"Mother's Advice" by Georgia's Taylor Brothers is a gently rocking country gospel jewel.
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Welcome to Shout! Black Gospel Music Moments. I’m Robert Darden.
Hailing from tiny Blackshear, Georgia, in the late 1940s, the Taylor Brothers sang in Southern churches and high school auditoriums for more than 30 years, taking their down-home brand of country gospel anywhere and everywhere.
Led by C.J. Taylor, the group never quite broke though into gospel’s upper echelons, despite a string of stellar laid-back 45s for the eclectic Nashboro label from 1964 to 1967. The closest they came to a hit is this 45, “Mother’s Advice,” from 1965. “Mother’s Advice” has everything that makes a great gospel song – C.J.’s raspy, soulful lead voice, close-knit sibling harmonies and their distinctive loping country-gospel beat.
It’s also a gospel song about the singer’s precious mother – actually, there are probably 100s of songs about mother in gospel music ... every major gospel act released at least one ... a few, like the Pilgrim Travelers’ “Mother Bowed” ... even crossed over into the R&B charts. Trust me, “Mother’s Advice” from the Taylors can stand with the best of ‘em, even nearly 50 years later.
MUSIC: “Mother’s Advice,” Taylor Brothers, 45
I’m Robert Darden … “Shout! Black Gospel Music Moments” is produced by KWBU, the Black Gospel Music Restoration Project at Baylor University Libraries and is funded by generous support from the Prichard Foundation.
