Name: Pure Religion
Brand: Avid
SKU: 154251336
Price: 4.95 USD
Availability: InStock

Pure Religion

Rating

Album: Pure Religion
#	Song Title	Time
1)	Blow Gabriel
2)	Twelve Gates to the City
3)	Sampson and Delilah
4)	Oh Lord, Search My Heart
5)	Get Right Church
6)	You Got to Go Down
7)	Keep Your Lamps Trimmed and Burning
8)	There Was a Time When I Was Blind
9)	Pure Religion
10)	Mountain Jack
11)	Right Now
12)	Buck Dance
13)	Candy Man
14)	Devil's Dream
15)	Moon Goes Down
16)	Cocaine Blues
17)	Runnin' to the Judgement
18)	Hesitation Blues
19)	Bad Company
20)	I Didn't Want to Join the Band
21)	Evening Sun Goes Down
22)	Seven Sisters
23)	My Heart Is Fixed
24)	Say No to the Devil
25)	Time Is Drawing Near
1)	Hold to God's Unchanging Hand
2)	Bad Company Brought Me Here
3)	I Decided to Go Down
4)	Lord, I Looked Down the Road
5)	Little Bitty Baby
6)	No One Can Do Me Like Jesus
7)	Lost Boy in the Wilderness
8)	Tryin' to Get to Heaven in Due Time
9)	You Got to Move
10)	Crucifiction
11)	I'm Glad I'm in That Number
12)	There's a Table Sittin' in Heaven
13)	Motherless Child
14)	There's a Bright Side Somewhere
15)	I'll Be Alright Some Day
16)	You Better Mind
17)	Little More Faith, A
18)	I'll Fly Away
19)	God's Gonna Seperate
20)	When I Die I Live Again

Album: Pure Religion
#	Song Title	Time
1)	Blow Gabriel
2)	Twelve Gates to the City
3)	Sampson and Delilah
4)	Oh Lord, Search My Heart
5)	Get Right Church
6)	You Got to Go Down
7)	Keep Your Lamps Trimmed and Burning
8)	There Was a Time When I Was Blind
9)	Pure Religion
10)	Mountain Jack
11)	Right Now
12)	Buck Dance
13)	Candy Man
14)	Devil's Dream
15)	Moon Goes Down
16)	Cocaine Blues
17)	Runnin' to the Judgement
18)	Hesitation Blues
19)	Bad Company
20)	I Didn't Want to Join the Band
21)	Evening Sun Goes Down
22)	Seven Sisters
23)	My Heart Is Fixed
24)	Say No to the Devil
25)	Time Is Drawing Near
1)	Hold to God's Unchanging Hand
2)	Bad Company Brought Me Here
3)	I Decided to Go Down
4)	Lord, I Looked Down the Road
5)	Little Bitty Baby
6)	No One Can Do Me Like Jesus
7)	Lost Boy in the Wilderness
8)	Tryin' to Get to Heaven in Due Time
9)	You Got to Move
10)	Crucifiction
11)	I'm Glad I'm in That Number
12)	There's a Table Sittin' in Heaven
13)	Motherless Child
14)	There's a Bright Side Somewhere
15)	I'll Be Alright Some Day
16)	You Better Mind
17)	Little More Faith, A
18)	I'll Fly Away
19)	God's Gonna Seperate
20)	When I Die I Live Again

Performer Notes

This 1957 release has been issued throughout the world under a bevy of names. These recordings are worth mentioning for both their sacred and secular nature. Equally as interesting is the wide range of performance styles that the Rev. Gary Davis incorporates throughout this long player -- the first full-length disc to do so. Among them are the rarely displayed preachin' blues of "Bad Company," "Runnin' to the Judgement," and "Pure Religion." Notable are the spoken introductions or talkin' blues recitation techniques, as well as the more obvious and overtly religious themes. Davis took his commitment to the Lord seriously and had become an ordained minister in the summer of 1937. His vehemence and compulsion to spread the word is a blatant motif that works on several strata. In the musical parables of "Seven Sisters" -- which isn't a voodoo reference -- and "Right Now," Davis recalls the fatality of not rebuking sin with lyrics like "Don't 'cha put off today for tomorrow/for tomorrow may never be/Let the Saviour bless yo' soul, right now." This collection also includes a few equally heady instrumentals -- most notably "Cocaine Blues," "Buck Dance," and "Hesitation Blues." Davis' astonishingly potent guitar playing and conversational approach has arguably never been captured more aptly on record. The direct lineage between artists such as Dave Van Ronk, Jorma Kaukonen, Stefan Grossman, and Brownie McGhee becomes infinitely clear. One need not listen any further for their versatility in technique -- coupled with simultaneous chord strumming and picking -- can be traced to Davis. "Moon Goes Down" is one of the more secular pieces, originating in the slave fields as a "hollar." Davis' emotionally heavy performance and dirge-like chord changes rank the tune among his most emotive recordings. Pure Religion was amended with two additional and otherwise previously unreleased tunes -- "Time Is Drawing Near" and "Crucifixion" -- when the title was issued on CD in 1991. Both tracks are from the same June 1957 session documented by Tiny Robinson and Fred Gerlach in New York City. ~ Lindsay Planer