SHOUT! Black Gospel Music Moments - Blind Willy Harris

In recent years, music lovers have re-discovered producer Juan D. Shipp’s fabulous D-Vine Spirituals label out of Memphis. Fat Possum Records’ re-releases of classic D-Vine 45s have even been featured on NPR and Free Record Day.

Shipp and engineer Clyde Leoppard started D-Vine in 1970 and over the next 15 years released an astonishing array of gospel artists, including the Gospel Wymics, the Pure Heart Travelers, the Exciting Legion Airs and Blind Willie Harris and the Sensational Six.

Harris’s rendition of the beloved gospel song “Jesus Loves Me” is a perfect example of what D-Vine did best – fueled by a Stax Records-styled horn section, it’s slow and gritty and bluesy and absolutely drips with soul.

MUSIC: Blind Willie Harris and the Sensational Six, “Jesus Loves Me,” 45.

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“Shout! Black Gospel Music Moments” is produced by KWBU and the Black Gospel Music Preservation Program at Baylor University Libraries.