In the 60,000 items digitized and available through the Black Gospel Music Preservation Program/Black Gospel Archives at Baylor University are hundreds of self-pressed 45s and LPs. An artist or a quartet or even a choir walks into a small studio, records a handful of tracks, then sells them or gives them away to family and friends. They’re recorded in the most primitive of conditions, without the polish of modern gospel. But they’re also some of my favorites.
One great example is this rough and ready recording by the tiny Straight Street Holiness Church of Fort Valley, Georgia. Bishop Milton Phelps, who plays guitar, leads a 10-member choir and the sound is little better than a neighborhood garage band. But there is a wonderful fresh energy to their live versions of the old spiritual “Nobody’s Fault But Mine” and this hypnotic rendition of “I Want the Lord to Do Something for Me” that I just love!
I’m Robert Darden … “Shout! Black Gospel Music Moments” is produced by KWBU and the Black Gospel Music Preservation Program at Baylor University Libraries.
