Reviewed by Tony Cummings

Recently a box set of Christian music got a very seldom granted five star (essential) review in Mojo magazine. Yet no Christian magazine - with the exception of this publication - has seen fit to mention the album's existence let alone give it an extended review. Here's hoping this box set, available in every major UK record shop, will challenge the Christian Church's shameful ignorance of its own heritage. For 'Goodbye, Babylon' is cram-packed with music from both the African American churches and the white Southern states and in both cases demonstrates that in the '20s, '30s, '40s and '50s, the Church produced music every bit as good as the world's. Why should the Devil have all the good music, indeed. What makes this compilation so groundbreaking is the loving attention to the packaging - a handsome wooden box and a fully illustrated book with exhaustively researched entries on every track on the six CDs - and the pioneering way that tracks and genres have been bravely mixed up so that hillbilly bands sit next to blues growling street evangelists and gospel divas rub shoulders with archaic shape note singers. As it says in the copious sleevenotes, there are mountain duets, radio bands, blues singers taking religious holidays and minstrels creating entertainment out of Scripture. There's congregational and choral singing, recordings that re-create call and response services and even one CD dedicated to the classic preachers of the '20s and '30s. There are recordings by artists of complete obscurity (North Carolina Cooper Boys, Sister O M Terrell, Bela Lam and Blind Mamie Forehand) and artists who became international record stars (Mahalia Jackson, Hank Williams, Blind Lemon Jefferson and the Carter Family). It includes original versions of songs that have become standards ("Take My Hand Precious Lord", "I'll Fly Away", "Rock My Soul") and songs of stunning obscurity, like the title track plucked from a recently discovered 1930 test pressing by the Rev TT Rose & Singers. With so many gems contained in the 135 songs offered here it's hard to choose particular standouts. Maybe it's the chillingly intense passion of that eerie slide guitar and rasping vocal of Blind Willie Johnson's "Lord I Just Can't Keep From Crying"; maybe it's the haunting, archaic harmonies of the Okeh Atlanta Sacred Harp Singers; maybe it's the smash hit sermon "Black Diamond Express To Hell" by "straining preacher" Rev AW Nix; maybe it's the haunting country harmonies of the Louvin Brothers (so influential on the Everly Brothers) on "I'll Never Go Back"; maybe it's Sister Rosetta Tharpe's pioneering prototype of R&B gospel "Strange Things Happening Every Day", maybe it's the guitar genius demonstrated by the Rev Gary Davis on "I Am The True Vine"; maybe it's the Rev JC Burnett's "The Gambler's Doom", the prototype for that cornball country monologue "Deck Of Cards"; or maybe it's the breathtaking power of "Death In The Morning" by Rev Anderson Johnson (the song echoing the chilling "Oh Death" by Ralph Stanley on the 'O Brother Where Art Thou' soundtrack). Wherever one looks, one will find timeless classics which make some of the drearily dated mush Authentic/Word have released under that series title look irrelevant indeed. An essential celebration of timeless gospel.

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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