Essential Gospel – Classic Recordings: No. 134

“Use Me, Lord”
Drinkard Singers
From A Joyful Noise
RCA Victor LSP-1856
1958

American music owes an enormous debt of gratitude to the Drinkard Family for nurturing the musical talent of its kinfolk Dee Dee and Dionne Warwick, Cissy Houston and her daughter Whitney, and adopted daughter Judy (Guions) Clay. Imagining how popular music would have developed without these famous singers is like imagining the cityscape of Chicago without its most popular skyscrapers.

Before the various family members’ chart-topping days, the Drinkard Singers were first and foremost a gospel-singing family. They held court at gospel programs and wowed audiences at Newport. “Use Me, Lord,” from the Drinkards’ 1958 sessions for RCA Victor, is a beautifully solemn, classical reading reminiscent of the Roberta Martin Singers at their most reverent. Although the Drinkards were better known for their effervescent, tambourine-shaking church-wreckers, “Use Me, Lord” shows they had an introspective, meditative side, and it was every bit as good – if not better – than their exciting, uptempo performances.