Picture 1 of 2
Stock photo
Picture 1 of 2
Stock photo
Prayers from Hell: White Gospel & Sinner's Blues, 1927-1940 by Various Artists (CD, 2000)
O
obsessed-records-australia (13879)
98.5% positive Feedback
Price:
AU $61.48
ApproximatelyEUR 34.68
+ $12.99 postage
Returns:
30 days return. Buyer pays for return postage. If you use an eBay delivery label, it will be deducted from your refund amount.
Condition:
- Buy it nowPRAYERS FROM HELL-WHITE GOSPEL & SINNERS BLUES CD NEW!
Oops! Looks like we're having trouble connecting to our server.
Refresh your browser window to try again.
About this product
Product Identifiers
Record LabelTrikont
UPC4015698026726
eBay Product ID (ePID)5050194851
Product Key Features
Release Year2000
FormatCD
GenreCountry
Run Time72 Mins 50 Seconds
StyleBluegrass
ArtistVarious Artists
Release TitlePrayers from Hell: White Gospel & Sinner's Blues, 1927-1940
Additional Product Features
DistributionMSI Music Distribution
Country/Region of ManufactureUSA
Number of Discs1
Additional informationThis is a 25-track anthology of gospel and blues tunes from the 1920s and '30s. Personnel: Frank Hutchison (vocals, guitar, harmonica); Charlie Monroe (vocals, guitar); Bill Monroe (vocals, mandolin); Male Chorus (vocals); Bill Carlisle (tenor, guitar); Dorsey M. Dixon (baritone, guitar); Cliff Carlisle, Howard Dixon (baritone, steel guitar); A.P. Carter, Byron Parker (bass voice); Mother Maybelle Carter, Sara Carter, George Morris (guitar); Snuffy Jenkins (banjo); Leonard Stokes (mandolin). Recording information: 1927-1940. This compilation of hillbilly gospel music and twisted Southern white blues could have been taken from one of the discs in Harry Smith's Anthology of American Folk Music -- there's even an essay included by Greil Marcus, a reprinted chapter from his Invisible Republic book. Normally, this would reek of copycat-ism and a cheap way to make a buck. Given that this is the Trikont label from Germany, you can be assured this isn't the case. Their notes and packages are superb, they make their records primarily for a European audience, where the Smith Anthology may not be available, and there is a different focus, one that is perversely curious in its approach to this very foreign -- to them -- music. Besides, they put some gems on here Smith didn't include because his anthology was based on only six years of recorded material. As for the music, it's stellar. This is solid, primitive, hillbilly gospel music and blues. The remastering is excellent and the material choice is wonderful. From the Carolina Ramblers Stringband's "That Lonesome Valley" to the Dixon Brothers' "Didn't Hear Nobody Pray" (covered recently by the Fairfield Four) and "When Gabriel Blows His Trumpet for Me" to Byron Parker and his mountaineer group, the Carter Family, and Bill Carlisle, we hear the sound of the hopeful pilgrims, assured of their place in the heavens with God. Some of these songs also plead for the one who is lost to turn from sin (the Carter Family's "Better Farther On"). The praise is definite but reserved, plaintively sung with the fear of God in their approach. There is a loneliness in these songs that speaks of everything from poverty to a sense of continual loss -- it's whistling in the graveyard music. However, the coin flips on this disc several time when we hear Frank Hutchison's "Hell Bound Train" and "Stackalee," or the mad-dog glass-chewing howl of Dock Boggs' wailing through "Country Blues," "New Prisoner's Song," "Sugar Baby," and "Pretty Polly." Boggs and Hutchison even the score -- they show the dark as death side of culturally enforced Christianity and refuse to be tamed or comforted. Joining them are Ledford and Daniel Nicholson's fiddle and banjo blues ballad "Ninety Nine Years" from 1932. It's a tale of love, betrayal. Gambling, love, and murder. All of these songs appear in the mirror of redemption, past it, out of its dimension and scope. But even here, rebellious as they are, Jesus wins. Just after Boggs' "Pretty Polly" send
Number of Audio ChannelsStereo
Be the first to write a review
