Steve Eaton over at the Back Row does great album rankings for southern gospel’s biggest groups. Daniel Mount at Southern Gospel Blog tells us the four (or less) essential albums one would use to introduce an artist to a new fan. I’d like to piggyback on their ideas and put a twist on it. I will combine the “essential” concept with my love for playlists and come up with a mix CD of songs you might use to introduce someone to a group. The Essential Playlists will have an 80-minute limit to tell the story of a southern gospel artist.
(Of course, in the interest of copyright law, I do not encourage you to give someone this hypothetical mix CD unless you have two copies of all the albums the songs came from, and also give all the albums to your friend. It would probably be better to use a long car ride to play the CD for them.)
In the first entry of this series, I’ll start with a big-time quartet for whose music I think I have a relatively firm grasp. Gold City has had a plethora of big hits over the last 30-plus years, but only 80 minutes of music are allowed on our Essentials CD. With this playlist, I included most of the quartet’s biggest hits, and also got at least one song in from almost every lineup. Tim Riley, Brian Free, Ivan Parker, Mike LeFevre, Steve Lacey, David Hill, Jonathan Wilburn, Jay Parrack, Mark Trammell, Daniel Riley, and Steve Ladd all have features on this playlist.
- In My Robe of White, Live (1981)
- I Think I’ll Read It Again, I Think I’ll Read It Again (1983)
- John Saw, Walk On (1984)
- Who But God, Sing With the Angels (1985)
- When I Get Carried Away, Double Take (1986)
- Midnight Cry, Movin’ Up (1987)
- Under Control, Goin’ Home (1989)
- One Scarred Hand, Windows of Home (1990)
- If God Be For Us, Pillars of Faith (1992)
- There Rose a Lamb, Pillars of Faith (1992)
- Going, Going, Gone, Renewed (1994)
- I’m Not Giving Up, Standing in the Gap (1995)
- God’s Building a Church, What a Great Lifestyle (1997)
- In Time, On Time, Every Time, Within the Rock (1998)
- He Said, Signed Sealed Delivered (1999)
- Calvary’s Hill, Signed Sealed Delivered (1999)
- Get Up, Get Ready, Are You Ready? (2000)
- God Handled It All, Walk the Talk (2003)
- It’s Just Another Red Sea, First Class (2004)
- Preach the Word, Revival (2006)
- I Cast My Bread Upon the Water, Moment of Truth (2008)
- Peter, James, and John, Somebody’s Coming (2011)
What did I leave off? Which songs from this playlist would you replace?
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Actually, it’s not always specifically four. It’s however many I think are absolutely essential for a given artist. I did four for Greater Vision and Brian Free & Assurance, but three for the Mark Trammell Trio/Quartet, with their briefer recording history.
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I noticed that after the fact when I went and clicked on the link. Thanks for pointing that out, in particular because it drew my attention to another typo right next to it! 🙂
Thanks for the correction. The statement is now currently correct. However, when I’m discussing an artist who had 75+ total recordings – e.g. Cathedrals, Statesmen, Blackwood Brothers, Florida Boys etc. – I may end up doing more than four in the future. 🙂
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When you do that, I will go back and correct it again. Ha!
🙂
Great list! Glancing at the list, I only see one or two songs I’d consider replacing.
I like “Going, Going, Gone,” but I like other Gold City songs a lot more. Still, the song probably deserves a spot on the list as the first radio song post Brian and Ivan.
I’ve never cared a lot for “Who But God.” So while Gold City has several songs that I’d rather listen to, for this concept, I would have replaced “Who But God” with the live cut of “Movin’ Up To Gloryland” from A 10 Year Celebration. The song seemed to be a regular part of their concerts for almost ten years.
I don’t know how much time you have left from the 80 minutes with this list, but if you had a minute or two, I’d consider a short cut from Acapella Gold.
In the painful omissions category, I’d mention “Between Me And The Storm,” “When The Lamb Becomes The Light,” “It’s Still The Cross,” “How Deep Is the Water,” and “Windows Of Home.” Those are some of my favorite Gold City songs, but I don’t think they make the cut as being historically essential.
Oh! Although it would eat up a lot of time on the CD, the “Christmas Medley” from Voices of Christmas would be a good addition. Speaking of medleys, you could always replace several of the hit songs from the 80s with the “10 Year Celebration Medley”. That would free up some time for more songs!
Sorry this comment is so long… you know I love discussing Gold City.
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I was looking forward to your contribution. That’s something I didn’t think of, to put the big medley in to take the place of the 1980s songs. Interesting thought!
I know you’re like me, a huge fan of 1996-2001 lineup. I tried to not let my bias there get in the way of this list. Songs like “Between Me and the Storm” and “When the Lamb Becomes the Light” are some of my all-time favorites, but like you said, not “essential” for the discography.
Great idea. I do ultimate comps and then do collections where I put their entire recorded output on CDRs, but change the order. The problem is, I put the favorite and better stuff on the earlier ones and the latter ones then get anti-climatic. Of course ideally I could put “album cuts” in earlier ones to keep it interesting, but if I only listen to one or two of them (which is generally true) I would want the “good stuff”. So, at least my approach gets everything on less CDs with the better stuff together, but it generally means the latter CDs get ignored mostly. 🙂
I am years behind doing Gold City now, so I would have to redo a few and maybe put the findings from the first one here when I do.
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Unless I’m making a playlist for a special theme or purpose, I pretty put all of music on CD-Rs in chronological order. I have a Gold City 1991-1993 CD, Cathedrals 1986-1987, etc.
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pretty *much put
I’ve done some of that too.
I think “All That I Am” is a great song even though it’s not “big” for them. When I’m mixing playlists, I tend to stick with personal faves whether or not they’re especially significant career-wise.
I Such do like to hear southern gospel music
He Said by Gold City. One of my favorites!