Reviewed by Trevor Kirk

  When gospel aficionados start talking about quartets from the Golden Age, sooner or later the name of The Fairfield Four will crop up alongside The Swan Silvertones, The Swanee Quintet, The Soul Stirrers and The Blind Boys from Alabama and Mississippi.  This album is a live recording made in September 1989, when the Fairfields had just reformed after nearly 40 years in retirement, and is noteworthy because it is the only live album the group ever made.  Whilst the legendary Sam McCrary was by then too frail to perform, the booming bass of Isaac Freeman is still there, underpinning the acappela harmonics.  Despite the march of Anno Domini, the guys put everything into their singing, giving us some of their old favourites (“Dig A Little Deeper”, “Hallelujah”, “Talk To The Man Above”), as well as material written by The Caravans and Dorothy Love Coates, and Freeman’s awesome bass solo on “Crying In the Chapel”.  A real slice of black gospel history.

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