A Singing Americans Question

The album pictured to the right was the first Singing Americans album after Mike English and Rick Strickland left the group and were replaced by Clayton Inman and Phil Barker, respectively.  However, when listening to “God Is Greater” from this album, the tenor sounds very much like Strickland, with the exception of the solo tenor line “God is higher” which is obviously Barker.  I know Clayton Inman and Strickland were in the group together for a while, as they are the members in the concept video for “Welcome to Heaven” which is available on youtube.  (Volscot, a commenter here occasionally, has the video, maybe he can provide the link for us!)  Is this another case of a personnel change in the midst of recording an album and leaving some of the previous member’s vocals intact, or is it Barker all the way through the song, and he just happens to sound a lot like Strickland on this cut?

Hidden Gems: Cumberland Boys – “God Rides On Wings Of Love”

OK, so this song, like “Trouble In My Way”, has been hugely popular, but this version of the song is definitely long forgotten, if not obscure.  I’m not the biggest Cumberland Boys fan in the world, though I liked several of their songs, and really liked the Cumberland Quartet when they became a bit more of a traditional sounding quartet.  This song was recorded on the Alive and Now album that featured “Hallelujah Heavenly Horn”.  Personnel were Depp Britt, Jim Worthing, Bill Britt, and Steve Goforth.  This is a fairly unique arrangement of this song, as it has a very pop, almost soft rock sound to it.  I remarked to someone that it almost sounded like something you would have heard the Imperials of the time do, especially the instrumental track.  Some hot electric guitar licks, an absolutely kicking bass guitar line, and some nice rock organ work highlight the backing track.  The vocals are very good, especially after the key change and on the tag of the song, there is some really nice harmony and nice chord progressions.  This is a very enjoyable performance of the classic song, and it’s done a bit differently than the typical soul gospel feel.  Pull your cassette or LP out again and listen to it.