The latest part of the ongoing series chronicling, in no particular order, the greatest 1001 recordings made by Christian artists

540. LARRY NORMAN - NIGHTMARE #71, 1973. From the album 'So Long Ago The Garden', Solid Rock.
Clearly influenced by Dylan's talking blues "dream" songs this features a lyric which some have dismissed as stream of consciousness meaninglessness but for me is a dazzling kaleidoscope of seemingly random images to paint a picture of the confusing blur of our modern world. The track namechecks child actress Shirley Temple, comedian Harpo Marx, communist Bill Robinson, deaf and blind activist Helen Keller and several others. And even if you can't grasp the relevance of such unremitting surrealism the lines about Ronald Colman grabbing Larry's leg with the assertion that the film actor "said exactly eighty nine words to me", followed by the instruction "Count 'em" will be irresistible to rock music anoraks. Sure enough, the following stanza that begins with the words "Let the proud but dying nation kiss the last generation" and ending with the lines "Love is a corpse we sit and watch it harden/We left it oh so long ago. . .the garden" comes to exactly the number claimed.
Tony Cummings

541. MEWITHOUTYOU - O, PORCUPINE, 2006. From the album 'Brother, Sister', Tooth & Nail.
By their third album Pennsylvania's Mewithoutyou were at the top of their game. With its abundance of images and songs about God's creation and a bevy of musical guests they crated a rich, diverse and multi-layered soundscape a long way from the raw post hardcore of their '[A- - >B] Life' debut. This jaw dropping track features a fine vocal from the band's eccentric frontman Aaron Weiss. It starts off in a surge of sound until it reaches the one minute mark when Weiss' spoken words "all creation groans. . .shh" are followed after five seconds by a whispered "listen to it!" The band returns for another verse until the line "You have a decent ear for notes but you can't yet appreciate harmony" and the band members launch into a powerful dissonant passage. The song reaches its climax with singer Jeremy Enigk of Sunny Day Real Estate adding his distinctive tones. A gem.
Tony Cummings

542. BLIND WILLIE JOHNSON - IT'S NOBODY'S FAULT BUT MINE, 1927. From the album 'The Soul Of A Man', Snapper Music.
Whilst there is no getting away from the fact that the music of Blind Willie Johnson - especially his guttural, rasping vocal delivery - isn't everyone's cup of tea, there is no doubt that his back catalogue of stunning 78s has been hugely influential in shaping the blues and rock landscape of subsequent times. Take for example the deeply candid "It's Nobody's Fault But Mine" - probably not actually written by Johnson but seemingly first recorded by the Texan bluesman - which has been covered by the likes of Tom Jones, Blues Band members Paul Jones and Dave Kelly and even Led Zeppelin who checked in with a lyrically and spiritually augmented version on their 1976 'Presence' album. The song's stark note-to-self that, if the singer doesn't start getting serious about his relationship with God and the Bible, then his soul will be lost is typical of the sheer directness of many gospel blues numbers of the era and its breathtaking unambiguity, coupled with Johnson's relentless delivery, simply forces the listener to sit up and pay attention.
Lins Honeyman

Mandie Pinto

543. MANDIE PINTO - COUNT ALL YOUR BLESSINGS, 1998. From the album 'Count All Your Blessings', Independent.
If ever there was a track guaranteed to lift you from the self pity and negativity of a hurting economy, this is the one. The 20 year old Californian made her brief yet telling intro to and exit from Christian music with this gem of funky pop. The pumping bass line, the horn section sounding like they were born and raised in Memphis, Mandie's delightfully assured vocal telling us to count all the blessings God gives us, all are there to raise the spirits.
Tony Cummings

544. THE FOUR INTERNES - I'M USING MY BIBLE FOR A ROAD MAP, 1953. From the various artists album 'The Best Of King Gospel', King.
Take a great song, originally a hit for country duo Reno & Smiley, and give it to a group of black harmonisers from Durham, North Carolina and you get something special. The Four Internes stuck with their name even when none of the original group, who were hospital interns, remained and there were in fact five of them. Their weekly TV programme on WTVD Channel 11 in Durham brought them to the attention of King Records who having hit with Reno & Smiley thought a black gospel version of "Road Map" was a great idea. Rendered in the jubilee style of the Trumpeteers and with a striking lead vocal from Nick Allen, the resulting single was a delight.
Tony Cummings

