Reviewed by Matthew Cordle

The Gospel Originals are a traditional gospel quartet from Aiken, South Carolina, and this live album follows six previous CDs. A quick Google search provides a little background info - they were formed from a group called The Staley Brothers and have toured a lot, sharing the stage with the likes of Dottie Peoples, Mighty Clouds Of Joy and Shirley Caesar. Nevertheless, however gifted they may be in a live context, this CD is disappointing. It is musically quite lacklustre, the songs are extremely repetitive (eg, the backing singers on "At The Cross" repeat the same "At the cross" refrain for the entire duration of the song without ceasing), it is billed as "live at." but there is seemingly nothing live about it at all, the instrumentation is pretty cheesy and some of the audio is distorted, which is surely pretty inexcusable these days. On top of this, the majority of the tracks are between five and nine minutes in length and I found it a major battle not to reach for the skip button. If you have a particular love for the old school quartet sound you might want to investigate a group of veterans who are endeavouring to keep the old sound alive. But there are too many minuses here to think this will reach much beyond those who catch the group in concert.

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.

Interested in reviewing music? Find out more here.