Finally…my list of “watershed” albums

I know, I know...it's been a LOOOOOOOONNNNNNNNNNNG time since I've been here.

I'm beginning to wonder if this is a post that God doesn't want me to make! Twice in the past week I've tried to do this, and the first time I tried posting this when the site was down for maintenance. Then I was hit hard by a flu bug, and after a week, I've finally got enough energy to try again. Once I did, I had to leave for work before I could finish it...when I tried to save it, my computer would not allow me to.

So here I go once more....if THIS fails, I know I'm fighting a losing battle.

In a post that seems to have been a year ago that I posted it, I was responding to Wes Burke about his contention that Gold City's "Pillars of Faith" was an album that impacted gospel music in the way that the Beatles' "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" or the Beach Boys' "Pet Sounds" affected rock music in the mid-1960s.

Whilw taking nothing away from "Pillars", I opined that it was not on that level...I followed that conclusion with a challenge to all my readers to offer suggestions on what albums, if any, would have been that type of album in gospel music.

Some of you had some interesting choices of your own...for my part, I withdrew from debate, giving time(plenty, as it turned out!)for as many of you to respond as possible before I offered candidates of my own.

Here now, are my choices...I'll justify them on the basis of the criteria I used in my initial post...which were...

1) Was it popular? Do most fans know of it?

2)Did it change gospel music? Surely a "Pepper" type album would be hugely influential on the genre, to the point of other artists trying to emulate it(or it's impact).

3)Can you draw a line in the artist's career from it? As in "before" that album, and "after" that album?

4)Did it forever change that artist's career?

Some of you tried to use that criteria as well...some of you didn't. Anyway, here are my choices for possible gospel music "Peppers"...as always, feel free to respond with your own comments.

The first album...THE BLACKWOOD BROTHERS IN CONCERT(1959, RCA 2137)

This was gospel music's first live album...and as such, set the stage(no pun intended)for the many classic live albums to follow down the years. This was one of the 7 albums Cliff Cerce suggested in his comment, but since it really wouldn't be accurate to cite 7 "Pepper" type albums, I opted to choose which of Cliff's "Magnificent Seven" would be the best example of what I was trying to talk about.

Going down the criteria, then...here's how that album rates.

1)I would imagine it was quite popular, considering that it stayed in RCA's catalogue for nearly 13 years...and almost everyone familiar with gospel music of that time either has it, or is VERY familiar with the album.

2)As Cliff said, this album(and the other albums he cited)proved that you could package a gospel concert for the people, rather than have to go to a concert yourself(easy for Southerners, but hard for people in the West, and nearly impossible for people in the Northwest and Mountain states)to experience the excitement of a live gospel concert. This album was certainly groundbreaking in that respect...especially since it was the first.

3)Well, just five years prior to the release of this album, the Blackwoods had experienced the most traumatic turning point of any gospel artist's career...losing two of their key members in the famous 1954 plane crash. While the quartet had already released five albums with the new members(Cecil Blackwood and JD Sumner), it was arguably this album that firmly established the new direction the Blackwoods were headed in. With several Sumner original songs("I Wouldn't Trade", "Never", "He's All That I Need", and "What A Morning"), the kind of arrangements they began doing with this album, it's arguable that this album can be used to a degree to draw the line between the "pre-crash" and "post-crash" Blackwoods...and that line helped define what was to become "the" gospel quartet sound for the next decade and a half.

4)Well, it certainly helped rejuvenate them...and keep them atop the quartet world for a while longer.

My second pick...The Couriers...NOTHING...BUT THE GOSPEL TRUTH(1963, Warner Bros. 1514)

Cliff also makes a case for the Couriers' 1970 album "Sweet and Shouting Spirituals", but I think this album had more impact on the gospel music world overall. I know some of you are going to accuse me of extreme prejudice on this one...but hear me out...let me explain why I chose it.

1)Like my first pick, there were no real gospel charts at that time to really demonstrate how popular the album was...but the fact that as late as late 1964(a year and a half after its' recording), Billboard Magazine indicated it was one of the top selling gospel albums that they were aware of tends to suggest that it circulated fairly widely...and other artists certainly spoke of it and liked it.

2)Not that much at first...but it DID directly influence an Akron, Ohio quartet called the Cathedral Quartet to issue albums featuring string and brass sections(which this album had...combined!)...and other artists hearing it were inspired to combine pop(read "contemporary" for the day)stylings with the basic gospel quartet sound to create a different sound that would have a stronger appeal to young people. This album's influence was certainly felt by the end of the decade.

3)In the Couriers' case...most definitely! Prior to this album, they were known as a good young regional quartet...because of the stir that this album caused, they vaulted into national prominence...going from an "up and coming" quartet to one that had definitely arrived.

4)Obviously, it did...the Couriers' image changed from a "regional" quartet to an innovative, talented player on the gospel scene.

Now, my third pick..The Imperials-NEW DIMENSIONS(1968, Impact 1962)

Always intended to be a "different" quartet, this album firmly established this extremely talented quartet as one of the top artists in the genre...and proved there was life for them after Jake Hess!

Going down the criteria...

1)I don't know that this album was a BIG seller...but it certainly did well for them down the years, and fans still remember a number of songs from it.

2)Did the sun rise at all this year? The revolution that this album helped cause not only propelled the Imperials to gospel stardom, but it inspired groups like the Oak Ridge Boys, the Stamps, the Downings, and even more established groups like the Blackwoods, Statesmen, and Rebels to modernize their sound and try to gain some younger fans. It started a trend that was only reversed in the late 1970s by a "counter-revolution" led by artists who didn't choose to point their careers in the same direction. But boy, what great music came from this trend!

3)Again, this is obvious. The Imperials proved with this album that they would still be a vital force in gospel music even without their founder...and even now, there is a "pre-Jake" and "post-Jake" period discussed in connection with the Imperials.

4)It certainly did change the Imperials' career...they quickly morphed from traditional gospel quartet to(within ten years)a "contemporary Christian" industry trendsetter.

Finally, there's...The Kingsmen-LIVE, NATURALLY(1981, Heartwarming 3534)

Daniel Mount may wonder why I chose this live album of theirs over their Dove-award winning 1973 album, "Big And Live". Well, because it sold a lot more records...and because I believe it had more influence on gospel artists that B&L did.

Again, my criteria...

1)Not only was this album one of the biggest sellers of all time, it had the most popular #1 hit ever, "Excuses".

2)In the sense that it established the Kingsmen and their performance style as the definitive live sound for a gospel quartet, and even today has influenced a number of younger live performers, it set a standard that is still sought for by gospel artists today. Many artists today still WISH they could command an audience in the way flamboyant group MC Jim Hamill could.

3)One can make a case that this album did draw a line between the "pre-LN" and "post-LN" Kingsmen....before, they mostly released studio albums...after, they released almost nothing BUT live albums...trying time after time to cash in on their rep as gospel's top live act. It DID change the direction of their career.

4. See #3 above.

OK, have at it. I'm still not sure even those albums are "Pepper"-type albums, but they certainly were "watershed" albums in the careers of those artists, and of gospel music in general.

But I'd love to get your input, and hope it was worth the wait to finally get mine.

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