The Complete Blind Willie Johnson
Average Customer Review:
Audio CD (27 April, 1993)
list price: $19.98 -- our price: $14.99
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Editorial Review

In the history of recorded blues and spirituals, there is no greater singer and songwriter than Blind Willie Johnson. With a vocal delivery ranging from raw rage to tenderness wedded to his talking guitar, Blind Willie's recordings are as powerful today as when he made them, from 1927 to 1930. Listen to monuments "Motherless Children Have a Hard Time," "I Just Can't Keep from Crying," "It's Nobody's Fault but Mine," and the otherworldly "Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground," and try to find equally visceral conviction any other place or time. His "If I Had My Way I'd Tear The Building Down" which got him arrested when Blind Willie unknowingly sang it in front of a U.S. government building in Dallas, became a '60s icon. Years later, he caught pneumonia, but when treatment was sought, he was told the hospital did not treat blind people, so he returned home and died. --Alan Greenberg ... Read more

Reviews (22)

God moves on the water
The astonishing double negative of "God Don't Never Change," with its existential contradiction, sums up why this collection should be in the home of every gospel music lover in the world. Johnson's songs encompass the entire spectrum of spiritual experience from despair to hope to acceptance to mystical transcendence. & he leaves no doubt that he's been through all of it. Inspired by God's love, these songs, the singing, the guitar playing, are absolutely revelatory. Of course, Blind Willie Johnson is listened to mostly in the spirit of dispassionate appreciation by blues afficionados. Believers will have that plus the added pleasure of knowing what's really going on here. "Everybody Ought To Treat a Stranger Right" takes sound Gospel advice & makes it a request for spare change. "John the Revelator" kicks like rock & roll. "God moves on the water," indeed!

An effecting, amazing body of work
The gospel music of Blind Willie Johnson is heartfelt, intense, at times deeply sad, moving and joyful.Some of the songs are almost impossible not to sing along with - but you don't want to because his amazing voice and slidework demand your attention.

You'll find Mr. Johnson's work in the music of other artists - Ry Cooder uses a similar lick in the Paris, Texas soundtrack as you hear on Dark Was the Night - Cold Was the Ground.The Blasters did a version of If I Had My Way I'd Tear the Building Down but I prefer Mr. Johnson's version.I'm sure there are other examples but I can't think of them at the moment.An amazing tribute to a man who recorded only 30 songs and died in obscurity.The music is particularly poignant in light of the few details we have of Mr. Johnson's life.

For any collector of gospel and blues music this is a must-have album and the $14.99 for a two CD set is a steal, literally.

Wow!
I just recently got this, and I am very sorry that I didn't sooner. If you're debating whether or not to get this CD, you probably already know a good deal about the blues. So...Blind Willie Johnson sings like Charlie Patton sometimes, and other times really softly, as in his unique "Dark was the Night..." His slide playing is great, and the female vocalist sounds great and adds intensity to his growling. He is completly different stylistically from Skip James, but you will probably like him if you like (early) James because I'd say that he is equally intense. ... Read more

Asin: B0000028QB
Subjects:  1. Acoustic Texas Blues    2. Blues    3. Blues Gospel    4. Pop    5. Prewar Gospel Blues    6. Slide Guitar Blues    7. Texas Blues   

American Primitive, Vol. 1: Raw Pre-War Gospel (1926-36)
Average Customer Review:
Audio CD (21 October, 1997)
list price: $16.98 -- our price: $16.98
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Editorial Review

Ignore the low fidelity of this 26-track compendium, and you have one of the most interesting gospel compilations ever released. Most of these songs were recorded among a variety of "race" labels between 1926 and 1936, mostly for Paramount and Vocalion. Copious liner notes provide the needed details for each track, along with an essay by label chief/folk legend John Fahey. Soundwise, some of these tunes are indeed primitive--there are more hisses and pops than a Mongolian BBQ. But underneath the surface noises, in tracks by Elder J.J. Hadley (a.k.a. Charley Patton), Washington White (a.k.a. Bukka White), and Blind Roosevelt Graves, there's something magical. Apparently, '26 to '36 saw a newfound interest in sacred street singers that, in turn, inspired record labels to hire blues artists to work under aliases. Whatever the motivation, these tracks are testimonies to a nearly lost era of great musicianship. --Jason Verlinde ... Read more

Reviews (7)

Just buy it, you'll life will be better for it...
Albums like this make me feel great and really bummed out at the same time. Great because this music is as pure, raw and unpop as you can get, just amazingly real, but bummed because real music like this is gone and dead. At least we have these records of a time before proffesionalism and corporations destroyed music (and everyother art form).
I don't beleive in god or religion, but this is still one of my fave cds, heck if there was music like this in churches nowadays, i'd be going to church all the time. So don't let the term Gospel turn you off, this doesn't sound like Gospel, it's only gospel cause they mention jesus once and a while.

