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Religious music for less than devout

We have a thread " Jazz for someone who doesn’t like jazz. " In a similar vein perhaps "Religious music for the less than devout".

"people get ready" - Rod Stewart
"Amazing Grace" - Jessye Norman
2009 "Duets" - Five Blind Boys of Alabama, The - entire CD
1988 "Sweet Fellowship" - Acappella, the entire CD

In 1989 I was working in NJ, I may have been the only guy on the job who did not know he was working for the Irish Mafia. I would lend people the CD "Sweet Fellowship" and they were willing to pay for it but never return it:

"Here is $20 kid, go buy yourself another cuz youz can’t have mine back. Now don’t ever ask me again."


timothywright
glupson
7,842 posts
 
Religious music for less than devout, indeed.

If you are not familiar with The Louvin Brothers, check their "Satan is real" album, listen to the lyrics, and when you are done with it, read about them. Preferably in that order. Just the album cover is worth the price of admission. Don’t get me wrong, it is some fine spiritual country music. It is quite brilliant.

This is from Wikipedia (quote from elsewhere, though)...

Mark Deming stated in his AllMusic review: "You don’t need to share the Louvin Brothers’ spiritual beliefs to be moved by the grace, beauty and lack of pretension of this music; Satan Is Real is music crafted by true believers sharing their faith, and its power goes beyond Christian doctrine into something at once deeply personal and truly universal, and the result is the Louvin Brothers’ masterpiece."

"There is a reason why songs from this album have been performed by the more commonly accepted genius of artists such as Gram Parsons, Johnny Cash, and Emmylou Harris."
bdp24's avatar
bdp24
9,821 posts
 

Before Buddy & Julie Miller were recording and performing together, Julie had a career as a Contemporary Christian artist. I have her Meet Julie Miller album on the Myrrll label.

Iris Dement was raised in a Pentecostal home, and her albums are filled with Christian themes and references. The Christian Right did not take well to her criticism of GWB (give a listen to her "Wasteland Of The Free"). Her Lifeline is a Gospel album, and if you haven’t heard her sing, when you do you will see why Merle Haggard, Emmylou Harris, Buddy Miller, and Joan Osborne are big fans of hers, as was John Prine, with whom she collaborated and toured.

So am I; I saw her live in a smallish theater just before the pandemic shut down social gatherings. She told some great stories, including one involving John. She’s much funnier than you would expect, very self-deprecating.

I recorded an album with a real good Christian songwriter in 1975-6, which remains unreleased. I have the master tapes (I engineered), if anyone wants to put it out ;-) . He employed the chord progression, and melodies and harmonies of J.S. Bach, Mozart, and Brian Wilson as fodder for his songs. One spooky one is entitled "Who'll Be Ready For The Big Surprise?"

amg56's avatar
Ag insider logo xs@2x
amg56
887 posts
 
I am not one of them but a large (and rich) free grace charismatic Christian denomination mega church is Hillsong which has produced over 40 albums. I call them happy clappies but they know how to make money!
adameos
66 posts
 
Album from 1996.
European group Vox. The album; Diadema. On this album the group Vox imaginatively adapt the 12th century Mystic Hildegard Von Bingen’s profound religious musical compositions.
Stunning, haunting and utterly brilliant.                                                                                                                           
 
Much of Mozart’s church music, while not as well recognized, is sublime. I love the comment a poster made a few months back, that his wife doesn’t like Mozart. She thinks it sounds like elevator music. LoL! She is in a profound minority. People from Arabic countries have started to adapt Mozart to their instrumentation, such is the effect of his music on them. One thing for sure, I will be listening to Mozart until the day I kick the bucket.
213runnin
914 posts
 
Amg, you wanna see someone that knows how to make money, try Lady Gaga.  Or Britney Spears in her heyday.  Or Michael Jackson in his.  Geez, how many kazillion albums did ABBA or ELO or the Beatles sell?  
Bdp, I was going to mention Buddy and Julie Miller.  Dirty Water is the best recorded track I have.  I also have most of Julie Miller’s solo career.  They marketed her as the Cindy Lauper sound alike.  I always felt that the “sounds like” description marketing of Christian artists was goofy.  
Anyone, look up dirty water on YouTube, it’s got a really excellent guitar solo.
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