Customer Reviews

My Rock / Love Lifted Me

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This album is the high point of the long and distinguished career of the Swan Silvertones. It is also perhaps the best single album of gospel quartet music.

Group leader Claude Jeter was the master of falsetto. In the early Fifties he switched to Specialty Records and reluctantly recruited some hard leads (Solomon Womack, Dewey Young, Robert Crenshaw) to augment his sweet-sounding quartet. At the same time the group moved away from pure a capella singing, adding some unobtrusive instrumentation.

The result is the best of both worlds - beautiful harmonies combined with fierce shouting (Young, Womack) and the screamiest lead singing (Crenshaw) I have ever heard. Apparently Crenshaw was sacked from the group for getting happy too quickly in concert. But in a two-minute recording he is perfect.

The arrangements by Paul Owens are superb; Jeter is at his best throughout. The great Art Rupe produced.

Music to fall out to.

I first "discovered" the Swan's Silvertones driving home from band gigs in Tennessee back in the 60's. There wasn't much on the radio at 3:00 Sunday Morning, but "Hoss" Allen's radio show out of Nashville's WLAC featured many black gospel groups. The Swans were my favorite.
I recently heard a song that so reminded me of them...of those long, lonesome moonlight treks back home...of the smell of beer and cigarettes clinging to my clothes even though my convertible top was down - it carried me back, so I knew where to look!
Today, driving through rolling hills, along beautiful rivers, the Silvertones are just the ticket! I so enjoy their smooth acapella harmonies...and I'm not a "religious" guy...just one who loves this beautiful music!!!
Five Stars from me!!! I believe I'll pick up another Alabama Blind Boys while I'm at it!!

This is the perfect CD to play to see if you're dead or not: put it on, listen to any of it for one minute - if it doesn't move you in unbelievably fantastic ways, you're dead. It's impossible not to be caught up in the harmonies of this gospel group, and the power of their singing is tremendous. TROUBLE IN MIND, MY ROCK, LOVE LIFTED ME, GLORY TO HIS NAME - every one of these performances is a musical (and spiritual) experience not to be missed. The piece de resistance, however, is THE DAY WILL SURELY COME: I never heard a 3-minute recording build, chorus after chorus, to such a climax as this song, and then with 30 seconds left the climax explodes, like a giant wave crashing on a beach, to something even more powerful. I've listened to that cut a hundred times (literally) and every single time it tears at my heart and brings tears to my eyes. The Swan Silvertones are the ultimate housewreckers in my book, and these are their finest recordings. A must-get CD for anyone with life still in them.

The titles "Keep My Heart" and "After While" were well worth my money. If you like quartet singing and good harmony. This is a must!

Some of the most incredible singing, of ANY kind, ever put on record! The other reviewer is correct, you do have to be dead inside not to be moved by this listening experience. GET THIS CD!!!!