545. SUFJAN STEVENS - DECATUR, 2005. From the album 'Illinois' (aka 'Illinoize'), Asthmatic Kitty.
Named by both Rolling Stone and NME as one of the greatest albums of the decade, 'Illinois' captured all that was wonderful about the eccentric chamber-folk genius that is Sufjan Stevens. 'Illinois' was summarised by one critic as being "less about place than spirit" and certainly the kaleidoscope of images - cream of wheat, presidents, stepmothers, UFOs, a girl with bone cancer, a serial killer, Bible study - conjure up vivid impressions of the state. Over one of Stevens' most memorable melodies, the wordsmith daringly rhymes "Decatur" with "alligator" and "aviator" while Matthew Morgan's backing vocals help drive home the witty lyrics ("Stephen A Douglass was a great debater/But Abraham Lincoln was the great emancipator") before the song's climax with Daniel and Elin Smith of the Danielson Family chiming in for a campfire finish, complete with self-applause. The effect is wonderful.
Tony Cummings

546. HOWARD SMITH - I WANNA GET TO KNOW YOU, 1985. From the album 'Totally Committed', Light.
Smith was one of the many singers with strong Andrae Crouch connections whose plyant tenor was heard on many records as he provided classy backing vocals for numerous mainstream acts. His own output is limited to a couple of gospel projects which, with their slick soul/R&B production, were considered state-of-the-art when released in the '80s. This track with its solid bass groove over which Howard righteously emotes is a powerful prayer to know God better.
Tony Cummings

547. ERNIE HAASE & SIGNATURE SOUND - THIS COULD BE THE DAWNING OF THAT DAY, 2005. From the album 'Israel Homecoming', Spring House Productions.
There are a number of things that make this live open-air song - recorded/filmed before the remarkable backdrop of David's Citadel in Jerusalem - so compelling. The classy orchestral arrangements, Ernie's fine alto solo-break accompanied by Signature Sound's exquisite harmonies and the song lyrics, penned by Bill and Gloria Gaither, that build an air of imminent expectancy of Christ's return all play their part. It should be remembered that as well as being successful musical entrepreneurs and Southern gospel popularisers, the Gaithers have proved to be truly gifted songwriters. This fine song beautifully captures the mood of holy anticipation and builds and builds, reaching virtually ecstatic proportions as the group, notching up a key or two, launch into a refrain from "Until Then" (another Gaither composition). A truly stupendous performance from one of Southern gospel's most gifted vocal outfits.
Tom Lennie

Kaiser/Mansfield

548. KAISER/MANSFIELD - GREAT CHANGE SINCE I'VE BEEN BORN, 1990. From the album 'Trimmed And Burnin'', Ocean.
Sanctified bluesman and pastor Glenn Kaiser teamed up with another Jesus music veteran harmonica player Darrell Mansfield and dobro supremo Rob Glickman in 1990 for an acoustic gospel blues album. 'Trimmed And Burnin'' was largely made up of songs by blues gospel giants Rev Gary Davis and Blind Willie Johnson and this highlights Kaiser (sans Mansfield and Glickman) belting out each triumphant chord on his acoustic guitar as the lyric celebrates the difference being born again has made to his life with uncompromising lines like "people that I used-a would hate, Lord, I don't hate no more" delivered in Kaiser's trademark powerhouse vocal style. What makes this song, and the album as a whole, so important to me is that it proved to this at-the-time unsaved blues music fanatic that Christian-themed music could actually be skilful, gutsy and raw whilst unashamedly promoting the benefits of redemption. Clearly blues music wasn't the sole property of the Devil after all.
Lins Honeyman

