Reviewed by Tony Cummings

Seldom has an album's subtitle (in this case '18 Inspirational Songs From Gospel's Golden Age') delivered so comprehensively. If these gems from the glorious age in the '40s and '50s (and early '60s), when quartets burned the miles on the Gospel Highway, don't inspire you I pity you. For many of the tracks here are far, far more than simply musical museum pieces for anal retentive record collectors to pontificate about while modern music roars on past them. This is awesome music with the ability to connect deep, deep to your soul. Few better examples of the catarthic soul power of old time gospel can be found than the opener, the stone classic "The Blood" by the Zion Travellers, where a sermonette is hollered, gasped, sobbed and screamed with more passion than a group of pagans would demonstrate if they won the Lottery. A glowing two-minute classic which demonstrates how quartet gospel was THE most impassioned soulful music ever recorded. After such a goose-pimple inducing first track, one might have wondered if such epic heights could again be scaled. But this trawl through the breathtaking archives of Specialty Modern and. Dootone is consistently wonderful, be it "Touch The Hem Of His Garment" featuring The Soul Stirrers with a teenage Sam Cooke swooping and roaring in church wrecking splendour; "Jesus Hits Like An Atom Bomb" with those clipped jubilee harmonies of the Pilgrim Travellers recalling an era of zoot-suited, finger-snapping coolness; and "This May Be The Last Time" with the Original Five Blind Boys Of Alabama showing the way with a song the Rolling Stones "borrowed" years later. Be it an introduction to the marvellous catalogue of vintage gospel music Ace Records have lovingly assembled down the years, or an antidote to some of those horrendously dated Timeless Classics' that the white church insist on embarrassing us with, this 18-song compilation is a joy to listen to.

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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