Hoping for Help with Hymns
As it's Sunday, I wonder if anyone can help me out with some suggestions along the following lines. I periodically get a hankering to find some recordings of hymns/worship songs that I can live with as listening material outside church. This hankering has to live alongside my tendency to dislike most current Christian music. The kinds of thing that I am not looking for include:
- "inspirational" recordings in which the songs are so larded with dripping sentimentality that I drown before I get to the theological content
- versions in which the singer is so desperate to touch me with the staggering depth of his or her sincerity that I end up just mentally watching him or her emote.
- CCM or me-focused worship lite
- instrumental recordings (actually maybe I wouldn't mind one or two of those, but my interest right now is in the texts, not just a musical cue for reminiscence)
- country versions (one day I'll learn to love something in that genre, but probably not this week; although I'm willing to listen if you have something you think will really impress me)
- versions that turn hymns into exercises in aesthetic refinement; this rules out a lot of white high-church choir recordings. I'm not after anything Rutter-esque. Not that I don't have a place for spiritual classical music, but I am after something with more guts here. Respectful but perhaps not too sacred.
- black gospel I like, but I already have inroads into that, it's not really quite the gap I'm feeling.
There may be a place for some or all of the above. I do not necessarily intend a blanket rejection, just trying to describe what I'm hankering for and not finding. In one of my first MiG pieces I cited Bruce Cockburn's "realization that numbingly familiar seasonal standards are still songs, written by songwriters, with lyrics that often make sense and are beautiful. He refers to his own creative process of retrieval in terms of discovering that a little nudge in one direction or another would help to revive their songness." That's part of what I'm after, something that foregrounds the lyrical integrity of the hymn while also having musical integrity and some honest robustness rather than erring in the direction of vaguely comforting schmaltz. I'm not sure exactly what I am looking for, or even exactly what genre it would fall in (do I want bluesy verions? jazzy versions? choirs? I don't know). I just know I'm not hearing it.
Any suggestions?
- "inspirational" recordings in which the songs are so larded with dripping sentimentality that I drown before I get to the theological content
- versions in which the singer is so desperate to touch me with the staggering depth of his or her sincerity that I end up just mentally watching him or her emote.
- CCM or me-focused worship lite
- instrumental recordings (actually maybe I wouldn't mind one or two of those, but my interest right now is in the texts, not just a musical cue for reminiscence)
- country versions (one day I'll learn to love something in that genre, but probably not this week; although I'm willing to listen if you have something you think will really impress me)
- versions that turn hymns into exercises in aesthetic refinement; this rules out a lot of white high-church choir recordings. I'm not after anything Rutter-esque. Not that I don't have a place for spiritual classical music, but I am after something with more guts here. Respectful but perhaps not too sacred.
- black gospel I like, but I already have inroads into that, it's not really quite the gap I'm feeling.
There may be a place for some or all of the above. I do not necessarily intend a blanket rejection, just trying to describe what I'm hankering for and not finding. In one of my first MiG pieces I cited Bruce Cockburn's "realization that numbingly familiar seasonal standards are still songs, written by songwriters, with lyrics that often make sense and are beautiful. He refers to his own creative process of retrieval in terms of discovering that a little nudge in one direction or another would help to revive their songness." That's part of what I'm after, something that foregrounds the lyrical integrity of the hymn while also having musical integrity and some honest robustness rather than erring in the direction of vaguely comforting schmaltz. I'm not sure exactly what I am looking for, or even exactly what genre it would fall in (do I want bluesy verions? jazzy versions? choirs? I don't know). I just know I'm not hearing it.
Any suggestions?
Comments
ETA, My goodness ! - Thats 50 years ago.
This is the entire recorded output of Blind Willie Johnson, and it's transcendent music. Dark Was the Night, Cold Is the Ground Most are sung/with lyrics, though not this one.
I'll think about this some more. There are certainly plenty of good gospel-jazz projects out there. This is a new one, for example, which I am still getting to know.
A couple years old...southern Gospel (with the legendary Allen Toussaint on piano and prob arrangements):
There's also a great new duet album with Charlie Haden and Hank Jones, but that's instrumental.
I wanted to mention, though, that I just submitted an MiG piece on Kate Campbell's latest album. One of the songs is an old traditional African American spiritual that I found to be incredibly moving and beautiful. You may like that one. Even if you don't have time to review the whole piece right now, you might want to go to the MiG site and listen to that song.
Also, my next MiG for Part 2 of my '70s Show series will be on Mark Heard. He was one talented artist - you might be interested to know that Bruce Cockburn considered him to be America's best songwriter. Heard died of a heart attack at age 40. Cockburn never met Heard, but was very affected by his death, and wrote a song about Heard called "Closer to the Light" that was included on one of his albums. I highly recommend Mark Heard's album, Second Hand.
EDIT // I forgot to mention that Mark Heard began his recording career with a Christian music label. Not your typical Christian music stuff, though, by any means.
EDIT // Maybe you would like Eric Bibb's Get Onboard ?
I've been really enjoying Mahalia Jackson lately, but you may already have that covered.
Something else to check out is The Reverend Charlie Jackson. It's a whole different kind of black gospel. Try "Wrapped Up and Tangled Up in Jesus" - it will get hooks in you.
I second Mark Heard, and suggest Buddy and Julie Miller, Buddy's last album was particularly good. They do the soundtrack for kids cartoon, "Little Dogs on the Prairie," a Christian kids cartoon which is witty and not too over the top. Julie Miller wrote a song called Broken Things, one of my favorites, although Lucy Kaplansky does a better job.
Iris Dement did an album of hymns, although her style is quite quirky.
I am almost always willing to put in a plug for Bill Mallonee. I would not call his music "Christian," just good songwriting with a spiritual edge. He was the frontman for Vigilantes of Love, another good band to rec in this category.
/edit Gotta Serve Somebody, the gospel songs of Bob Dylan covered by some of the best gospel singers.
I was also going to suggest Sandra McCracken - she has an album of hymns out. Also Innocence Mission. And, GP - although I don't think you're particularly into celtic music, there's a group called Eden's Bridge that has a very gorgeous and soul-soothing album called Celtic Worship.
I also like Jonathan Rundman's double CD opus of 52 tracks covering each week of the Lutheran advent calendar. Very spiritual without sounding 'churchy' at all.
Very solid religious songs performed in Jug Band-Blues style.
Do keep them coming, especially if there are any that have done musically interesting versions of classic hymns.
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