Various Artists – Shoutin’ Down the Aisles

Various Artists
Shoutin’ Down the Aisles
Time Life/Sony Music Entertainment 2009
www.timelife.com

On the two-CD version of Time Life’s Shoutin’ Down the Aisles, the effervescent Donnie McClurkin declares to the congregation:

“We talk a lot about gospel music but I come to find out the things that we’re singing really nowadays aren’t really gospel. They’re inspirational, but they’re not really gospel music.”

Pearson’s comment could easily serve as the preamble of this marvelous, thirty-track collection of previously-released traditional gospel recordings by today’s superstars and longtime legends of the genre.

While most compilations that focus on traditional gospel feature vintage recordings by classic artists, Shoutin’ Down the Aisles does things differently. While you’ll find delicious fare by powerhouse traditional singers such as Evelyn Turrentine-Agee, Dottie Peoples and Marvin Sapp, contemporary stars such as Mary Mary, Tonex, Kirk Franklin and Coko also put on their shoutin’ shoes.

Focusing primarily on recordings of the 1990s and 2000s, with most selections from the 2000s, the compilation demonstrates that even urban contemporary artists have a Zion song or two tucked away in their repertories. Mary Mary’s “Call Him Jesus,” included on the set, is every bit as roof-shaking as Tamela Mann’s “Praise Medley.”

New classics one might expect on a project of this ilk include Jimmy Hicks and the Voices of Integrity’s “Born Blessed” and Vickie Winans’ church-wrecking “Long as I Got King Jesus” (attributed to James Cleveland, but contrary to popular belief, it was written by Calvin White of the Gospel Wonders). The Chicago Mass Choir’s popular “Holy Ghost Power” features the roof-raising vocals of Lemmie Battles.

Plenty of pleasant surprises abound, too, such as “Oh Lord, I’m Asking You One More Time” by H.E. Dixon and Truth Tabernacle; the pulse-racing “My Everything” by the James’; and a stunningly beautiful choir outing, “If You Come to Him,” by the Edwin Hawkins Music and Arts Tri-State Mass Choir, featuring soloist Carolyn Ransom.

Bill Carpenter, author of Uncloudy Days: The Gospel Music Encyclopedia, contributed informative liner notes.

The two-CD version sold so well via direct response television that Time Life has released a fourteen-track version of Shoutin’ Down the Aisles that is now available in stores. The shortened version includes two selections not on the original: one song each by the Blind Boys of Alabama and Gary’s Deniece Williams who, before her disco career, sang with the Northern Indiana State Mass Choir of COGIC.

Both the two-CD and single-disc package should come with a consumer warning: listening to this fast-paced, hand-clapping, foot-stomping, hip-slapping collection while driving a motor vehicle could result in a speeding ticket.

Five of Five Stars

gPod Picks: “Long As I Got King Jesus,” “If You Come to Him,” “My Everything,” “Call Him Jesus,” “I’ve Learned to Lean.”