Reviewed by Trevor Kirk

To describe the contents of this one, I can do no better than to quote the CD sleeve: "Work songs, a bad man ballad, instrumental display and dance tunes; folk, ragtime music, spirituals, and shouting songs that tell of the realities of everyday life in early 20th century Mississippi - of hard work, poverty, violence, imprisonment, hunting, dancing, love and lust, prayer, and a desire to leave one's troubles behind." These 25 items were recorded between 1936 and 1942 on portable acetate field recorders, so they're rough and raw, with surface noise and glitches galore. The gospel content is almost entirely courtesy of Rev C H Savage and members of the Mount Ararat Baptist Church, King & Anderson Plantation, Coahoma County, Mississippi, nine tracks recorded in August 1941, and despite the lo-fi quality, the emotion and intensity of the music (entirely acappella) comes over loud and clear. The CD sleevenotes are positively ency­clopaedic; details of dates and places of the recordings, who made the record­ings, personnel and song lyrics, and comment on each track, are worth the price of the CD alone. Lately lots of creaking evangelical religiosity have been inappropriately described as timeless classics; here is a treasure chest of gen­uinely immortal material.

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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