Editor's info:
From the extraordinary recordings of the true guitar evangelists Blind Willie Johnson and Reverend Gary Davis to classic spiritual renditions by legendary bluesmen Charley Patton, Blind Lemon Jefferson and Skip James, this handpicked selection highlights the mutual influence between Gospel and blues.

At first glance, the musical genres of gospel and blues have little in common, with one calling to mind spiritual joy and hope in a higher power and the other rooted in the secular world of pain that lacks a divine outlet. However, on closer inspection one soon realises that the blues and spirituals flowed from the same bedrock of experience, and that neither was an adequate interpretation of life without the other. As different as these genres may seem, they both share the expression of aching hearts and troubled minds. The blues are secular spirituals, or as T-Bone Walker put it, ‘The blues are just gospel turned inside out.’

As the market grew for blues records during the 1920s, a black audience developed in parallel for religious songs and sermons. Consequently, many famous bluesmen including Charley Patton, Blind Lemon Jefferson and Blind Willie McTell recorded spiritual songs, often under different pseudonyms, to avoid offending the church, who wouldn’t look favourably on confusing the music of worship with that of the devil. Despite the image of the hard-drinking and hard-living early bluesmen, there were many that held on to some vestiges of their faith from their early years of church-going and included religious songs in their richly varied repertoires. The belief in the power of faith and the possibility of redemption meant that however much they enjoyed the good times of the juke joint there was always the possibility of a return to the path of God.

Reverend Gary Davis was one who abandoned the blues to exclusively sing gospel, which he accompanied with a complex ragtime-inf.......
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tracklista wersji winylowej:
1. Reverend Gary Davis: The Angels Message To Me (3:04)
2. Blind Willie Johnson: Lord I Just Can't Keep From Crying (3:03)
3. Skip James: Jesus Is A Mighty Good Leader (3:01)
4. Blind Willie And Kate McTell: God Don't Like It (2:45)
5. Mississippi John Hurt: Blessed Be The Name (2:48)
6. Blind Mamie Forehand: Honey In The Rock (2:41)
7. Rev. Edward W. Clayborn: This Time Another Year You May Be Gone (2:53)
8. Josh White: Jesus Gonna Make Up My Dying Bed (3:04)
9. Blind Lemon Jefferson: He Arose From The Dead (2:47)
10. Mother McCollum: You Can't Hide (2:34)
11. Charley Patton And Bertha Lee: Oh Death (2:52)
12. Blind Gussie Nesbit: Pure Religion (3:21)
13. Washington Phillips: Denomination Blues - Parts 1 & 2 (5:34)

Editor's info:
From the extraordinary recordings of the true guitar evangelists Blind Willie Johnson and Reverend Gary Davis to classic spiritual renditions by legendary bluesmen Charley Patton, Blind Lemon Jefferson and Skip James, this handpicked selection highlights the mutual influence between Gospel and blues.

At first glance, the musical genres of gospel and blues have little in common, with one calling to mind spiritual joy and hope in a higher power and the other rooted in the secular world of pain that lacks a divine outlet. However, on closer inspection one soon realises that the blues and spirituals flowed from the same bedrock of experience, and that neither was an adequate interpretation of life without the other. As different as these genres may seem, they both share the expression of aching hearts and troubled minds. The blues are secular spirituals, or as T-Bone Walker put it, ‘The blues are just gospel turned inside out.’

As the market grew for blues records during the 1920s, a black audience developed in parallel for religious songs and sermons. Consequent.......
more