Texas Gospel Vols. 8 & 9: Pay Day 1955-1960

Various Artists

Acronym Music CD 1011 (2012)

By Bob Marovich for The Black Gospel Blog.

With Pay Day 1955-1960, gospel scholar Opal Louis Nations continues to mine the Houston-based Duke/Peacock vaults for Golden Era goodies.

This latest two-CD set focuses on the latter half of the 1950s, as the quartet revolution, which dominated the gospel scene from the late 1940s, was beginning to give way to piano-led groups and large gospel choruses.  While Peacock was still considered the most significant quartet label—you were somebody if your group was on Peacock—Pay Dayuses a chronological lens to show how Don Robey couldn’t disregard the slow shift in listener preferences.

Thus, in addition to Gospelaires and Five Blind Boys discs on Peacock, Robey released singles by Clara Ward and the enigmatic Chora’leers on his Duke subsidiary.  Check out the Sister Barbara Jones selections if, for no other reason, than to marvel at Jones’ otherworldly shouts.

Still, quartets remained Peacock’s bread and butter, and Pay Day makes available such superb performances as Roscoe Robinson’s lead on the Five Blind Boys of Mississippi’s “Sending Up My Timber,” the Sensational Nightingales’ powerful “Over in Zion,” and the Gospelaires’ gut-wrenching workout “If I Could Hear My Mother Pray Again.”  The set also includes the first Peacock releases by the Mighty Clouds of Joy, a quartet that, like the Dixie Hummingbirds and Nightingales, would become Peacock mainstays.  “Jesus Lead Me Safely” finds the Clouds leaping out of the gate with a song containing a hypnotic, frenetic vamp.

Nations includes as many liner notes as made sense, given that he has written about many of these artists in previous editions.  My understanding is that these compilations aren’t pressed in large quantities, so if you are interested in securing a copy, act quickly.