Gospel
Overview by Charlie Gillett, Record Mirror, August 1969
ON STAGE at the Apollo, Harlem: standing at one microphone, an immaculately dressed man dramatically insists his love. At the second mike, four men bend ...
Edwin Hawkins Singers, The: Edwin Hawkins
Interview by John Abbey, Blues & Soul, November 1970
EVERY NOW and then, a true phenomenon occurs in the world of popular music. The 60's was a period when at least one unusual occurrence ...
Edwin Hawkins Singers, The: The Edwin Hawkins Singers/Blue Mink: Royal Albert Hall, London
Live Review by David Nathan, Blues & Soul, December 1970
IN PRACTICALLY every biography written about today's soul singers, mention is made of how he or she began singing in church; so much so that ...
Profile and Interview by John Abbey, Blues & Soul, June 1972
THREE YEARS ago, George Perkins' debut single, 'Crying In The Streets', gave him a No. 1 R&B record. Now comes the belated follow-up and a ...
Review by Ian MacDonald, NME, August 1972
Aretha at her greatest ...
Aretha Franklin: Amazing Grace (Atlantic)
Review by Roger St. Pierre, NME, August 1972
THOUGH IT HAS received wide critical accalim Aretha Franklin's latest album, the double set Amazing Grace, is far and away the least commercially orientated she ...
Aretha Franklin: Amazing Grace (Atlantic)
Review by David Nathan, Blues & Soul, September 1972
WHEN I WAS first privileged to hear some of Aretha Franklin's Amazing Grace album when John Abbey brought back from the States several cassettes'-worth of ...
Various Artists: The Gospel Sound
Review by Tony Russell, Cream, November 1972
YOU READ it here, you read it there: gospel is close to the heart of blues and rock. But where do you hear what that ...
Aretha Franklin, Rev. James Cleveland: Rev James Cleveland
Profile and Interview by John Abbey, Blues & Soul, December 1972
IT'S REALLY quite a sad commentary on life that it took a pupil to bring the master to the attention of the world but that's ...
Interview by David Rensin, Rolling Stone, February 1975
LOS ANGELES – "I've never asked anyone to help me or give me a break," declared Billy Preston adamantly. "Whatever I don't have now I ...
Mighty Clouds of Joy, The: Hey You, Get Onto The Mighty Clouds Of Joy…
Comment by Bob Fisher, NME, March 1975
...and discover the undiluted gospel fervour and emotional commitment you thought black music had lost. ...
Live Review by John Swenson, Sounds, March 1976
YOU WON'T find a better textbook example of what's gone wrong with R&B over the past few years. Ticket prices, scaled from $10.00 down, were ...
Thomas A Dorsey: The Father Of Gospel: Thomas A. Dorsey
Profile and Interview by Steve Turner, Melody Maker, May 1977
He likes his stories does Thomas A. Dorsey, and with a 77-year-old mind in charge of the telling, they do tend to crop up more ...
Cissy Houston In Her Own Right
Interview by David Nathan, Blues & Soul, January 1978
Cissy has sung behind countless superstars, from Elvis to Aretha, particularly during her stint as leader of the Sweet Inspirations. She's now out front again ...
Timmy Thomas: The Gospel Freak
Profile and Interview by John Abbey, Blues & Soul, November 1978
The 'Why Can't We Live Together' man now has a dual role – as head of TK's Gospel division and leader of the Freak dancefloor ...
Dixie Hummingbirds, The: The Dixie Hummingbirds: Flyin' High
Profile and Interview by John Abbey, Blues & Soul, February 1979
THERE HAS been a whole lot of publicity about the fact that fifty years ago, Walt Disney was introducing Mickey Mouse to the world over ...
Interview by John Abbey, Blues & Soul, February 1979
THE RELEASE of Straight From The Heart marks the return home of the Rance Allen Group. After a gap of four years – during which ...
Bob Dylan: Slow Train Coming (CBS)
Review by Charles Shaar Murray, NME, August 1979
THE RELATIONSHIP between rock and religion has always been fraught and filled with tension: back at its Southern rural roots, there was always a serious ...
Al Green: Higher Plane (Hi/PRT)
Review by Andy Gill, NME, April 1982
OH, HAPPY man...You can tell Al Green is truly saved from a quick glance at the cover, from the way his Daz-white shirt blue-airbrushes its ...
Clark Sisters, The: The Clark Sisters: Is The Lord Bored With Disco?
Interview by Barney Hoskyns, NME, August 1983
GOD MUST be tired of pop music. The most popular female gospel act in America, Detroit's Clark Sisters, have the first gospel record in a ...
Viv Broughton: Black Gospel: An Illustrated History Of The Gospel Sound (Blandford Press)
Review by Barney Hoskyns, NME, 1984
IT’S ONLY TOO easy to take that vicarious pleasure in the religious antics of folk who are not of one's own race, nationality or (non-) ...
