Showing posts with label gospel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label gospel. Show all posts

Sunday, March 25, 2012

Merrill Womach
"Sweet, Sweet Spirit"

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When I saw this album in the used bin at Tower Records in Atlanta, I thought the text was in Cyrillic. After pulling it out for a closer look, I discovered it was actually a gospel album from the mid/late 1970s by a guy from Spokane, WA, resting place of my nine-year-old appendix.

According to the liner notes:

Widely known for his unique vocal achievements in sound, Merrill is the first one to produce multiple stereophonic recordings. Through a series of delicately performed recordings of his own voice singing the various parts, he has produced duets, trios, quartets and even a 42-voice precision male chorus. Accompanying Merrill in many of his concerts are taped symphony orchestration backgrounds which are the result of years of research and development.

In addition to being a master of recording technique, Womach was also the victim of a fiery plane crash on Thanksgiving Day, 1961, just over seven months after my parents got married. This is the cause of his horrific facial scarring. Yes, it's not a horror movie makeup job; the poor guy actually looked like that.

As would be expected, nearly the entire album is graced with the sort of instrumental backing one might expect on a Caucasian gospel album of the period: dreadful. This particular track, however, is completely a cappella, albeit severely multi-tracked. I actually quite like it.

Monday, July 12, 2010

The Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band
 "Blow That Horn" 

The Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band
The Gospel Album
CD EP
(Family Owned Records, 2007)

I love bargain bins. Even more, I love free bins! My favorite local record store has both and I discovered the Big Damn Band via the free bin. I found a promo copy of their album Big Damn Nation and thought it looked interesting, I flipped it over and saw it was produced by Paul Mahern, formerly of Indiana hardcore legends the Zero Boys. It went home with me and turned out to be a nifty country-blues sorta kinda thing. Rev. Peyton sings and plays slide guitar (well, dobro), his wife Breezy plays the washboard and their cousin Aaron plays a tiny drumkit 'n' a five gallon bucket.