Reviewed by Andy Cooper

A full disc of historical recordings taken from original 78rpm, displaying some of the origins of gospel and blues. Rev Sister Mary Nelson kicks off this collection with a quaint song "The Royal Telephone". Her voice is gravelly and gruff, but full of passion and energy. Her acappella backing singers unfortunately are not quite so competent: the soprano is shrill and the tenor is off tune. Lonnie McIntorsh is next up, accompanied by a strumming guitar. "Sleep On, Mother Sleep On" has him sounding rather intriguingly like a young Van Morrison! Several tracks follow with Bessie Johnson and McIntorsh together, but they sound rather unrehearsed, rough and ready. Bessie's voice is raucous and deep and quite an acquired taste. Due to low quality recordings of the time, it gets hard to make out the lyrics throughout several of the songs, and then the later tracks on the album deteriorate into chaotic hollering and out-of-time hand-clapping, making listening a challenge. This is one of the less attractive releases from Document Records.

The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those held by Cross Rhythms. Any expressed views were accurate at the time of publishing but may or may not reflect the views of the individuals concerned at a later date.

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