Alfred G Karnes, Ernest Phipps, McVay & Johnson - Kentucky Gospel: Complete Recorded Works In Chronological Order 1927-1928

Published Thursday 11th October 2007
Alfred G Karnes, Ernest Phipps, McVay & Johnson - Kentucky Gospel: Complete Recorded Works In Chronological Order 1927-1928
Alfred G Karnes, Ernest Phipps, McVay & Johnson - Kentucky Gospel: Complete Recorded Works In Chronological Order 1927-1928

STYLE: Country
RATING 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10
OUR PRODUCT CODE: 21327-12097
LABEL: Document DOCD8013
FORMAT: CD Album
ITEMS: 1
RRP: £9.99

Reviewed by Phil Thomson

Yet again, Document Records have surpassed themselves in fulfilling their remit to provide us with the best in early American recorded music. Somewhere between the intimate sleeve notes and those earnest, sometimes slightly crackly voices lies a world we should all be grateful for - where these pioneers of close harmony honed their craft with evangelical zeal. The eight tracks from Alfred G Karnes laid down between 1927 and 1928 set the scene with their passionate, almost frenetic reminder of what their music was setting out to do - convert the heathen and set their sights on glory: "Called To A Foreign Field", "I Am Bound For The Promised Land", "When They Ring The Golden Bells" - songs full of the promise of Heaven. These are followed by the preacher/singer Ernest Phipps and his Holiness Quartet (1927) Unsurprisingly, Phipps was a barber before donning a dog collar, and eventually he expanded his group from quartet to singers (1928) - as a result of inviting several members of his congregation to join him in the Bristol TN studio of Victor talent scout Ralph Peer, where the initial line up swelled to include four singers, piano, fiddle, banjo, guitar and mandolin. The sessions gave rise to memorable recordings of "Do Lord, Remember Me" and "If The Light Has Gone Out Of Your Soul", the latter selling 12,000 copies - a not insignificant number of units in its day. The other act collected here, McVay and Johnson (1928) were two of Phipps' instrumentalists and feature on the only two tracks of theirs which can be found - "Ain't Going To Lay My Armor Down" and "I''ll Be Ready When The Bridegroom Comes". The songs were popular standards and the recording gives us an insight into the power and drive of a real holiness service. It is worth noting that the Bristol recordings were the first and only time these white holiness groups would get a chance to preserve their particular brand of "exuberant, ragged, hand-clapping mountain holiness music." Says it all.

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