TBGB Pick of the Week: April 20, 2009

“Spirit Fall Down”
Luther Barnes & the Red Budd Gospel Choir
From the AIR Gospel CD Somehow, Someway (2008)
www.malaco.com

If you ever wondered what a Sunset Jubilaires quartet song might sound like as a choir arrangement, chances are “Spirit Fall Down” will satisfy your curiosity. The song starts out like a quartet arrangement for choir, but halfway through, it becomes 100 percent mass choir.

Performed by the always-amazing Red Budd Gospel Choir of Rocky Mount, NC – a town the Barnes Family put on the map – “Spirit Fall Down” is intense, dramatic, full-bodied and expansive. A plaintive supplication for the Holy Ghost to come “right now” is common enough in gospel, but when the Red Budd Gospel Choir takes in a healthy breath and sings, “Fall down, fall down/Fall fresh on me,” the hairs on the back of your head stand on end.

NOTE: Luther Barnes is not present on the radio edit, only on the album track, but a captivating female vocalist does the honors on both and is delightful.