New and noteworthy

Echoes of the South

Blind Boys of Alabama

Before listening to this album, watch the 22-minute YouTube documentary about its making, This May Be the Last Time: A Film About the Blind Boys of Alabama. There you’ll learn not only who’s singing what on this rootsy throwback to the Blind Boys’ pre-crossover sound but also that, after the recording wrapped, Ben Moore and Paul Beasley died and Jimmy Carter, the longest-serving still-living Blind Boy, retired. So even if these performances don’t constitute the last time for the Blind Boys brand, they certainly mark the end of an era. Then again, so did the passing of Clarence Fountain.

Gaither Tribute: Award-winning Artists Honor the Songs of Bill & Gloria Gaither 

Various artists

If the sentimentality that runs through the Gaithers’ songs has always put you off, this succinct country tribute might give you second thoughts. The singing, musicianship, and arrangements work like astringents, making the encouragement that also runs through the songs feel earned instead of glib. In a class by itself: “Jesus and John Wayne.” You liked it by the Gaither Vocal Band. You’ll love it by Alabama and the Oak Ridge Boys.

Tougher Than Nails

The SteelDrivers

The title cut refers not to the SteelDrivers (although, with the lead-singer changes that they’ve survived en route to becoming one of the 21st century’s sharpest bluegrass acts, it could) but to Christ on the cross. “Just a Little Talk With Jesus,” “Farther Along,” “His Eye Is on the Sparrow,” and “Amazing Grace” don’t offer anything new. But as changes of pace amid such original classics in the making as “30 Silver Pieces,” “Magdalene,” “Somewhere Down the Road,” and the aforementioned title cut, they get the job done.

Jeremiah

Rachel Wilhelm

You know that an Americana collective has got it going on when you don’t notice the almost complete lack of drums or Phil Keaggy’s touch-ups. Some of these 11 songs were written in or for a songwriting retreat that Rachel Wilhelm led in 2018, others as recently as winter 2023. And, no, you can’t tell which songs are which. But, for what it’s worth, the catchiest song (“I Know the Plans [Jeremiah 29]”) is one of the “old” ones, the second-catchiest (“Fear Not for I Am With You [Jeremiah 45]”) one of the new. So far, neither Wilhelm nor her friends have tapped Jeremiah 17:9. Maybe on the deluxe edition?

Encore

Cherry Red Records’ All God’s Children: Songs From the British Jesus Rock Revolution 1967-1974 goes where no three-disc collection has gone before—possibly because where it goes never existed. If the revolution specified in the subtitle really did occur, these 57 songs aren’t the proof. The Hollies singing Judee Sill’s “Jesus Was a Crossmaker”? Iain Matthews singing Joni Mitchell’s “Woodstock”? Richard Thompson’s “Mary and Joseph”? Please! And there are more puzzlers where those came from.

Yet, as a document of a certain spiritual mood that loosely united prog rockers, garage rockers, folkies, ­garden-variety hippies, and bona fide Christians alike, the collection makes interesting and at times fascinating listening. Unless you’re already deep into arcana of this kind, you should look forward to meeting Clifford T. Ward’s “The Traveller,” Strawbs’ “The Man Who Called Himself Jesus,” and Nigel Goodwin’s “First Time I Went to Church.” There are more where those came from too. —A.O.