Suggestions for where to start if I want to get into those old negro spirituals

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

I love those old negro spirituals (the ones that sound like, er, Beck's "He's a Mighty Good Leader"), but I have no idea where to start. Any suggestions?

― Mavis Beacon, Wednesday, 4 May 2005 23:43 (twenty-one years ago)

get one copy of the anthology of american folk music IMMEDIATELY

― tonight is what it means to be young (Jody Beth Rosen), Thursday, 5 May 2005 00:41 (twenty-one years ago)

well it was recorded in the 1960s, but fred mcdowell's amazing grace is a good place to start, i think. then get "angola prison spirituals." then get "guitar evagelists" on jsp.

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Thursday, 5 May 2005 04:48 (twenty-one years ago)

All the above suggestions are OTM. Also, look for anything that the Smithsonian Folkways label puts out with Alan Lomax's name attached to it. He was (as a lot of ILMers prolly already know) a great musicologist who recorded an amazing amount of stuff, from spirituals to blues, from Gullah island songs to prison work songs...just amazing. I think he has his own box set or some packaged collection of his field recordings.

Another fun way to do it is to trace it back...Listen to Aretha's "Amazing Grace" record, and look at the composers and artists who performed on that record, and then figure out where else they recorded. You'll find some amazing stuff.

― Big Loud Mountain Ape (Big Loud Mountain Ape), Thursday, 5 May 2005 10:58 (twenty-one years ago)

get yrself a copy of the goodbye babaloon box

immediately

amazing stuf packaged beyond yr wildest dreams

― b b, Thursday, 5 May 2005 13:59 (twenty-one years ago)

"I Get A Kick Out of You"

― Hurting (Hurting), Thursday, 5 May 2005 14:00 (twenty-one years ago)

No, seriously -- I don't recommend starting with the Anthology of American Folk Music. Most of it is not black spirituals. The Fred McDowell record mentioned above is good. Also, rathern than Angola State Prison, I recommend getting the Lomax collection from the Mississippi State Penitentiary. Also there's a Lomax disc called "Mississippi Saints and Sinners" that's good.

― Hurting (Hurting), Thursday, 5 May 2005 14:02 (twenty-one years ago)

A lot of early country blues is heavily influenced by black spirituals. Charlie Patton, a musician of mysterious, incomporable brilliance, recorded quite a few. Blind Willie Johnson wasn't a bluesman really but more of a gospel singer who played incredible slide guitar and he did a lot too. Skip James recorded He's A Mighty Good Leader, and he's pretty incredible if incredibly spiteful and twisted, but most of his stuff is more blues than spiritual-based. None of those guys recorded that much and you should be able to get a complete set fairly cheaply.

And althought Harry Smith's Anthology Of American Folk Music contains a lot of stuff on it which isn't religious or of black origins, the music is so unrelentingly awesome that you should try and track down a copy.

― Ogmor Roundtrouser (Ogmor Roundtrouser), Thursday, 5 May 2005 15:09 (twenty-one years ago)

the best gospel compilation I have is the 'The Gospel Tradition: the Roots and Branches vol. 1' I think it was released by columbia. the lomax collections are incredible (all the 'southern journey' volumes are wonderful... especially the one with sid hemphill, I think it's volume 3: highway 61 mississippi. that, however, is an entirely different kettle o fish). okay but gospel... Sony's "Folk, Gospel, and Blues: Will the Circle Be Unbroken" has some pretty great tracks from the likes of Bessie Smith (she is also included in 'The Gospel Tradition'), Thomas A. Dorsey, etc. but is much to broad and there is a bewildering inclusion of the indigo girls.

― french diplomacy (french diplomacy), Thursday, 5 May 2005 21:22 (twenty-one years ago)

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.