Product Description

The majority of this music has never been reissued on CD, or in any other form (most tracks were originally released on regional independent labels). Most post-WWII compilations of African-American gospel music naturally concentrate on the astounding quartet and solo vocalist sounds made during the music's Golden Age. Fire In My Bones attempts to address and collect more neglected sounds from that era (and on to the present day). Dozens of traditions are represented. Some go back hundreds of years while others seem to have been arrived at as soon as the tape began to roll. Field recordings and studio tracks are all mashed together, with solo performances next to congregational recordings, hellfire sermons next to afterlife laments. Leon Pinson, Elder & Sister Brinson & the Brinson Brothers, Grant & Ella, Straight Street Holiness Group, Theotis Taylor, Brother & Sister W B Grate -- these artists will now be just a little less obscure.


Fire In My Bones provides a small peek at the incredible diversity and power of post-war black gospel. Much of this music is raw, distorted and might sound a bit strange. But it is not presented as a novelty freak show or as "outsider music." This is gospel - which we must always remember translates as "the good news" - as it has been sung and performed in tiny churches and large programs, from rural Georgia to urban Los Angeles. It is clearly among the most vibrant, playful, beautiful and emotionally charged music in the world.


Produced by Mike McGonigal. Package design by Grammy-winner Susan Archie.

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Discs and Tracks

Disc 1
  1 - Peace in the Valley
  2 - Rock and Roll Sermon
  3 - If I Could Hear My Mother Pray Again
  4 - I'm a Soldier / The Phillips' Specials
  5 - How Long
  6 - Better Get Ready
  7 - So Glad
  8 - Wasn't That a Mystery
  9 - When the Saints Go Marching In
  10 - Get Back Sata
  11 - I Got a Telephone in My Bosom
  12 - I Made a Vow to the Lord
  13 - You've Got to Move (When the Lord Gets Ready)
  14 - Down by the Riverside
  15 - Stand by Me
  16 - The Wicked Shall Cease from Troubling
  17 - That's Alright (Since My Soul Has Got a Seat Up in the Kingdom)
  18 - Why Sorrow Done Passed Me Around
  19 - Don't Let Him Ride
  20 - He's Coming Back
  21 - By His Word
  22 - Where Could I Go
  23 - Stand by Me
  24 - I'll Never Turn Back / Shelby Bransford Jr.
  25 - You Without Sin Cast the First Stone
  26 - Storm Thru Mississippi / Henry Green
  27 - I'm Pressing On

Disc 2
  1 - Jesus' Blood
  2 - Glory Glory Hallelujah
  3 - John Saw
  4 - Since He Touched Me
  5 - God's Mighty Hand
  6 - What Can I Do Without the Lord
  7 - Angels
  8 - The Truth in the Gospel / Goldie Haynes & Choir
  9 - Walk with Me
  10 - Spirit of the Lord / The Abraham Brothers
  11 - I've Got Heaven on My Mind
  12 - In God's House
  13 - Does Jesus Care
  14 - If I Could Not Say a Word
  15 - Where the Sun Never Goes Down
  16 - I Heard It Throught the True Vine
  17 - Father, I Stretch My Arm to Thee
  18 - Nobody Knows
  19 - How Much I Owe
  20 - My Testimony
  21 - Prayer /I Love the Lord / Clear Creek Missionary Baptist Church Congregation Excerpt
  22 - Same Man
  23 - I Know I Got Religion
  24 - He's My Rock, My Sword, My Shield
  25 - Working on a Building
  26 - Lord, Hold My Hand
  27 - Fire Shed in My Bones

Disc 3
  1 - Power Is the Heart of Man
  2 - Don't Let the Devil Ride
  3 - Holy Rock
  4 - Pray on, My Child
  5 - Jesus Is Sweet to Me
  6 - I Want to Live (So God Can Use Me)
  7 - I'm Just a Voice
  8 - You Ought to Been There
  9 - You Better Get Ready
  10 - Help Me
  11 - So Soon
  12 - Introduction/Rock Daniels
  13 - The Very Last Mile
  14 - What God Can Do
  15 - Let the Redeemed Say So
  16 - Sweet Home
  17 - A Little Old Fashioned
  18 - How Long
  19 - At a Time Like This (Pt. 1)
  20 - God Rode in the Windstorm
  21 - Go Devil Go
  22 - This Train
  23 - Victory Shall Be Mine
  24 - The Lord Is My Shepherd
  25 - Some Sweet Day
  26 - Swing Low

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