JGM Pick of the Week: November 14, 2017

“Sweet Beulah Land”
Eddie Ruth Bradford
(release date: September 25, 2017)
https://store.cdbaby.com/cd/eddieruthbradford3

By Bob Marovich

The gospel songbird of Clarksdale, Mississippi, is at it again, this time with a mournful hymn about the eternal home.

Backed by minimal instrumentation and the producer’s voice multi-tracked to simulate a male quartet (and a good one, too), “Sweet Beulah Land” finds Eddie Ruth Bradford singing longingly about that place “across the river” where there will be no more goodbyes or sadness. The lonely, weary melody and ERB’s bluesy vocals express the fatigue of the soul living in an unforgiving earth, but the lyrics look ahead to an eternity of much deserved rest.

Written by Squire Parsons, “Sweet Beulah Land” captures that same melancholy that propelled Vince Gill’s 1994 “Go Rest High on that Mountain” into country chestnut status.