Comments
Blind Willie Johnson &...
Blind Willie Johnson and the Guitar Evangelists reveals soul gospel rawness that connects manifoild links in the history of American roots music. Titular artist Johnson, represented by 30 of four-CD set's 96 chronologically presented tracks, has a bassy beller that could easily have influenced the vocal mannerisms of Howlin' Wolf and Captain Beefheart. Rev. Edward W. Clayborn's clear annunciation and proteanly steady picking give his 30 cuts equal parts otherworldly comfort and phophetic foreboding. Though the aforementioned got over acoustically, later musicianaries Rev. A. Johnson and Rev. Utah Smith (renowned for wearing angel wings as he played) will have you pondering whether the African-American church is the birthplace of godly, hard and heavy music. And that was the early '50s! Others to keep an ear out for include the set's only female, 0 Willie Mae Williams, and the probably pseudonymous Rev. I.B. Ware. Only the lack of a couple of other famed sightless, axe-toting preacher-singers keeps this from being any more essential. Keep these Evangelists filed near your Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Rev. Gary Davis and sacred steel (Robert Randolph, et al) discs. Per its label's budget-minded norm, the price of this extraordinary collection could probably nab an nth of one of the original 78s heard here. [JSP, U.K. JAMIE LEE RAKE]
©2005 HM Magazine - All Rights Reserved
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