Honest, soulful expression

The differences resulting from the “in the world” emphases of the “Social Gospel” and the “but not of the world” emphases of the other kind (the “Private Gospel”? the “Great-Commission Gospel”?) have long exacerbated frictions between liberal-leaning and conservative-leaning Christians.

But one faith-based sector that has proved particularly immune to the repercussions of that rift is black-gospel music. The Time for Peace Is Now: Gospel Music About Us—a new compilation on the Luaka Bop label showcasing obscure ’70s singles by various and equally obscure artists—demonstrates something of both the how and the why.

The “how” has to do with lyrics that directly address social dysfunction from an unapologetically Biblical point of view.

Both the Little Shadows–sung “Time for Peace” and the Soul Stirrers–sung “I’m Trying to Be Your Friend” quote directly from the Beatitudes. The Staple Jr. Singers’ “We Got a Race to Run” refers to the story of Lazarus and Dives. Willie Scott & the Birmingham Spirituals’ “Keep Your Faith to the Sky” holds up as an exemplar the woman with the issue of blood from Mark 5 (and Luke 8). And James Bynum’s “We Are in Need” weaves 1 Corinthians 13:11 into a deeply soulful plea for men to step up and be strong.

One might almost conclude from such Scripturally based exhortations to brotherhood and to keeping hope alive that in Christ there is no left or right.

The music reflects a similar indifference to categories. “Time for Peace” proceeds along a descending, bongos-accompanied bass figure atop which, ironically enough, Mick Jagger could’ve chanted “Sympathy for the Devil.” And if “Peace in the Land” suggests that the Gospel I.Q.’s dug Clarence Carter (it does), the melody of “Don’t Give Up” suggests that the William Singers harbored a fondness for “House of the Rising Sun.”

As for the “why” of the project, Luaka Bop’s president Yale Evelev says that it has mainly to do with the lyrics’ timeliness. “Many of these songs were really an outgrowth of the civil rights movement,” Evelev told me. “However, I felt [their message] was so connected to what is going on in the world now.”

Bob Darden, the head of Baylor University’s Black Gospel Music Restoration Project and a contributor to the album’s liner notes, agrees. “There will always be a market for honest, soulful expression,” he said. “And some of these tracks are as raw as it gets. They’re not highly processed, not filtered through the hands of a dozen producers, and not calculated in any way.

“They’re the opposite of corporate music making.”

IF THE TIME FOR PEACE IS NOW represents a microcosmic view of an underappreciated genre, Legacy Recordings’ 105-song soundtrack to Ken Burns’ new eight-part documentary Country Music does the opposite, surveying from as great a height as possible one of American music’s richest strains.

The set includes, as one might expect, dozens of the genre’s most seminal and iconic tracks. But in this regard they’re not all that different from, say, Time Life’s Country Jukebox Collection.

What sets Country Music apart is its chronological sequencing (which makes the music’s sometimes complicated evolution easy to follow) and its willingness to defy egalitarianism and grant more space to more-deserving artists.

The proportions sometimes feel off—three Emmylou Harris songs to one from Buck Owens, one Johnny Rodriguez song to zero from Billy Joe Shaver. And “Will the Circle Be Unbroken” fore, middle, and aft risks overstating the obvious.

But there’s also subtlety galore. And what the soundtrack hasn’t squeezed in it points to.