After being virtually ignored in the CD age, we are now finally seeing quite a number of great releases, particularly golden age hard gospel quartet releases. Although the Acrobat label appears to have disappeared, they had time to get on disc for the first time classic recordings from groups like the The Spirit of Memphis, Blind Boys of Mississippi, and Fairfield Four. The last project was a dream reissue of 45s from the Peacock label oddly entitled "Texas Gospel." I guess this is because the Duke/Peacock label was based in Houston, although the most of groups recorded were not from Texas. There are 5 volumes of Texas (Peacock) Gospel: the first two are single CD releases, while the latter three are packaged together.
I had been boycotting the JSP label due to what I believed was unethical theft of the remastering work of other labels, which was then used to capture their markets with budget releases that exploit the European copyright laws. Well, my boycott is now over.
. I don't know of any recent examples of such theft, and JSP seems to have stepped up the quality of their packages, often filling important gaps in available music. Their recent packages of Nat King Cole and Django radio broadcasts are cases in point. There are now quite a number of great gospel packages, including Nuggets (a great package of diverse recordings from the golden age) and their fine packaging of pre-war gospel classics. The below appears to be the latest entry, a truly fantastic box set of gospel recordings from independent labels, many of which are quite obscure:
I believe that Rene brought to our attention not long ago this release of Pitch/Gusman recordings of the local quartet scene around Savannah, Georgia in the 60s and 70s. Somehow, I forgot about it and just now got around to picking it up. INCREDIBLE! There are fabulous performances here from quartets, most of which I had never heard of before. Some of the songs literally moved me to tears:
There is also the fabulous 3-CD set of mostly post-war rural down home gospel - Fire in My Bones. Ironically, as the CD age comes to a close, gospel is finally getting its due!
Muddy
I had been boycotting the JSP label due to what I believed was unethical theft of the remastering work of other labels, which was then used to capture their markets with budget releases that exploit the European copyright laws. Well, my boycott is now over.
. I don't know of any recent examples of such theft, and JSP seems to have stepped up the quality of their packages, often filling important gaps in available music. Their recent packages of Nat King Cole and Django radio broadcasts are cases in point. There are now quite a number of great gospel packages, including Nuggets (a great package of diverse recordings from the golden age) and their fine packaging of pre-war gospel classics. The below appears to be the latest entry, a truly fantastic box set of gospel recordings from independent labels, many of which are quite obscure:I believe that Rene brought to our attention not long ago this release of Pitch/Gusman recordings of the local quartet scene around Savannah, Georgia in the 60s and 70s. Somehow, I forgot about it and just now got around to picking it up. INCREDIBLE! There are fabulous performances here from quartets, most of which I had never heard of before. Some of the songs literally moved me to tears:
There is also the fabulous 3-CD set of mostly post-war rural down home gospel - Fire in My Bones. Ironically, as the CD age comes to a close, gospel is finally getting its due!
Muddy
