Description
Soulfully is the third studio album by the American contemporary gospel group Andraé Crouch & The Disciples (featuring Andraé and his twin sister Sandra, as well as Perry Morgan and Bili Thedford), released on Light Records in 1972. The recording of Soulfully was started in 1971 with Bill Cole producing (who also did produce Keep On Singin’, as well as Crouch’s first solo album, entitled Just Andraé), but the album didn’t come out until the fall of 1972. Featuring songs like “It Won’t Be Long,” “Through It All” and “Satisfied.” The latter track, with its memorable intro riff, is said to be Andraé Crouch & The Disciples first full-born rock song, with its gritty guitar work and earthy rhythm. It definitely caught the ear of the Jesus people who gathered by the tens of thousands in Dallas, Texas for Explo 72, and is featured on the live album Jesus Sound Explosion recorded at the event. “Satisfied” was also covered by Ron Salsbury & The J.C. Power Outlet on their self-titled debut album released on Myrrh Records in 1972.
In the book The 100 Greatest Albums in Christian Music, CCM critic Thom Granger wrote: “The cover said a lot about this record: the four key members of Andraé Crouch’s Disciples photographed on a set of railroad tracks, looking the way black people looked in 1972 – Afro hairstyles, bright funky clothes and a healthy amount of pride on their faces.” The album’s back cover features a shot of Andraé Crouch & The Disciples performing live on Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show on NBC. (That show actually was the very first time drummer Bill Maxwell of Sonlight, and later of Koinonia fame, had ever played on stage with Andraé Crouch.)
The first two albums from the group sounded a bit like black artists making safe music that would be palatable to a white audience. On this, their third release, Andraé Crouch & The Disciples raised the bar and began to confound expectations. This was a potent mix of Black Gospel and Jesus Music…a group of authentic black artists doing what came naturally…touching people, regardless of their race or religious affiliation…going wherever the Holy Spirit said go. They were a group that God raised up “for such a time as this.” In his Encyclopedia of Contemporary Christian Music, author Mark Allan Powell says that Soulfully revealed “a tight, well produced band that could’ve held their own against any R&B act in the land.” It was Christian music’s first real taste of the Motown sound and Philadelphia Soul. When you mix Andraé Crouch’s songwriting, the group’s soulful singing, electric sitars, fuzzy guitars, lush strings, wah-wah pedals, and the anointing of the Holy Spirit…you get an album like Soulfully. [Scott Bachmann]
> Apple Music (https://music.apple.com/us/album/collectors-series-soulfully/305544066)
LP tracklist:
Side One
A1. “Everything Changed” – 3:20
A2. “He Proved His Love To Me” – 4:12
A3. “Oh I Need Him” – 3:55
A4. “Satisfied” – 3:03
A5. “Through It All” – 3:22
Side Two
B1. “I Come That You Might Have Life” – 4:20
B2. “You Don’t Know What You’re Missing” – 3:03
B3. “Try Me One More Time” – 3:15
B4. “Leave The Devil Alone” – 3:20
B5. “It Won’t Be Long” – 4:25
Note: Simultaneously released on 8-track tape, cassette, and 12-inch vinyl LP by Light Records. Later re-issued on CD.
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