Various Artists – American Primitive Vol. 1: Raw Pre-war Gospel (1926-36)
A bit of a misnomer, this. It’s my understanding that sacred recordings of this era and nature usually fall under the heading of sanctified blues. But music this transcendent would put the fear of God in me no matter what you called it. Besides, that’s not the only distortion of truth here.
The sanctified blues singer of the ’20s and ’30s was often more of an opportunist than a missionary; secular men singing sacred song (Charlie Patton appears here as “Elder J.J. Hadley”), illiterate men preaching the Good Word. Somehow this collection manages to capture these contradictions; it feels more indulgent than devout. Compared to the recent Alan Lomax collection Sheep, Sheep Don’tcha Know The Road, it’s more of a rebuttal than a complement.
As per usual, Revenant has provided a lovingly researched and packaged collection, including authoritative notes by Gayle Dean Wardlow (the context) and John Fahey (the assessment). Fahey concludes, “The nature of the Protestant Church is to communicate ‘cheap Grace’ — which is no Grace at all — through emotional, exciting, provocative and stimulating entertainment, especially through the twin talismans of noise and rhythm.”
Being of Protestant upbringing myself, I’m not as much offended as I am jealous. Eighteen years of churching never exhilarated — or frightened — me as much as Rev. Edward Clayborn (The Guitar Evangelist) does. If it had, I might still be waking up before noon on Sundays.