Someone's been breaking into the spirits....
Lee Hartsfeld | Central Ohio, United States | 10/20/2002
(3 out of 5 stars)
"The late Joe Williams was a great vocalist. It's such a joy to hear him sing ANYTHING, even the kind of slick jazz-gospel funk contained herein, that I can recommend this without any guilty aftereffects. But the concept behind this project IS a little hard to take. We are told that this is "real roots music"--African-American spirituals, to be exact--yet the track list includes originals by arranger Johnny Pate, plus the 1905 Charles Gabriel gospel masterpiece "His Eye Is on The Sparrow," whose words were written by Civilla D. Martin, the Canadian-born wife of a Baptist minister. In fact, the booklet reveals that Word, Inc. owns the copyright for "Sparrow." So, what's up with the "spiritual" label? Is a strange sense of humor at work here? More likely, very little thought went into this. Buy "Feel the Spirit" for Williams' splendid singing. Note: This was recorded with Monster Cable (see page 7). Wow. You'd better get this one, then."