Search - Swanee Quintet :: Take the Lord With You

Rough recordings of fine gospel

Sanpete | in Utah | 01/16/2010

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is vigorous, heartfelt, soulful, sometimes raw gospel music from around the 1960s. Members of the Swanee Quintet were singing together as early as 1939. By the time these recordings were made for Nashboro Records, beginning in 1959, they had combined the old-time harmonies with a rock 'n' soul band. Think an all-male version of the early Staple Singers to get the basic flavor (or better, listen to the samples Amazon provides). During the 60s they opened shows for soul giant James Brown, whom they met way back when he was shining shoes, and on whom they, and particularly vocalist Ruben Willingham, had been an important early musical influence. Perhaps their most well known song, 1966's "Try Me Father," included here, is acknowledged to be modeled on Brown's "Try Me," with vocals by "Little" Johnny Jones to match. (According to the 45 single, Brown himself wrote and produced "Try Me Father" and co-wrote with N. Jones and produced the flip-side "That's the Spirit," also included here, which has some similarity to Brown and Jones' "Ain't That a Groove," also from 1966. According to the CD cover, the songs were written by James Anderson, a member of the group, and T. House, respectively.)



Six of these cuts are from between 1959 and 1962, three are from 1966, and one, "Ups and Downs," is from the mid-70s. The difference in sound quality with the later one is immediately evident. It's in good stereo. The others are in mono of varying quality, from rough and/or recessed to fairly full and good, all listenable.



All of these cuts are also on The Best of the Swanee Quintet except for "How I Got Over," which is also on What About Me?/Anniversary Album (two of their Nashboro albums, from 1960 and 1962, on one CD) as well as The Best of Nashboro Gospel.



This CD may not be quite as generous a sampler of the Swanee Quintet of the period as the 14-track Best of, but all of the CDs of their old recordings are out of print, while this one is still available for MP3 download, and not too pricey used on CD (at least while I'm writing this), so it's a good place to start. Five stars for the music (not the sound quality)."