549. MORTIFICATION - ETERNAL LAMENTATION, 1992. From the album 'Scrolls Of The Megilloth', Nuclear Blast.
Wikipedia have pronounced that 'Scrolls Of The Megilloth' by the Australian grindcore outfit Mortification "had as big an impact on the 1990's Christian metal music as Stryper's 'To Hell With The Devil' had on the 1980's Christian metal era." I wouldn't argue, for that milestone set showed that death metal - up until then exploring violence, the occult and horror - could be utilised by Christian musicians for their own purposes as long as they had talents like Jayson Sherlock who could deliver ferocious blast beat drumming, a guitarist like Michael Carlisle who could handle the aggressive guitar parts and a vocalist like Mortification's frontman Steve Rowe capable of performing, in the words of one critic, "grind baritone vocals of extreme reality." One mainstream website, allmusic, described Rowe's performance on the album as "some of the most frightening vocals ever recorded" and after experiencing "Eternal Lamentation" with its portrayal of the ungodly screaming their pain in the fiery pits of Hell one must conclude that's just what Rowe intended.
Tony Cummings

550. SHEILA WALSH - HERE WITH ME, 1981. From the album 'Future Eyes', Chapel Lane.
Those who only know Sheila's ministry as a US-based author, speaker and maker of decidedly middle of the road albums will be somewhat stunned by her 1981 'Future Eyes' debut. Once, for the briefest of seasons, the Scottish lass seemed the daring new face of Christian music, wrenching it into contemporary relevance with electro new wave pop every bit as cutting edge as the synth-driven acts then breaking into the UK charts. As it turned out, of course, Sheila, with her high Streisand-tinged soprano, was able to do much more than provide effective vocal lines to sequencer-driven rhythms but it's the groundbreaking 'Future Eyes' album which, thanks in part to some top line production and some memorable songs, still remains her most accomplished. "Here With Me" with its staccato vocal delivery and oddly doomy atmosphere is very much of its Hazel O'Connor time. But it still connects.
Tony Cummings

551. RICH MULLINS - CREED, 1993. From the album 'A Liturgy, A Legacy & A Ragamuffin Band', Reunion.
Before his untimely death in 1997 Rich Mullins left behind a swathe of passionate, Americana-fused music which towers above the majority of recordings processed by the Nashville CCM marketing machine. 'A Liturgy. . .' is, along with 'The World As Best I Remember It, Vol 1', his greatest work and this - the most elegant exposition of the essential doctrines of the Christian faith -is an undeniable classic. It's folk flavour created through Rich's deft use of the hammered dulcimer is the perfect accompaniment as the lyrics set out the eternal truths ("I believe in God the Father/Almighty maker of Heaven and maker of earth/And in Jesus Christ his only begotten Son, our Lord/He was conceived by the Holy Spirit") and then leads to those unforgettable lines, "I believe what I believe it makes me what I am/I did not make it, no it is making me." Truly transcendent.
Tony Cummings

552. FLYLEAF - CASSIE, 2005. From the album 'Flyleaf', Octone.
The Texas rockers were never going to be the critics favourites, many journos tying themselves in knots for being both "radio friendly" and "formulaic". In truth, their alternative/hard rock sound with its emo and metal influences was a perfectly executed thing and in Lacey Sturm they had one of the most passionately penetrating female rock singers to emerge in either Christian or non-Christian music. The 'Flyleaf' album went on to sell a million and in amongst all the drop-tuned riffs and anthemic crowd pleasers there's this powerful song which shows off the stunning range of Lacey's vocals, starting with light ethereal tones and ending in dramatic emocore-style screams. The song itself is an unforgettable tribute to Cassie Bernall, the high school student who paid with her life by confessing Christ to two rampaging crazies during the notorious Columbine shooting. Seldom has a news event produced such emotionally charged art.
Tony Cummings

Prof Harold Boggs

553. PROF HAROLD BOGGS - I'VE FIXED IT WITH JESUS, 1964. From the various artists album 'The Best Of Nashboro Gospel', Ace.
The rich, powerhouse baritone of the good professor wonderfully aided by his two singing compatriots known as the Boggs Specials was heard on a welter of wonderfully downhome singles and albums released throughout the '50s and '60s. The Columbus, Ohio act's biggest hit was this track where over swirling organ vamps, Boggs' cracks his voice on the final lines of the song. Uncloudy Days: The Gospel Music Encyclopedia called it "a delicious example of '60s traditional gospel." I wouldn't argue.
Tony Cummings