Customer Reviews

E.C. Ball, with Orna Ball

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(0)
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This album is as authentic as any field recording by Lomax - a quiet Mountain Gospel style. E. C. Ball"s guitar style is his own i.e. while showing similar influences to the Carter Family, he developed a style rather than copied. His singing is straight-forward with excellent harmonies provided by his wife. Some of the tracks that stand out:

Give Me Just a Little More Time - a gem also available on a Wiregrass shapednoted note album. Here this gospel song is sung as pure gospel with notable tempo changes. However, while it doesn't sound rushed, try singing along - the tempo is fast but unhurried.

The Parting Hand - a common closing hymn for Sacred Harp conventions is here sung as gospel. The gospel harmonies work every well providing a different and excellent unusual arrangement to the hymn.

If I Could Hear My Mother Pray Again - bet you have to sing along. Simply an excellent rendition that trusts the music itself and "reduces" the performers to invisible channels of the music.

Listen closely to the words of John the Baptist ... voice like a what! The net result of the album is that you feel in the presence of warm, welcoming performers who sing out of love of the music.

E.C. Ball can pick as good as Chet Atkins or Doc Watson. Had he made more recordings perhaps he would be better known. The instrumental pieces "Chow Time" and "Raggin'The Wires" use harmonics and far-out chord progressions with a technique that amazes without being flashy. This is honest, home-made, enduring music by a married couple with deep faith. They read the Bible literaly; the opening track simply and plainly relays the peaceful respite afforded the believer while the rest of us endure a horror-show phantasmagoria of the end times, yet somehow it isn't preachy. Even though "Do You Call That Religion" is about throwing the ill-mannered out of church, the song fails to offend perhaps due to the understated delivery, or the whimsical, almost pop-rock licks E.C. throws in. Speaking of licks, "Ain't No Grave" by itself makes this album worth buying. I would like to see Rounder release the second album, "Father's Have A Home Sweet Home" on CD. That one has a spine-tingling version of "Pretty Polly" with just EC and banjo, as well as a great version of "Jubilee."

You know that Bible Belt rhetoric aimed at converting the listener? This ain't none of that. What you got here is people singing plain. Nothing in their voices gives any indication of being tinged with anything other than exactly what is in them. It's classifiable nowadays as music from an historial cultural period. But it can also be listened to as if you just liked it.

You might assume from the liner note picture of EC and wife Orna standing by a sign that reads, "Obey the Word of God" that the music on this disc would be abrasive and preachy. But it's completely the opposite.

This is lazy Sunday afternoon on the porch kind of music. It is so honest and genuine, so simple that you can't help but smile. You feel like you've wondered onto the set of an Andy Griffith episode with Andy casually picking and singing on the porch while Aunt Bee knits and sings along.

The majority of the numbers are EC Ball on guitar/vocals accompanied by Orna, also on vocals. I would say that all the songs are mid-tempo and although EC may not win any speed picking contests, he's solid and skilled, which is evident on the few instrumental numbers.

So, if you're looking for some fast picking, foot stomping music, this disc isn't for you. But, if you need a slow down from the fast pace grind we all get wrapped up in, this disc is as good of a remedy as one could find.

Ball is a phenomenal flatpicking guitarist who sings old-timey gospel songs with his wife. It's all 100 percent genuine and extremely well-played, very Doc Watson-like. Orna's vocals add a special something that puts this stuff over the top.

Every Sunday morning I listen to a 4 hour bluegrass gospel show on WAMU out of Reston VA (just outside DC). Out of 73 songs played today, I picked 3 I wanted to own. "Give Me Just A Little More Time" from this CD was one of them. I can't recall hearing E.C. & Orna Ball's music before but know some of these songs well enough: "Do You Call That Religion?," "Aunt Dinah's Quilting Party" & several others. By the way, for the bluegrass & traditional music lover & for the lover of gospel music in general, you really couldn't do better than the music on this WAMU show, hosted by the deeply respectful & very knowlegeable Bob Webster. His love of the genre & his associations with the new as well as older music are a pleasure. There is a Apple App available so you can play it 24-7 & that works very well. The station also has an association with Amazon so they can raise funds for this public supported station. Their listenership goes all the way to Australia.