Rod Stewart - Every Picture Tells A Story
Rod the Mod finds his solo footing, headed for stardom, with the Faces in his wake.
6:00 AM GMT 22/06/2011
Features Disc of the day
The Dixie Hummingbirds
Thank You For One More Day
(MCA/Peacock Gospel Classics, 1998)
Their 70th anniversary commemorative CD, here in celebration of the life of gospel pioneer Ira Tucker Jr, who died on June 24.
The Dixie Hummingbirds, a consistent force in gospel music since the late 1930s, are probably best known to the MOJO audience as the gospel group who sang on Paul Simon’s There Goes Rhymin’ Simon in 1973 and featured on the album’s hit track Loves Me Like A Rock. It’s apt that the Hummingbirds should have given Simon’s music a fresh lick, because by then they had been refreshing gospel itself for decades thanks to the inspiration of Ira Tucker Sr (right), who joined them in 1938 when barely in his mid-teens. The Hummingbirds toured the South until they moved to Philadelphia in 1942, and in 1952 they found a long-term recording home with the Peacock label. Their style had been on the move too, evolving from a basic blues-folk delivery that Pops Staples might have appreciated to a smooth-harmonising jubilee quartet format before Tucker broke free and – I was about to say all hell broke loose but that’s obviously not appropriate – the walls of gospel tradition came a-tumbling down. An increasingly wilder, more urgent and roaring lead vocal style evolved, and although Tucker’s wasn‘t the only distinctive lead voice in the group – first Paul Owens and then James Walker were excellent foils for his exuberant improvisations – his was the guiding hand. This CD is an easily digestible best of the group, and of Tucker and Walker’s writing. The rhythm always swings like crazy behind lead vocals that tear it up, be it on Christian Automobile (car journey as metaphor for travel on rocky road of life) or Tucker’s The Final Edition (Bible as ultimate newspaper) or Let’s Go Out To The Programs (group has fun imitating other gospel acts – Five Blind Boys Of Alabama, Pilgrim Travelers etc).
Geoff Brown
Posted by Danny_Eccleston at 9:44 AM GMT 09/07/2008
Further Listening
Sam Cooke With The Soul Stirrers – Sam Cooke With The Soul Stirrers (Ace)
The Swan Silvertones – Love Lifted Me/My Rock (Specialty)
The Pilgrim Travelers – The Best Of… Vols 1 & 2 (Specialty)
SUGGEST YOUR OWN DISC OF THE DAY ON OUR MESSAGE BOARD HERE, OR, MORE PRIVATELY, HERE!
Previous Disc of the day
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Earl Brutus - Larky
Last salvo of Ginsters Pasty-Warholism from Britpop ramraiders.
12:04 PM GMT 08/06/2011
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Loudon Wainwright - T-Shirt
An overlooked small wonder from an unpredictable career.
6:00 AM GMT 03/06/2011
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Landscape - From The Tea-rooms Of Mars… To The Hell-holes Of Uranus
Dry computer club Futurists, upon hitting implausible chart paydirt.
6:00 AM GMT 17/05/2011
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Causa Sui - Summer Sessions Vol 1-3
Epic Danish jams, for when the neighbours get you down.
6:00 AM GMT 12/05/2011
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Comments
Comment on this post
Just to point out two errors in the Dixie Hummingbirds entry above.
First, it was Ira Tucker, SR, not JR, who passed. Ira Jr - Stevie Wonder's close friend and publicist for many years - is alive and well.
Second, the CD pictured, part of Sony's 20th Century Masters series, was not the Hummingbirds' 70th Anniversary CD. MUSIC IN THE AIR, released on the House of Blues label with special guests Paul Simon and Stevie Wonder, is the 70th anniversary album.
Posted by Jerry Zolten at 1:49 AM GMT 14/07/2008 Report Abuse
Reply to this post
Another error in the above is that Ira Tucker is not on the right but rather on the left bottom looking up. Above him is guitarist Howard Carroll, and above him Beachey Thompson. Just up from the mike, bass singer William Bobo, and on the extreme right, group founder James Davis.
Posted by Jerry at 3:03 AM GMT 18/07/2008 Report Abuse
Reply to this post
Another error in the above is that Ira Tucker is not on the right but rather on the left bottom looking up. Above him is guitarist Howard Carroll, and above him Beachey Thompson. Just up from the mike, bass singer William Bobo, and on the extreme right, group founder James Davis.
Posted by Jerry Zolten at 3:03 AM GMT 18/07/2008 Report Abuse
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Comment on this post