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.

PREVIOUS EPISODES OF SHOUT! BLACK GOSPEL MUSIC MOMENTS

SHOUT! Black Gospel Music Moments - Precious Memories by Prof. J. Earle Hines and the Goodwill Singers

Though little-known today, Prof. J. Earle Hines and the Goodwill Singers, with songs like “Precious Memories,” were major gospel artists in the 1940s and ‘50s.

SHOUT! Black Gospel Music Moments - 'It Rained' by Katie Jackson and the GosPearl Community Choir.

Powerhouse vocalist Katie Jackson is joined by the GosPearl Community Choir on the up tempo gospel rave up, “It Rained.”

SHOUT! Black Gospel Music Moments - "Winding Chain” by Sons of Faith

The otherwise unknown Sons of Faith’s recording “Winding Chain” is a superb example of Deep South soulful gospel, a mournful, heartfelt two-minute gem.

SHOUT! Black Gospel Music Moments - "No Greater Love" by Keith Pringle and the Pentecostal Community Choir

Keith Pringle and the Pentecostal Community Choir’s version of Jeffrey LaValley’s “No Greater Love” was an instant classic.

SHOUT! Black Gospel Music Moments - “The Non-Violent Man,” by Bill Spivey and the Sons of Truth

Bill Spivey and the Sons of Truth’s vibrant, up tempo “The Non-Violent Man” was a tribute to the late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

SHOUT! Black Gospel Music Moments - "Let Freedom Ring" by Pinkard Singers

The otherwise unknown Pinkard Singers released a single – but highly engaging -- 45 for the short-lived RaptureA label in the early 1970s, “Let Freedom Ring.”

SHOUT! Black Gospel Music Moments - "I Am A Pilgrim" by Ethel Waters

Ethel Waters was a national treasure during her lifetime and increasingly turned to religious music later in life, including this sprightly version of the old folk spiritual, “I am a Pilgrim.”

SHOUT! Black Gospel Music Moments - "Roll Jordan, Roll" by Rev. Kenneth Glover

The Rev. Kenneth Glover turns the old spiritual “Roll Jordan, Roll” into an amped up “sending song” of the highest order.

SHOUT! Black Gospel Music Moments - "Reflections of the Man Inside" by Eddie Robinson

Bariton Eddie Robinson’s “Reflections of the Man Inside” also features top Motown producers, arrangers and musicians.

SHOUT! Black Gospel Music Moments - "I'm Saved" by J.C. White Singers

Some of New York’s finest musicians accompany the J.C. White Singers on the funky, jazzy gospel hit, “I’m Saved.”

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