Record producer Joel Dorn and photographer Lee Friedlander grew up listening to gospel and blues. They met 40 years ago at Atlantic Records, where Friedlander was photographing many of the artists Dorn produced.
Now they've put out a compilation of their favorite gospel songs from the 1950s and 1960s. The 18 tracks on the aptly and simply titled Gospel Music show the roots of rock 'n' roll alongside the sanctified power of gospel.
Link.
I'm not a big gospel fan, but that doesn't sound too bad. Heck, maybe we could get some of that type of music into the Catholic Church, which couldn't hurt. If I have to listen to "Open the Doors to Christ" one more time, I'm gonna have a seizure. I'm assuming the "hymn" (or whatever you call a song that is Kumbaya without the folk song feel) was written in honor of the Jubilee year with that same name, and I certainly mean JPII no disrespect, but it's flippin' horrible. The first time I heard it, I immediately thought, "Music forced into a theme, not inspired." Again, I know nothing about the song's origins, but I know I suffering when I feel it.
