Sacred Steel: Traditional Sacred African-American Steel Guitar Music In Florida

Most people associate the sound of a crying steel guitar with honky-tonk Saturday nights, not with Sunday services at the House of God. Yet as this amazing collection of contemporary field recordings attests, the instrument plays a central role in the worship life of many Holiness-Pentecostal churches. Sacred Steel features five of Florida’s finest African-American steel guitarists performing solo or accompanying individual or choral singers.

Stylistically, the selections range from sublimely lilting melodies (Sonny Treadway) to vamping, funk workouts (Aubrey Ghent). And while nothing here is short of inspired, the performances of Willie Eason, the 76-year-old credited with being the first person to adapt gospel music to the steel guitar, qualify as a revelation. Singing in a sweet, gruff voice reminiscent of the late Ted Hawkins, Eason accompanies himself on mesmerizing versions of “Just A Closer Walk With Thee” and his signature song, “Franklin D. Roosevelt, A Poor Man’s Friend”. Pop music fans may be familiar with the latter from the update Jesse Winchester included on his 1974 LP, Learn To Love It.

Except for Glenn Lee, the youngest guitarist on the record, all the musicians here eschew the pedal steel in favor of the older lap or “Hawaiian” steel guitar. Harder to control than the pedal steel, many lap players believe the simpler instrument enables them to heed the pull of the Holy Spirit. All, however, play in the traditional sacred steel style, employing such distinctly African musical devices as heavily accented backbeats, coarse or “dirty” timbres, and gliding leaps in pitch (the last of which often bear uncanny resemblances to the human voice).

While no brief review can do this magnificent music justice, suffice it to say that country blues buffs, even fans of Ry Cooder, John Fahey, and Duane Allman’s guitar work, will fall out when they hear this.