Reviewed by Phil Thomson

This album powers its way through four years of OKeh material between 1921 and 1924, featuring artists in a vocal tradition which had its roots in the Tidewater region of 1880s Virginia. It may have been a poor region, but the recordings are rich in the joy and inventiveness of their gospel message. A close listen reveals just how individual these renditions are - dependent on a personal vocal style, quirky timing, regional diction and that overall stubborn hope at the heart of each entreaty, the words providing a living history. The honours are fairly evenly carved up between the Southern Jubilee Singers, Virginia Female Jubilee Singers and Palmetto Jazz Quartet - offering recognisable titles such as "Shout All Over God's Heaven", "We're Walking In The Light", "Revival Day", "Go Down Moses Way Down In Egypt Land" - with the Gulf Coast Quartet adding only two tracks, "Happy Boy Blues" and "Alabama Blues" to round off the list. You will also find Irving Berlin's "Home Again Blues" - an indication of the fact that all these troupers worked both the secular and sacred circuit in order to make a living. It's worth pointing out that these recordings reflect the far changing influences and cultural shifts taking place at the time, swinging from semi-formal socio-religious gatherings to stage orientated concerts, with their various permutations of duet and quartet in a mix of live and studio takes. Throughout it all, the hiss and crackle of old times never lets us forget that this, and indeed all the hundreds of Document reissues, are a labour of love.

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