The Gospel Hummingbirds – Life Songs

The Gospel Hummingbirds
Life Songs
Gospel Hummingbird Records (2006)
www.thegospelhummingbirds.com

The Grammy-nominated Gospel Hummingbirds have been making music since the early 1960s, when the likes of Roy Tyler and others were in the Bay Area quartet. Along the way, they put out some very fine records, such as “A Better Home” (Bar-Tone) and “Trouble Don’t Last” (Strickland & Son). Even then, their sound had one foot in traditional and the other in the groove of the day.

On Life Songs, the quartet’s most recent release, their sound evokes the sweet, complex harmonies of the Spinners, Whispers, Manhattans, Chi-Lites and the ‘70s Temptations. Nowhere are the harmonies sweeter on Life Songs than on “Heaven,” although the a cappella salute to national resilience, “America,” is quite fetching.

Lyrically, the album makes several references to the end of life, whether it be personal (“See You,” “Heaven”), or world-wide (“Rapture”). Other songs contain the uncomplicated lessons that have come to define quartet lyrics. On “God Said No,” for example, the group warns about yielding to temptation when you think you are with the “right one,” but they do it in such a smooth manner the medicine goes down easily.

“Shadrack, Meshach, Abednego,” reviewed earlier on TBGB, is a cover of the Golden Gate Quartet classic, but with more bass and modern rhythmic drive. The quartet even adds some humor to the album with “County Fair,” a blues about the fright of going on bone-rattling rides at the fair.

Special kudos to producer and group member Morris LeGrande, who provides compelling lead guitar work on “Prayer Changes Things” and “Shadrack.”

Three of Five Stars

Picks: “Heaven,” “Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego.”