Sunday evening gospel--The Messengers Quartet: I Know He'll Keep Me

 

I very nearly had this ready for this morning, but it didn't happen.  So... here's my Sunday evening gospel post, to be enjoyed whenever you wish.  The Messengers Quartet, which formed in South Bend, Indiana, performed in Northern Indiana and Illinois, the liner essay tells us, and this is especially interesting, given their somewhat Appalachian sound.  My ears hear a blend of southern and "mountain" gospel, and it's not stretching things to imagine the Appalachian sound coming up from Kentucky into Indiana (as it has into Ohio).  Not for me, anyway.  You may not hear the sound of the hills that I'm hearing, but the opening track had me thinking of the Carter Family and the Chuck Wagon Gang, despite the group's all-male makeup.  (Rachel Myers, posing in the center, was the pianist.)  

A nice group of familiar songs, many of them lively, and all of them performed with conviction.  Redeemed, by James Rowe (words) and S.A. Ganus (tune) may be the oldest of the selections, though I can't say for sure--it's in a number of my songbooks and hymnals, but none of them gives me a year, though I know it goes back at least to the 1920s.  Redeemed is a classic example within quartet singing of a solo voice "answered" by the remaining three voices, which function as "echoes," to use a common term.  It's a type of call and response that goes back to the 19th century (1868's In the Sweet By-and-By, for ex.)--a brand of antiphony.  In the close harmony version of Redeemed, the "lead" (second tenor) handles the melody, with the bass, baritone, and first tenor singing the response chords (with the first tenor harmonizing above the "lead," to make life more confusing).  Here it is on line, notated for male quartet, complete with the so-called "tenor" clef symbol in the top staff.  That symbol instructs the singers to treat the upper staff as the treble clef, only down one octave.  Widely used in old tunebooks and songbooks, it was not the official tenor clef, and I guess it was a way of saving on ink, since it was an alternative to this:

All of that was just to demonstrate that close-harmony gospel singing didn't spring up overnight, that it has its "roots."  Which I figure you already knew, but...  This LP was produced by RaeBet's Productions in Kalamazoo, Michigan, and Michigan is another place where a lot of Appalachian folks settled--such as, in Detroit, for obvious reasons.  Again, maybe the Appalachian sound is all in my ears, but I swear The Messengers (who are called the "Messenger's" on the label) have a "mountain" sound to them, at least in part.  Mixed with other influences.  Well worth a download, despite the not-so-hi-fi sound quality (which has me thinking this is from the 1960s--that, plus Rachel's hair), which I compensated for with a slight treble boost.  (The sound, not the hair.)  Another fine gospel thrift gift from Diane.

In my ID tag I  went with the label's misspelling of Ralph H. Goodpasteur's last name (as "Goodpastuer"), whereas I used the correct spelling below.  I was undecided when I labeled the track, because it seemed that, if I corrected the spelling, I'd be offering an inauthentic document of the LP and its contents.  Tough decision.  Same thing with "Messengers" vs. "Messenger's."  These are the agonizing issues music bloggers sometimes have to struggle with... behind the blog.  ("Behind the Blog" theme music, fade.)  But, seriously...

DOWNLOAD: The Messengers Quartet--I Know He'll Keep Me (Grace Note Recordings LPM-40-13881)

The Messengers Quartet

Somebody Loves Me (Crumley)
Redeemed (Rowe-Ganus)
I've Been With Jesus (Smith)
I Will Lean on His Arm (Cline)
What a Day That Will Be (Hill)
Do You Know My Jesus? (Lakey-Ellis)
I'm Feeling Fine (Lister)
Wonderful Savior (Sumner)
I Know He'll Keep Me (Hall)
It's So Wonderful (Goodpasteur)
I Told Everybody (Godwin)
From Now On (Sumner)

I Know He'll Keep Me (Grace Note Recordings LPM-40-13881)

Lee