| Track by Track Review
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Sister Rosetta Tharpe With The Chris Barber Band - Every Time I Feel The Spirit
Bouncy and fun, this has a definite old school New Orleans sound. All these tracks with Sister Rosetta Tharpe are from 1957.
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Sister Rosetta Tharpe With The Chris Barber Band - Feed Me Jesus
This is an acapella gospel number.
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Sister Rosetta Tharpe With The Chris Barber Band - Didn't It Rain
While there is music accompanying this, it’s still very much in a nearly acapella motif. It’s not nearly as long as the previous piece. |
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Sister Rosetta Tharpe With The Chris Barber Band - This Train
Another that’s basically acapella, this is a slower tune
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Sister Rosetta Tharpe With The Chris Barber Band - Up Above My Head I Hear Music In The Air
I was getting a bit bored with the acapella treatments, so this full on Dixieland jam is a nice change of pace.
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Sister Rosetta Tharpe With The Chris Barber Band - Peace In The Valley
Old school gospel with a Dixieland flavor describes this track well. It’s a slower performance than the one that preceded it.
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Sister Rosetta Tharpe With The Chris Barber Band - Down By The Riverside
Here we get a banjo based Dixieland styled gospel shuffle. They power it up into a more full scale arrangement later in the piece. The later portions of this are amongst the best music on the disc.
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Sister Rosetta Tharpe With The Chris Barber Band - Old Time Religion
While the mold has not been broken here, this one works better than some of the rest. It’s pretty typical Dixieland gospel, but it just plain cooks |
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Sister Rosetta Tharpe With The Chris Barber Band & Ottilie Patterson - When The Saints Go Marching In
This is probably the quintessential Dixieland song. It’s another strong point of the CD.
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Sister Rosetta Tharpe With The Chris Barber Band & Ottilie Patterson - Old Time Religion (Reprise)
As one might guess from the title, they move back into a revisit of the song that preceded “When the Saints…”
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Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee - Midnight Special
This is the first track from 1958 on the disc. Harmonica figures prominently on this song. This piece has always been a strong number and it works quite well here. The majority of the song is delivered with a very stripped down arrangement, letting the vocals truly shine.
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Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee– Climbin’ On Top Of The Hill
Very much an old school, stripped down blues track, this is a cool one. It’s one of my favorites from the disc.
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Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee - Hooray, Hooray, This Woman Is Killing Me
Here we get another slab that’s not all that different from the one that preceded it.
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Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee - Fox Chase
The harmonica on this is great, but the whole making noises like a fox thing had me hitting “skip.” Sorry, I am sure there are those who enjoy this, but I simply can’t take this one at all.
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Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee Band - How Long, How Long Blues
After the last piece just about anything would be an improvement. Well, they give us one of the tastier old school blues jams here.
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Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee - John Henry
They pump this up with more energy than the previous tracks. It’s another strong piece.
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Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee - Cornbread, Peas And Black Molasses
Here’s another that’s a more stripped down, old school blues. It’s another highlight of the CD.
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Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee - Worried Life Blues
This slower piece is really a classic blues tune.
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Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee - Callin' Mama Blues
The harmonica plays a much bigger role in this fast paced blues tune. It’s another highlight of the CD.
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Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee - Betty And Dupree
Another slow moving one, this is a bit too much like the rest of the music here. It’s not that it’s bad, but rather that it’s suffering a bit from the sameness. The blues can really feel like that, anyway.
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Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee Band - When The Saints Go Marching In
Here we get a completely different take of the song we heard earlier. This has a much more stripped down arrangement. It’s a strong cut and both are completely different in flavor, making it hard to pick a winner of the two.
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Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee - This Little Light Of Mine
A faster paced number ,this is another old school classic. It’s a strong one.
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Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee With The Chris Barber Band & Ottilie Patterson - Glory/I'm Going To Walk And Talk with Jesus
Here we get a faster paced medley of tunes. This features the whole band again and it’s a screamer. It’s one of the strongest performances on show here and consequently a highlight of the disc.
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