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Average: 5.0 (11 ratings)
- Date Released: February 18, 2000
- Genre: Blues
- Style: Traditional Blues
- Label: Yazoo - Shanachie Records / The Orchard
Itinerant preacher testifies alongside a mystical carousel.
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We Say...
You've never heard anything like Texas-based troubadour Wash Phillips in your life. This truly is heavenly stuff: the backing music sounds like a mystical carousel, while the vocals sound like early Dylan. Washington Phillips was an itinerant or "jackleg" preacher who recorded eight 78s in the late '20s, accompanying himself on what was either a handmade zither or a dolceola. "Denomination Blues," covered by Ry Cooder in the '70s, is one of the most sensible spirituals ever recorded.
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They Say...
In the pre-Depression heyday of "race" records, sacred songs and sermons were as widely recorded (and popular) as blues and jazz. Like such "guitar evangelists" as fellow-Texan Blind Willie Johnson, Phillips's evangelism borrowed from blues and mingled topical commentary in a way which makes his 16 recordings from 1927-29 still compelling. Interdenominational hairsplitting ("Denomination Blues"), lecherous deacons and lax parents are among the targets of Phillips's gentle scorn; like the best of his contemporaries, he mixed biblical background ("Paul and Silas in Jail") with daily life foreground ("You Can't Stop a Tattler") in the manner of a skilled preacher. Phillips's sermon-songs are accompanied by dolceola, a keyboard hammered dulcimer that sounds like a celestial ice cream truck. If Johnson sounds like Yahweh's wrath unsheathed, Phillips is a Sunday school picnic on heaven's lawn. His music is a unique and delightful rivulet off the blues-gospel Nile.
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You Say...
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| 01. |  |
I Am Born To Preach The Gospel |
3:07 |  |
| 02. | |
The Church Needs Good Deacons |
3:00 | |
| 03. | |
I Had A Good Father And Mother |
3:00 | |
| 04. | |
Take Your Burdon To The Lord And Leave It There |
3:12 | |
| 05. | |
A Mother's Last Word To Her Daughter |
2:56 | |
| 06. | |
Paul And Silas In Jail |
2:38 | |
| 07. | |
Denomination Blues Part 1 |
3:02 | |
| 08. | |
Denomination Blues Part 2 |
2:34 | |
| 09. | |
Lift Him Up That's All |
3:29 | |
| 10. | |
Jesus Is My Friend |
2:52 | |
| 11. | |
Mother's Last Word To Her Son |
2:49 | |
| 12. | |
What Are They Doing In Heaven Today |
3:16 | |
| 13. | |
I've Got The Key To The Kingdom |
3:03 | |
| 14. | |
Train Your Child |
3:09 | |
| 15. | |
You Can't Stop A Tattler Part 1 |
2:53 | |
| 16. | |
You Can't Stop A Tattler Part 2 |
2:47 | |
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Credits
- Stefan Grossman - Cover Design // George Washington Phillips - Dulcimer // George Washington Phillips - Vocals // George Washington Phillips - Main Performer // Robert Vosgien - Digital Mastering // Richard Nevins - Producer // Richard Nevins - Remastering // Pat Conte - Liner Notes
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