The Gales – Sensational Nightingales (tbgb review)

The Gales
The Sensational Nightingales
Malaco Records 2008
www.malaco.com

Talk about staying power, the Sensational Nightingales have been singing quartet since 1942. The list of prominent Gales alumni includes Barney Parks, Howard Carroll, Paul Owens, Bob Beatty, June Cheeks, and Jo Jo Wallace, the latter who remains a stalwart singing and guitar-playing member of the group.

The quartet’s latest outing, The Gales, titled after their nickname and featuring a drawing of said bird silhouetted in moonlight on the cover, is a collection of a dozen tracks led mostly by Darrell Luster, who also penned many of the album’s musical offerings. Luster’s compositions have a melodic and lyric simplicity that make them memorable. The quartet’s rendition of these songs, however, is not the hard-edged, shout-laden, electric sound of the Cheeks era but rather the laid back and relaxed era ushered in by Charles Johnson and sustained by newer members, such as Luster, whose gently crooning lead adds another layer of patina to the performances.

There are exceptions, of course, one being the drive-tempo “Can I Get a Witness,” a loping mid-tempo “He’s Still Working Miracles,” and “I Just Couldn’t Tell it All.” It seems as if the album picks up momentum in its second half, leading up to the final track, the current radio single, “Just Traveling Through,” a Wallace composition.

To me, the album is most memorable because it features the quartet veteran Jo Jo Wallace leading some songs and providing electric guitar backdrop for the entire affair. No disrespect to a group that sings “Out with the Old, In with the New,” and gospel music is about moving forward, but I personally prefer the ‘Gales 1950s oeuvre. There’s nothing like their 1955 “Somewhere to Lay My Head” to set your pulse to racing, and the pathos of Christ’s Passion as articulated on “See How They Done My Lord” is unforgettable.

Two and a Half of Four Stars