Religious music for less than devout

@ Palasr

 

RE: The Fairfield Four, "Standing In The Safety Zone". And you thought you knew something about a capella gospel singing...

 

I needed to leave something else for other folks like you to contribute. You may want to look up also “Sweet Honey in the Rock” in particular 1988 “Live at Carnegie Hall”. The songs “Run, Run, Mourner Run” and “Wade in the Water” will kill ya.

 

I don’t own the entire Fairfield Four catalogue, but I own a decent sampling. Not to neglect the “the Dixie Hummingbirds”but technically they are not a capella.  Neither is “Mighty Clouds of Joy” but they get the job done.

 & Thank you Oregonpapa for recommending: Kathleen Battle "So Many Stars.", I have a few of her CDs but not that one. (add to my orders.)

 I was looking for Oh Happy Day, Edwin Hawkins Singers. But it slipped my ADD mind.

 Ladysmith Black Mambazo will sometimes include a Gospel tune.

 O Sifuni Mungu (All Creatures of Our God and King) is worth looking up. The original was done by “First Call”

 Hezekiah Walker had a run away hit with his danceable song “Every Praise” which drew many imitators from Korea and Japan some of which are rater funny.

 

I am pleased this topic is well received.

@ millercarbon

 

There was a time forty years ago I when I lived in Gallup NM, a small town in the middle of nowhere with only 4 radio stations. One station was all in Navajo, one was rock/pop, one was Country and the last was Gospel format. Yes the quality of the Gospel genre was not what one might hope and I listened to very little of it then. It was explained to me that since most listeners listen in their vehicle and only for a few minutes it was perfectly acceptable to play the song “9 to 5” twice and hour all day long.

I have a recollection of driving across all of Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas on a Sunday in August steering a badly over loaded 24’ Ryder truck towing my pickup behind me.   Maximum speed may have been 50 mph, no AC and only an AM radio. Under those conditions the only acoustic selections were not so much religious as what I would call “red neck toothless gospel”. My yellow Lab named Bismark was riding shotgun, so we turned up the “Old time Gospel” and Bismark and I had our personal revival the width of all of 3 states combined.

I agree with your general point, that the quality and variety of religious music is vastly improved.

Twila Paris, Phil Driscol, David Meece, John Fahey are examples of those who write and perform as well as anyone. Many C&W acts have worthwhile religious content in their repertoire.

RE Fairfield Four

Their version of “John the Revelator”, while not a cappella, is a show stopper. The version from their 2000 “Live from Mountain Stage” CD is a favorite speaker demo selection of mine. If you don’t think you like the Fairfield Four, try that cut before you rule them out.

On the Ry Cooder soundtrack CD from 1986 “Crossroads” is a blues (once gospel) funeral dirge “Somebody’s Callin’ My Name” sometimes titled “Hush hush…” Jessey Norman also performs this song on one of her CDs. When I die that song is what I want played at my funeral entrance.

On the soundtrack from “The Color Purple” is a song worth your time titled “Maybe God Is Tryin’ to Tell You Somethin’”.

If secular music demonstrates the diversity of the human race so does religious music even more so. On 1992 “Blues Masters, Vol. 04; Harmonica Classics” is Charlie Musselswhite’s hymn “Christo Redemptor”. By any measure it is excellent recording of amazing music.

May I second "Christo Redemptor" this time by Charlie Musselwhite. His version is much longer (11 minutes) and has many changes in tempo. It is a very complex and sophisticated piece

This thread will cost me some funds as I send all my money to Amazon.

Thank you to every one for their recommendations. I had 4 CDs arrive this morning, I have been "mining" this topic. The suggestions are not going to waste.

I wanted to mention a source I greatly enjoy. There is a church named “Church of Christ” that has as one of it’s teachings that liturgical music must be A Cappella. Then they can play a musical instrument later on in the day, just not at church.

 

Sometime in the early 1980’s a group from that church started a group named “Acappella” and I like their stuff very much, I think own 59 of their CDs which should amount to almost their entire catalogue.

 In the early days of the group Acappella was a performer named Keith Lancaster who at some point slightly more serious, less popular and more liturgical vision.

 I had eight Keith Lancaster Acappella CDs, all praise and worship which I delight in. The most recent was four years old so I ordered about another eight this week. I can not find them used on Amazon, I have to pay retail. It is not as bad as it may sound because every CD is filled to the brim with high quality praise and worship music.

 RE Monty Python et al.

 For most of the first 35 years of my life I kept Jesus safely at an arm’s length. A divorce was painful enough for me to reconsider. Folks who knew me well assumed my conversion would never last. I remember some of the things I said in those days. It causes me pain and shame.

 Unlike Muslims I don’t feel the need to violently defend Jesus against infidels. I am confident at a God who can speak the Word in to Darkness and create everything can take care of himself. I also imagine a Supreme Being; the embodiment and perfection of all divine attributes would have the ultimate sense of humor. I would point out that a jest from a friend is not the same as the same thing, be the words identical, as an expression intended with malice and contempt.

 Be careful with blasphemy; one day you may need Him.

If God created camels He has a sense of humor. Perhaps camels also say that about us.

If God exemplifies the perfection of all virtues, and a healthy sense of humor is a virtue, then ...
Among any groups of monastics or religious I would say look for the always happy and chipper. If the group is always glum run the other way. In my Irish tribe those not picked on (in a nice way) are considered neglected. It is how one develops a sense of humor and humility.

I had a youngish teacher in mid school, she assumed in the mid to late 60’s we listened to folk music like she did. When I told her about Carlos Santana, Cream, Jefferson Airplane and Grateful dead she was horrified.

I did learn to like folk music, only much later in life, the pre-electric Bob Dylan. Odetta, Richie Havens, Harry Belafonte, Carolyn Hester, Barbara Dane, the Big Three, Joan Baez all sport some musical chops and are well represented in my musical library. And many of them had religious music in their act. Speaking of which Cat Stevens "Morning has Broken" is recommended.

@n80 Thank you for jumping in, I had wondered if I had murdered the thread.

Since I started this thread please let me make the clear distinction between “Religious Music For the Less Than Devout” and “Anti-Religious Music That Parodies or Attacks Piety.”

Those who evidently feel the need for their own anti-theist thread should do exactly that. I wish them well with it.

And many thanks to contributors who have helped me re-energize my music collection.

@djones51It
It would not be my place to attack  anyone or quantify their piety by my standards. 

@jafreeman 
In any society where voluntary charity is displaced by onerous taxes and entitlement programs, where the state becomes the primary donor of other people's money for generations at a time, yes some folks will chaff at being lectured about social justice.
So in a market place of ideas, some ideas will be rejected based on their merits.  That might be one interpretation, since I know nothing about the specifics of Bruce Cockburn I don't have an opinion on the particulars.