Feed Your Ears

[Luigi]

"Step on the Enemy" by Christopher Laing. I can find exactly no information about this guy. He sounds Caribbean to me; in the video, I see an American flag in one corner of the stage, and I see someone in the audience holding another flag, but those are only a couple of very brief glimpses. Still, I tracked down what I think I see, and the flag could be of Trinidad and Tobago. All of which is to say that I can find exactly no information about Christopher Laing. But I like his sound. 

 

[Luigi]

This is Christopher Laing again. He's new to me, and I'm sorting out his various styles. This is a different kind of sound than "Step on the Enemy" - this sounds sort of Muscles Shoals, but with simpler instrumentation and arrangement. Here's "If a Million People Tell You No." 

 

Edited May 24 by Luigi

[Luigi]

Cissy Houston is the mother of Whitney Houston and the aunt of Dionne Warwick. She has been a back-up singer, had a solo pop/soul career, and has been a Gospel singer pretty much through all of it. This is her singing "How Sweet It Is (to Be Loved by You)." This is another example of a pop song (Marvin Gaye had a hit with it) that gets 'baptized.'  It really was a two-way street - many soul singers began in church and brought that Gospel feel to popular music, but it also happened that pop songs were altered slightly and brought into church. The music is smooth and polished. 

 

[Luigi]

Damien Rice singing Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah." I don't really like most Leonard Cohen songs because he tends to use Biblical imagery for secular purposes. But I won't go into all that here and now, but this doesn't count as "a Gospel song," although it uses a number of Biblical images. Hundreds of people have recorded this song; I've chosen Damien Rice accompanying himself with a very spare guitar arrangement but with lots of emotion in his voice. And that's the part that will feed your ears. 

 

[Luigi]

"Be Still, My Soul" is a poetic prayer composed in German by Katharina von Schlege in 1752. It was translated into English by Jane Laurie Brothwick in 1855. Here, it is set to "Finlandia," written by Sibelius in 1899 - but I don't know who put these words with this music, or what year that was done. This is an a cappella version by a  select few of the Mount Royal Kantorei. Apparently the Mount Royal (University, in Calgary, Canada) Kantorei is a group of 70 singers, so this is only a fraction of them. I'm impressed by their harmony but more so by their perfectly synched articulation. The lyrics are below the video - scroll down to see them. I'm also impressed by the videography and the landscape.  

 

Edited May 27 by Luigi

[Luigi]

"Jesus Be a Fence Around Me" was recorded by Sam Cooke in 1960, but this is Bobby Womack' 1999 recording of it. Womack was a guitarist for Sam Cooke, and he sings it very much like Cooke did - same key, same tempo, same beat. Cooke started in church and transitioned into pop music, as did Womack, Aretha Franklin, and lots of others. And the concept of "Jesus, be a fence around me" is still popular these 60+ years after the original recording - when the murder rate starts to climb around here, there are always several people on social media praying for Jesus to be a fence around our city, or around the innocent people who live in the high crime areas, and so forth. 

 

[Luigi]

This is Sammy Kershaw singing "Better Than I Used to Be," which is sung to a woman but it's really about trying to improve one's life. Just your average guy trying to head in the right direction. It's not technically a Gospel song, but it's got a lot of religious references built into it. 

 

[Luigi]

"Father, I Stretch My Hand to Thee" was a poem written by Charles Wesley in the early 1700s. It was set to music by Amazi Chapin probably around 1800. It has become a standard hymn in lots of church traditions. This version is by The Barrett Sisters, of Chicago. They appear in the documentary "Say Amen, Somebody." There are dozens of versions of this hymn available on YouTube, but I like The Barrett Sisters' version - it's simple and straightforward. However, they sing only one or two verses - the original hymn has six verses. I don't know that anyone sings all the verses any more. 

 

[Luigi]

For the feast of the Visitation, "Holy Is Your Name" by David Haas. He didn't write the melody, though - it's the folksong "Wild Mountain Thyme." This is a concert version by the NYU Women's Choir - four-part harmony for about 50 or 60 voices, with only piano accompaniment. I was surprised to find this song performed by a public, secular school chorus. One little warning: The soloist on the third verse wasn't properly mic-ed so it's hard to hear her words. But I love the wailing baby right before that - it just seems to fit with the impending births of two little boys. 

 

[Luigi]

Dorothy Norwood has a couple of songs about moving mountains - this is the first. It's from 1991, and she's singing with the Northern California G.M.W.A. Mass Choir. 

 

[Luigi]

For the feast of Corpus Christi, here is the shorter form of the Sequence, set to music by Randall De Bruyn in 2001, and sung by Sunday 7pm Choir at St. Francis de Sales Parish in Ajax, Ontario Canada, with violin and piano accompaniment. You can find the words if you click on ...more at the bottom of the text box - they're very poetic so they might be hard to understand on first listen. This is a very nice setting, performed well. 

 

[Luigi]

Mozart began to compose "Lacrimosa" as part of his funeral Mass, but he died before completing it. He wrote only the first eight measures. The remainder was composed by his student Franz Sussmayr (there's supposed to be an umlaut over the U, but I can't figure out how to do that). Anyway, this recording is by Vivienne Sangerin (there's supposed to be an umlaut over the A, but I can't figure out how to do that). She sings all four parts - soprano, alto, tenor, and bass - to a karaoke piano accompaniment. Who knew that people could sing Mozart a al karaoke?! The lyrics are the last verse of the Dies Irae. Here are the Latin lyrics: 

Lacrimosa dies illa                                   Tearful that day
Qua resurget ex favilla                             In which will rise again from the ashes
Judicandus homo reus                            The accused human to be judged
Huic ergo parce Deus Pie Jesu               Therefore spare this human, God Holy Jesus
Jesu Domine                                             Jesus Lord
Dona eis requiem                                     Grant him rest
Dona eis requiem                                     Grant him rest
Amen                                                          Amen 

 

[Luigi]

Pastor Hezekiah Walker organized a Gospel flash mob in 2014, I think, somewhere in Virginia. They sing "Every Praise Is to Our God." The words and melody are simple, but the flash mob is impressive.

 

Edited June 5 by Luigi

[Luigi]

This is "Ave Maria" by four guys singing a cappella in a stairwell - good acoustics! The four guys call themselves Kings Return. 

 

[Luigi]

"Peace Is My Last Gift to You" was written by two music directors at two different (Catholic) churches in Dallas - Justin Brooks and Paul Denner, along with a friend of theirs, Jon Cole.. The song was written for the washing of the feet on Holy Thursday, but I hadn't found this song by that feast. If you click on ... more in the text box, you can see the lyrics as well as the story behind the writing of the song. It's contemporary music, but gentle and well performed - no musical interlude like you'd get in a pop song. The lyrics are all taken from John's Gospel.