Gospel: Goodbye, Babylon (Various Artists)

Today’s CD review and giveaway is most appropriate for Wednesday of Holy Week. Dust-to-Digital has assembled a box set of Gospel music called Goodbye, Babylon. It is 5 CDs of Gospel tunes recorded from 1902-1960 and 1 CD of sermons from 1926-1941. Dust-to-Digital was kind enough to send a sampler CD, and one person will get a free copy of this sampler. See the end of this post for details.

I’ve often been intrigued by field recordings and other sets that preserve historical music, but they’re not the kind of thing that I usually just put on to listen to during the day. This set might change that.

As the description says, Goodbye, Babylon “includes field recordings, guitar evangelists, holiness string bands, jubilee gospel quartets, sacred harp choirs, and sanctified jug music.” The music contained here puts the current worship debates into perspective. While most of this music comes out of a much different tradition than my own Lutheran heritage, I find myself realizing that these songs combine teaching about Jesus with what musical instruments and background that the congregation or singers had.

Some people today would say that only certain types of music are able to contain the Gospel message, but when the Holy Ghost Sanctified Singers grab harmonica, guitar, and what sounds like a washtub bass, who can say that they’re not conveying the message? Their rendition of “Thou Carest Lord, For Me” leaves me remembering that God loves me. And that, my friends, is the Gospel, the Good News.

I really enjoy the tracks that are kind of a combination of Gospel, acoustic blues, and bluegrass, like “Woke Up This Morning (With My Mind on Jesus)” by Roosevelt Graves and Brother, and “Lift Him Up That’s All” by Washington Phillips. These performers could be in church, on the street, or at a barn party, thereby bringing Jesus with them wherever they go in a form that can be heard in many places.

Alabama Sacred Harp Singers with “Present Joys” give us a chance to hear sacred harp singing, or a “figuring tune,” which combines a lyric text with singing of individual notes. Correct me if I’m wrong, but this is similar to the shape note singing featured recently in the movie Cold Mountain.

Other tracks come from more established artists like Blind Willie Johnson and Sister Rosetta Tharpe. I mentioned a collection of Sister Rosetta in a post awhile back.

I wasn’t convinced that I’d want a whole CD of sermons, but the Rev. A. W. Nix’s “Black Diamond Express to Hell” has convinced me that I’d really like this entire box set. The sampler contains just part 1 of this sermon which is part sermon, part song, in Nix’s sing-songy delivery. “The bell is ringing/Hell bound, hell bound/The devil cries out,/”All aboard for hell.” I only hope that part 2 of the sermon is Gospel, because after nearly 3 minutes, we’ve got a lot of sinners on that train, but I’m curious on how Jesus will save us from that express to hell.

Finally, Brother Claude Ely’s rendition of “There Ain’t No Grave Gonna Hold My Body Down” drives home the belief in the resurrection of the body. You can’t hear that acoustic guitar, the handclapping, and the singing without imagining Christ returning, rising all people from the dead, and the believers dancing right into the new Jerusalem. Goodbye, Babylon, indeed!


For another take on this song and many other traditional songs, Dren Records has produced an album of modern artists doing covers of public domain songs called, Ain’t No Grave. Kris Delmhorst with the Rebel Children perform the title track which is a little bit slower, and Delmhorst’s voice gives a more subdued approach, almost more mournful. Where Ely’s version proclaim victory in his approach, Delmhorst’s version is more like the nevertheless of faith. Here I am suffering or struggling or sick or dying in this life, but nevertheless, I believe in the resurrection of the body. If you like traditional songs but aren’t so sure about original recordings from the first part of this century, Ain’t No Grave is an excellent way to still enjoy these wonderful songs—which includes a few Gospel tunes like Goodbye, Babylon, and then many other public domain tunes.

The first person to email for this CD was Dylan. She gets a free copy of the CD sampler of 15 tracks from Goodbye, Babylon. She said, "The last time I heard a really good traditional gospel song performed was when I went to see Sweet Honey in the Rock on March 18 and they performed "Motherless Chil'." WOW!" Use the comment section to name a time when you’ve heard a really good traditional Gospel song performed.

Thanks to Lance Ledbetter and Dust-to-Digital for providing a review sampler and giveaway copy of Goodbye, Babylon. Also, thanks to Niall Hood and Dren Records for the review copy of Ain’t No Grave.