Al Green: The Gospel According To Al Green
Interview by Don Snowden, Los Angeles Times, January 1985
Al GREEN was the hottest soul singer this side of Stevie Wonder in the early '70s but don't expect to hear old hits like 'Tired ...
Al Green: Trust In God (Demon/Hi)****
Review by Chris Roberts, Sounds, February 1985
F*** GOD (Brando's first two words in Last Tango, actually), we're talking AL GREEN here. Quite simply, the best voice ever to co-exist with anything ...
Soul Stirrers, The: Various Artists: Father And Sons (Spirit Feel)
Review by Barney Hoskyns, NME, 1986
IF YOU'VE any interest in gospel music at all, this should be an essential purchase. Compiled by Anthony Heilbut, author of seminal tome The ...
Winans, The: The Winans: The Divine Music Of Protest…
Profile and Interview by Simon Witter, NME, January 1986
SIMON WITTER has a new calling – to spread the word about THE WINANS, a hot Gospel sound that just won't let go. ...
Swan Silvertones, The: Pet Sounds: Get Right With the Swan Silvertones (Archives Alive/Rhino)
Review by Don Snowden, Los Angeles Times, August 1986
GOSPEL MUSIC GENERALLY gets much lip service as an influence on R&B (and indirectly rock) vocalists but short thrift when it comes to re-issues of ...
Jimmy Swaggart: The Best of Jimmy Swaggart (Jim Records)
Review by Glenn O'Brien, Spin, April 1987
A LOT OF fundamentalists today preach against the evils of rock 'n' roll, but TV evangelist Jimmy Swaggart has gone and done something about the ...
Interview by Nick Coleman, Time Out, June 1989
"Sometimes I wonder if you love me the way you say you do... Sometimes I just fold my arms and say... weeeee-eeeeh awooooah!" ...
Johnny Cash: The Gospel Collection
Sleevenotes by Colin Escott, Sony, July 1992
ONE NIGHT in August 1957, after an appearance on Town Hall Party in Compton, California, Johnny Cash went to the home of Lawrence and Hazel ...
Marion Williams: The Genius of Marion Williams: My Soul Looks Back
Sleevenotes by Anthony Heilbut, Spirit Feel/Shanachie, 1994
IN RETROSPECT, Marion Williams' last year assumes an almost mythic shape. She finally received the worldly honours and material goods long denied her: the rush ...
Candi Staton: Journey From Sensuality to Salvation
Discography by Bill Carpenter, Goldmine, March 1995
When you get that old yearningTo come around knocking on my doorYou know I'm gonna let you inBaby just as sure as sin, as sure ...
The Gospel according to Anthony Heilbut
Profile and Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Independent, The, June 1996
From Mahalia Jackson to Death in Venice might seem a long journey. But for Anthony Heilbut, the renowned gospel expert and author of a new ...
Staple Singers, The, Pop Staples, Mavis Staples: The Staple Singers: God's Greatest Hitmakers
Retrospective and Interview by Bill Carpenter, Goldmine, August 1996
THERE'S NO question about it. Forget the Winans or the Hawkins Family, the Staple Singers are the most widely known, best-selling gospel group of all ...
Blind Boys of Alabama: The Backpages Interview: Clarence Fountain of the Blind Boys of Alabama
Interview by Jason Gross, Rock's Backpages, June 2001
A sixty-plus-year-old gospel group that covers Tom Waits and the Rolling Stones songs for Peter Gabriel’s label? Is it possible? When most groups struggle to ...
Retrospective by Tom Graves, Memphis Flyer, July 2004
Note: The following article of mine appeared in the July 2 special issue of the Memphis Flyer that celebrated the 50th anniversary of the birth ...
Elvis Presley: He Touched Me – The Gospel Music Of Elvis Presley
Review by Terry Staunton, Record Collector, October 2005
THE ONLY Grammys Presley won in his lifetime were for gospel records, and for a long spell in the '60s his songs of praise were ...
Outward Is Heavenward: Modern Gospel
Report by Carol Cooper, Village Voice, July 2006
THERE'S SO MUCH going on in gospel music today that you may have missed when Kirk Franklin paused from promoting Hero, his latest chart-topping CD, ...
Profile by Jon Stewart, Guitarist, June 2008
SISTER ROSETTA Tharpe was born in a Mississippi delta cotton farm in 1915. ...
Sleevenotes by Anthony Heilbut, Shanachie Records, 2010
"You know, friends, they got this new music ... this rocking and roll. And I'd just like to say that it gets its beat... ...
Book Excerpt by Anthony Heilbut, 'The Fan Who Knew Too Much' (Knopf), June 2012
AMONG THE SEVERAL MYTHS Aretha's father Reverend C. L. Franklin incarnated was a familiar type, Reverend Eatemup, the man with pastoral appetites in food ...
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