Saturday 24 April 2010

Free Download Friday #55: Gospel Legends

I'm either going to have to get more organised or change the name of this feature - Skinflint Download Saturday?

I've linked to a Daytrotter Session before in Free Download Friday 35 (the Cary Simon session). Somehow though I seem to have missed the Daytrotter Sessions website. It is stuffed to the gunnels with mp3s and videos from all sorts of artists. I will redoubtably return in the future but today I'm going to highlight a session from The Blind Boys of Alabama.

I think I first heard The Blind Boys of Alabama on Peter Gabriel's album Up where they sing with him on Sky Blue. The sound they contribute is awe inspiring as their voices have a raw, almost elemental quality, and the sound they add to Gabriel's track is real "hair on the back of the neck" stuff.

Now I realise that this means I've come a bit late to this particular party since the "Boys" (all very senior citizens now) have been singing together since before I was born, however, I took advice from a friend and tracked down a couple of their CDs. I like what I heard and was therefore pleased to discover there was a Daytrotter Session from The Blind Boys of Alabama.

The session has a spoken intro and then four tracks and they deliver Gospel the way it should be sung: with passion and conviction. There is an emotional depth in their performance as a lifetime of experience and faith pours out in their vocals. I especially like the last track in the session: Free At Last. "Can I get a witness?" they ask to which the response has to be "Hallelujah!".

So what do you think?

Are you a convert to The Blind Boys of Alabama's Gospel music?

Who else is worth checking out on the Daytrotter Session site?

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