TBGB Reviews…The Big DooWopper

As Opal Louis Nations counsels in the liner notes to Feel the Spirit, don’t let Cornell H. Williams’s nickname throw you. Williams earned the moniker as a young man for his habit of humming and singing along with the vocal harmony songs he loved.

But Williams grew up in the church – Chicago’s historic Greater Harvest Baptist Church – and loves traditional gospel music. He renders gospel songs in a voice that puts the listener in mind of 1920s guitar evangelist Blind Willie Johnson had Willie been a high tenor (Nations deems Big DooWopper’s voice “iron-encased”). And on some tracks, the Big DooWopper sings all the parts, recalling similar, and equally effective, multi-track experiments in the 1950s by Doris Akers, Clara Ward and Patti Page. The finest track on Feel the Spirit is Big DooWopper’s one-man recreation of Mahalia and the Southern Harmonaires (Larks) two-part “In the Upper Room,” copied note for note, down to David McNeil’s bass parts.

In fact, Williams’s covers of Mahalia’s big hits – most from her Columbia sessions – pretty much follow the originals to the letter. He even copies Mahalia’s memorable vocal techniques, such as her distinctive diction (“God put a rainbow’d in the sky”), and her penchant for breathlessly slicing the ends off lyrics on mid-tempo songs such as “Dig a Little Deeper,” “Didn’t it Rain,” and “Walk in Jerusalem.” The Hammond B3 organ and piano – also multi-tracked by the Big DooWopper – follow the original charts to spec. The result is a rootsy throwback to gospel music Mahalia-style.

If you want to hear Williams live, Nations recommends visiting Chicago, where the Big DooWopper – at least as late as 2002, when Feel the Spirit was recorded – busks for tips in the acoustically superb elevated line tunnel near the Loop’s bustling Washington and State Streets. Tell him TBGB sent you!

Two and a Half of Four Stars