The music's great, find better copies of the 78s to transfer
Obviously the music presented here is really great. My only beef is the really poor condition of some of the 78s used. I know this stuff is really rare, but I bet there are cleaner copies of these records out there. Is it supposed to be important that these are John Fahey's 78s? It's not to me. I don't have much music of this type, but I found a much cleaner copy of the Jaybird Coleman track on an old Biograph LP called "This Old World's In A Hell Of A Fix." Even dubbing the version off this LP would have been better that the severely damaged copy of the 78 used for this CD. I wonder if their Charley Patton CD box set was also produced with poor condition 78s like these?

Another Outstanding Revenant Compilation
Revenant has issued some of the best old music compilations: Dock Boggs' "Country Blues," the Stanley Brothers' first recordings, the Anthology of American Folk Music Vol. 4 (not to mention the upcoming super-definitive collection of Charley Patton recordings: "Screamin' and Hollerin' the Blues).Great, obscure music, and inventive, eye-catching packaging.

This compilation is no exception.This is the most astounding collection of old-time gospel and sacred music ever compiled. From the bone-shattering sacred songs of Charley Patton (as the Elder J.J. Hadley) to the sublime Blind Roosevelt Gravesto the strange Rev. I. B. Ware.....there is simply no weak tune here.The title isn't misleading: this is as raw as you can get.Sanctified and rockin' and spine-tingling, this is simply one great album! ... Read more

Asin: B000001Z3Z
Subjects:  1. Black Gospel    2. Country Blues    3. Gospel    4. Pop    5. Prewar Country Blues    6. Prewar Gospel Blues    7. Traditional Gospel   

Southern Journey, Vol. 9: Harp Of A Thousand Strings - All Day Singing From The Sacred Harp
Average Customer Review:
Audio CD (13 January, 1998)
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Editorial Review

If you had to choose just one Sacred Harp disc to own, this would be it. Volume 10 in the Southern Journey series may have more fuguing selections, but this is the best overall for its startling, briskly recorded stereo sound--no mean feat for a field recording from 1959! In addition to songs like "Cussetta," the always great "Weeping Mary," and "Montgomery," there are snippets of testimonials and confessions placed throughout. So you get to hear Harp singer Joyce Smith declare, "A lot of times a preacher will get up and preach and it don't seem like it has any effect on anybody. But you let a band of God's children get together and get to singing--people's gonna feel it." --Mike McGonigal ... Read more

Reviews (4)

overwhelming hymnody
After hearing a few sacred harp tunes on the anthology of American folk music, I knew I had to hear more and purchased southern journey volume 10.While that disc flabbergasted me with its fantastic sound and large number of fuging tunes, I purchased more sacred harp discs and must say that I prefer volume 9.There seems to be more variation between the songs included, and it just feels like the singers really hit their stride in most of these songs.While I think both discs are extremely worthwhile, there's just something about volume 9 that makes it a bit more rewarding.I am not a Christian or a very religious person, but this music has enough conviction to imbueanyone with some sort of religious appreciation.This disc allows for a moving experience of joy and glory by proxy, and you know by listening to it that these people put their all into the performance.

A little too authentic for me
Everything that was written in the other reviews is essentially correct; the songs are great and passionately sung.However, being a newcomer to Sacred Harp music, and having heard only the clean and crisp sound of the Cold Mountain soundtrack songs, I was hoping for higher quality sound on this disc.I can't say I wasn't warned by the other reviewers, but I didn't realize how distracting the sour notes and poor sound balance would be for me.If you are looking for an authentic sound, this is the cd for you; if you think you might be distracted by the imperfections, look elsewhere.

Manages to articulate something ineffable and wonderous!
I happened upon this disc after becoming re-acquainted with shape note singing via the recently released "Cold Mountain" soundtrack. Wow. There is something thrilling, something visceral and yet greater than oneself, that is provoked upon listening to this wonderful and strange music. This is definitely not the Boston Camerata, so please don't buy it hoping to hear something glossy, high-church and perfectly executed. This is simply rousing, foot-stopping spiritual music sung by real god-fearing folk. Something in this music evoked a certain Proustian nostalgia in this Appalachian woman, reminding me of attending church with my elderly aunt at the tiny Baptist church in Cyrus, West Virginia as a small child--a church so small that the minister was a circuit preacher who rotated between several congregations. That congregation had something of the enthusiasm rendered on this disc-- I listened with tears streaming down my face. I highly reccommend this recording to anyone interested in musical ethnography, or in simply hearing the word of God sung with full-out enthusiasm and joy. ... Read more

Asin: B0000002UQ
Subjects:  1. 50's    2. Field Recordings    3. Folk & Traditional    4. Folksongs    5. Gospel    6. Italian Folk    7. Pop    8. Southern Gospel    9. Traditional Folk    10. Work Songs