make you wanna go to church!

February 4, 2013 10:54 PM

Here's some raw, homespun, electric guitar gospel from a 1950s Checker label release by the Reverend Utah Smith: Two Wings.

Gospel just doesn't come any grittier and more spontaneous than that served up by the Rev Utah Smith and his joyous, hand clapping choir! Here's more:

Take a Trip
Glory to Jesus, I'm Free

Photos and information on Rev Utah Smith here at the Houndblog.

posted by flapjax at midnite (8 comments total)

The recent album/book release is fantastic, too — highly recommended. I guess I am, demographically and religiously, just about the least likely audience for Smith's kind of preaching, but there's something about the guitar evangelism that I just can't get enough of on purely musical grounds: something to do with the way the ecstatic energy of the preaching combines with the raw attack of the guitar and the sweetness of the choir, and it just feels like it's adding up to way more than the sum of its parts. Good stuff.
posted by RogerB at 11:03 PM on February 4, 2013 [3 favorites]

He splits a comp called Slide Guitar Gospel with Rev. Lonnie Smith, and it's been one of my secret mixtape weapons for years.
posted by klangklangston at 1:07 AM on February 5, 2013 [3 favorites]

If there is one thing this non-believer loves more, its gritty gospel.
Puts goose bumps on my arms, and rhythms in my feet.
I would be almost willing to pick up a bible if I could hear this live.
posted by quazichimp at 1:08 AM on February 5, 2013

makes me wanna go to the traintracks
posted by mannequito at 1:21 AM on February 5, 2013

plays better than most guys in bands
posted by thelonius at 2:31 AM on February 5, 2013

agree on the mixtape secret weapon. need to switch genres without losing tempo? here's the song to do it.
posted by Conrad-Casserole at 6:15 AM on February 5, 2013

damn, son
posted by Doleful Creature at 7:40 AM on February 5, 2013

Oh yeah!
posted by BobsterLobster at 2:24 PM on February 5, 2013