Reviewed by Tony Cummings

With massive swathes of gospel music now in the public domain now is a great time to kick off a gospel music collection particularly with excellent budget line compilations like this one. Ignore the word "hits", the four CDs in this box set however do give you many of the giants of the genre, including Mahalia Jackson, the Swan Silvertones, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, the Golden Gate Quartet, Dorothy Love Coates, the Five Blind Boys Of Alabama, the Pilgrim Travellers, the Soul Stirrers, the Sensational Nightingales interspersed with a few obscurer items from such acts as the Blue Chips, Sister Goldia Haynes and Professor Johnson & His Gospel Singers. Recording quality isn't great - most of these tracks were dubbed from 78s - plus the bizarre inclusion of several tracks by Louie Armstrong (who was of course a jazz giant but no kind of gospel singer or Christian) muddies the pond a bit. But with so much delicious music this is still a recommended purchase particularly for those just starting to investigate decades of wonderful gospel history.

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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