Friday, September 26, 2008

"Precious Lord..."

Precious Lord, take my hand,
Lead me on, let me stand,
I am tired, I am weak, I am worn;
Through the storm, through the night,
Lead me on to the light.
Take my hand, precious Lord,
Lead me home.

Thomas A. Dorsey, 1932
While reading Getting the Blues, I've been listening (not inappropriately) to Goodbye, Babylon, described below. It includes Blues and much more – country, western, southern gospel (both white and black) – all Christian music from a particular era, but all with the sensibility referred to in the previous post. The CD description:
In February 1999 a college radio disc jockey named Lance Ledbetter set out on a mission to compile rare and essential recordings of vintage religious music. Four and a half years later the result of this journey was released as a box set called Goodbye, Babylon.

The set consists of five CDs featuring 135 Songs (1902-1960) and one CD featuring 25 Sermons (1926-1941). Accompanying the CDs is a 200 page book with Bible verses, complete lyric transcriptions, and notes for each recording. ....
Bob Dylan and Neil Young liked it. Neil Young:
"I recently got a gift from Bob Dylan, a good old friend of mine. He gave me a gospel collection of great old American music and early country roots from old 78s. It's the original wealth of our recorded music; it's the cream of the crop and has the history of each recording. It's a great old set called Goodbye, Babylon, and it's incredible. It's in a wooden box and everything, and it's just so beautiful." — Neil Young on Weekend Edition
Audio samples at Dust-to-Digital.

Dust-to-Digital : Goodbye, Babylon [DTD-01]

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