happy Goodmans - Shoutin' Sounds

Hovie Lister & The Statesmen - Heavenly Parade A young Elvis Presley was a huge fan of Big Chief, the bass singer, and stylistically modeled a lot of his early body language in the same fashion.

And for good measure, the Hee Haw Quartet put out some great gospel music:

Hee Haw Gospel Quartet - Blessed Jesus, Hold My Hand

A record I first heard via the great American Roots Radio show:



The Abyssinian Baptist Choir w/Alex Bradford - "Heaven Belongs To You"

Produced by John Hammond, who would discover a guy named Bob Dylan a couple of years later, and Bruce Springsteen a decade after that.

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What 120 Zealous Souls Can Do

The rhythm sections that toil behind gospel choirs can usually be found way in the back of the mix, providing unobtrusive backbeats designed to send the singing higher with as little fanfare as possible. Professor Alex Bradford, a stage personality, pianist, and singer who was the music minister at Newark's Abyssinian Baptist Church in the 1960s, alters that approach on this live recording, to thrilling effect. The musicians serve as catalysts, not accompanists—their crisp, unified attack sets the tone for the soloists. It galvanizes the choir. Runs the show.

The three mortals who make up this screaming locomotive of a rhythm section jolt the 120 Abyssinian voices out of the Sunday-services routine into near-ecstatic communication they sustain from the beginning of this disc to the end.

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Loaded with crackling call-and-response exchanges and outbreaks of intricately contrapuntal soul-clapping jubilation, these feature hot solo singing from Calvin White and Margaret Simpson, but they're never really solo vehicles. The choir is right there, contributing asides and shouts, blasting past doubt and despair with a contagious energy most often associated with the early days of rock and roll.

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LINK

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Southern Gospel is an underappreciated genre

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100% in agreement

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The Blackwood Brothers, The Statesmen, The Stamps, The Speers, The Happy Goodmans, The Cathedrals, etc. are all top-notch.

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Bill Gaither has done a great job of “reviving” an appreciation for this music. This is the gospel music I was raised on. My dad sang in a quartet and instilled the love of the harmony in me.

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no Rev. Al Green, or the 5 Blind Boys from Alabama?

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I didn’t take time to list everyone. I posted some of my favorites. Everyone can list more…

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Old Hickory

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You mentioned Elvis Presley. He was influenced greatly by Gospel music.

I love to listen to the recordings of Elvis singing gospel. Most already know this, but Elvis only won three Grammys and each for gospel music.

He won two Grammys for two of his gospel albums, How Great Thou Art in 1967 and He Touched Me in 1972. He also won a Grammy for a live performance in 1974 for How Great Thou Art.
I cherish my copy of the first Grammy Winner!



Elvis as well as Johnny Cash were adamant about recording gospel albums even when the record companies fought it.

Johnny Cash - I Was There When It Happened

The Carter Family was a big influence on gospel music. Some of the songs they've recorded have been covered by many. Two of the songs are Old Gospel Ship & I’m Working On A Building. The writer of some of these songs are unknown...Some are believed to be old negro spritiuals, but there is no true recorded basis of their origins.

Carter Family - Old Gospel Ship

Jewell Gospel Trio

Sons of Song

Joan Baez

Paul Simon

Mylon LeFevre

B Chase Williams




Carter Family - I'm Working On A Building

Bro. Joe Martin & the Sallie Martin Singers

Bill Monroe

BB King

Elvis Presley

Rare video footage of the post-Sam Cooke Soul Stirrers, with Paul Foster singing lead

"I'm A Pilgrim"

1)"He's Been A Shelter For Me" 2)"I'm A Soldier"