Rev J C Burnett - Complete Recorded Works In Chronological Order Vol 2 1927-1945
STYLE: Gospel RATING OUR PRODUCT CODE: 21522-12098 LABEL: Document DOCD5558 FORMAT: CD Album ITEMS: 1 RRP: £9.99
Reviewed by Tony Cummings
23 recordings made between 1927 and 1945 in New York by the famed singing preacher. One of the many fascinating tracks here is "The Gambler's Doom" which links the numerological connection between a deck of cards and various theological and biblical points. This theme had been around a long time and eventually was to produce a major country music hit for T Texas Tyler and later Wink Martindale as "Deck Of Cards". Rev Burnett's version appears to be the first time the theme was put on record. Elsewhere on this compilation there is Burnett singing "Will The Circle Be Unbroken" accompanied by a dignified male quartet; "I Don't Want No Trouble At The River", one of the Reverend's frequent explorations of the Hebrew exile to Babylon; and "When The Evening Sun Goes Down" where the accompanying back up singers can be heard with some wild improvisations which as the sleevenote quaintly puts it, show them "almost losing the thread of the song as they succumb to religious fervour." The recordings made by Rev Burnett in 1945 for publisher and producer Joe Davis are particularly strong with "Wages Of Sin Is Death" showing that he'd lost none of his old energy and "War In Heaven" an account of the "signs of the times" with Burnett bringing in both the second world war dragging out its final stages and the increase in violent crime. What happened to the Reverend after the last of these recordings is not known but he has certainly left behind some powerful preaching and music.
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