Gospel Nights

Description

Gospel Nights, sub-titled Maria Muldaur with special guest artists The Chambers Bros., is a live album by the American folk and blues singer Maria Muldaur, released on Takoma Records in 1980, distributed by Chrysalis Records. The album was produced by Jon Monday and Maria Muldaur.

Gospel Nights was recorded at McCabe’s Guitar Shop in Santa Monica, California; featuring various guest artists and friends of Muldaur, like Chambers Brothers and The Burns Sisters. Muldaur was backed by a band featuring Alpha Band members David Mansfield and Steven Soles on fiddle/mandolin/guitars, Stephen Bruton on electric guitar, Danny Timms on piano, as well as a rhythm section consisting of bassist Leon Gaer and Elvis-drummer Ron Tutt. Features liner notes written by T-Bone Burnett, who would go on producing Muldaur’s next effort, the gospel album There Is a Love.

Maria Muldaur, The Chambers Brothers, the Burns Sisters, Steven Soles, David Mansfield, Steve Bruton, Leon Gaer, Danny Timms, Ron Tutt. And the music? Traditional.

For those familiar with only the most famous of traditional American hymns, this LP will provide an enjoyable education. Three tunes by the Chambers Brothers (Joe, Lester, Willie, and George) are a cappella or nearly, as are two by Muldaur (who is newly born again) and the Burns Sisters (Becky, Brenda and Beth.) The LP was well-recorded at a session at the legendary McCabe’s Guitar Shop in Santa Monica, Calif., and includes Appalachian, southern, and black gospel – slow and “churchy,” joyful and toe-tapping. (Best cuts: «Brothers & Sisters», «People Get Ready», «Said I Wasn’t I Wasn’t Going To Tell No One», «My Jesus Is All».) P.S. Cover notes by T-Bone Burnett are nearly as inspiring as the music. [CCM (Records – What’s New), November 1980]

LP tracklist:

Side One
A1. “Brothers And Sisters” – 6:46
A2. “My Jesus Is All” – 3:44
A3. “Trials, Troubles, Tribulations” – 4:22
A4. “Bright Morning Star” – 3:24
A5. “Daniel Prayed” – 3:26
A6. “Nobody’s Fault But Mine” – 1:38

Side Two
B1. “Just Like An Eagle” – 4:43
B2. “Did You Remember” – 3:17
B3. “Traveling Shoes” – 4:14
B4. “People Get Ready” – 4:01
B5. “Said I Wasn’t Going To Tell No One” – 5:55
B6. “Guide Me, O Great Jehovah” – 1:53

Note: Simultaneously released on cassette and 12-inch vinyl LP by Takoma Records. Original recording was remastered and re-issued on CD by Takoma/Allegiance, piggybacked with John Fahey’s Yes, Jesus Loves Me! minus one track (“Said I Wasn’t Going To Tell No One”) to make them both fit.

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The album’s liner notes, written by T Bone Burnett:

I was asked, “Do you think Christianity is a fad?”
“A fad,” I wondered.
And I thought about C.S. Lewis and G.K. Chesterton
And T.S. Eliot.
And I thought about Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky.
And Rubens and van Goyen and Rembrandt.
And Handel and Hayden and Bach.
And Luther.
And Pascal.
And Dante Alighieri.
And a Kempis and Augustine.
And Saul of Tarsus and Simon Peter.
“It’s been going on for years,” I thought,
“Back to about one.”

This is a record of two nights of music
Recorded live in the back room of
A guitar shop, McCabe’s, from
Next door in Takoma’s studio.
It wasn’t planned. It grew there.
The Chamber Brothers were called
And the Burns Sisters
And Steven Soles and Stephen Bruton and David Mansfield.
And Danny Timms and Ron Tutt and Leon Gaer.
They got together and remembered songs
And made music
Drawn from a rich heritage.
One of Celebration.
Of Joy.
Of Freedom and Release.
And Generosity.

This is a singer in touch with the source
Of Rhythm & Blues and Country & Western and Rock & Roll.
Of Otis Redding and Hank Williams and Elvis Presley.
Al Green and the Stanley Brothers

Sam Cooke and the Carter Family
Claude Jeter and the Swan Silvertones
Doc Watson and the Watson Family
Ray Charles and Curtis Mayfield.
Mavis Staples
Reverend Gary Davis
And Dorothy Love Coates.

Not that she thinks she is any of those people.
She looks in their direction
And a breath of fresh air
Blows in through a window
Painted open.

In a world in which people put their lives in boxes
–Spirit and Beast and Leisure and Work and Faith and Reason–
That never touch,
This is music that is connected.

In a world whose memory
Goes back to about 1963,
A world cut off from the past,
It is important to discover our history.
Because we are all leaves on a tree.

T Bone Burnett