Various Artists
(Tompkins Square)
Where to start with this mighty tome of a release? Here are the stats: Fire In My Bones features 78 tracks by 78 artists, spread over three CDs. Recordings run from 1944 to 2007, although the newest and the oldest and everything in between all sound pretty much equally archaic. Each CD comes with a moniker for its 26 tracks: "The Wicked Shall Cease from Troubling," "God's Mighty Hand," and "All God Power Store." And the title is prescient: these are, truly, raw, rare and (especially) otherworldly African-American gospel hymns, sermons, testaments, fables, warnings, (im)morality tales and religious calls to arms. A less self conscious selection of recordings may not ever have been compiled.
Selections include almost every conceivable aspect of African-American music in the last 50 + years: electric and acoustic blues, specialized varieties of soul and jazz, R&B, big-beat gospel, church funk, fife & drum marches, pulpit folk, and sanctified rock & roll that preaches, most stridently, against rock & roll. I don't think there's any reggae or hip hop, but at 78 tracks it's hard to wrap your head around it all, so I'm not really sure. The liner notes point out what it is not: a collection that highlights the vast array of gospel quartets and solo vocalists that flourished from the end of WWII well into the eras of rock ‘n' roll, disco and funk.
So, what we have here is the stuff from the fringes, the small label and non-label stuff, the stuff with less-to-no commercial potential; the early punk rock equivalent of gospel recordings. Is that Mike McGonigal I see there as the archivist who put this mother together - Mike McGonigal of Yeti magazine notoriety?
Tracks seem to have been selected for maximum emotional and spiritual impact and for the intensity and sometimes flat-out strangeness of the performance, and what a selection it is. You can land on virtually any track and immediately be pulled into a fever of fervor, a deep well of faith and an outpouring of emoting of the most immediate kind. Ike Gordon does dirty blues gospel on "Don't Let The Devil Ride" and the Amazing Farmer Singers of Chicago do beautiful gospel soul on "I Got a Telephone in My Bosom." Rev. Billy H. Grady rocks the faith on "Holy Rock," while Elder Beck preaches about the evil of rock & roll on "Rock & Roll Sermon" while an unnamed guitar player rocks the church in a way that would make Sun Records proud. Rev. Robert Ballinger delivers sly, rocking piano and bass jazz on "So Glad," while Little Ax and the Golden Echos sound like a lost early ‘60s British R&B band on "So Soon." Truly, deeply eccentric sounds emote from the Madison County Senior Center Singers doing "Wasn't That a Mystery," John Boswell and the True Sounding Boswellettes "The Very Last Mile," and Flora Molton's gloriously off-key "I Heard it Through the True Vine," which sounds like an outtake from Alex Chilton's ramshackle Like Flies on Sherbert LP.
And then there's the eye opening takes on some of the best known church and gospel songs of the last 50 years; Precious Bryant's version of "When The Saint's Go Marching In," Snooks Eaglin's "Down by the Riverside," Theotis Taylor's "Swing Low", Rev. Louis Overstreet's "Working on a Building," Rev. Lonnie Farris' lap-steel version of "Peace In The Valley," Napolian Strickland's "Glory Glory Hallelujah." Even just perusing the songtitles is a step onto the twin poles of sin and salvation that gospel hinges on: "Why Sorrow Done Passed Me Around," "Alright (Since My Soul has Got a Seat Up in the Kingdom"), "I Want to Live (So God Can Use Me"), "Go Devil Go," "Fire Shed in My Bones."
As an act of archiving, Fire In My Bones will be hard to top. There's not a moment on all three discs that's less than thrilling on some level, and there are some levels here that most music lovers would never get close to unless they wandered into a rural church, prayer meeting or revival. Fifty-plus years of almost unheard music is suddenly accessible, all of it hair and soul raising. And the deliciously low-tech cover and slightly cheeky liner notes convey a sense of awe and curiosity that is decidedly more fannish and music lover than academic; this is music to be experienced, not studied.
The search for and concept of authenticity in American music has been ebbing and flowing for decades, and figures heavily in the standard-setting archival releases from John Fahey's Revenant label, Dust to Digital Records, the reissue of Harry Smith's Anthology of American Folk Music and releases from several other labels who are driving straight to the well for their water; or at least as close as they can get from a half to three-quarters of a century removed. Fire In My Bones more than stands up to any of these other classic anthologies, and has instantly carved out a space for itself next to them, as well.
You want your wellspring? Look no further.
Standout Tracks: Every track is a standout track. CARL HANNI
