Larry Cordle is a well-respected bluegrass songwriter and performer whose career has now spanned decades. Over the last few years, he seems to have gravitated more and more toward the gospel side of the bluegrass world, with regular appearances on cable\u2019s \u201cAmerican Bluegrass Gospel Show.\u201d A few years back, he issued the absolutely stellar Pud Marcum\u2019s Hangin\u2019<\/i>, so I was excited to see his latest release, Give Me Jesus<\/i>.<\/p>\n
This collection splits his focus between his own material and songs honoring many of the greats of traditional country gospel music, which thrives in the hills of central Appalachia where Cordle resides. He picks selections from writers like Carl Story and Albert E. Brumley, and then crafts new arrangements of these traditional tunes. He also takes the opportunity to remake some of his own tunes, including \u201cNot Really Gone\u201d from Pud Marcum\u2019s Hangin\u2019<\/i> complete with rewritten lyrics and lighter instrumental track that resonates better than the original, and an older tune using a country turn of phrase \u201cLost As A Ball In High Weeds\u201d from back in his Lonesome Standard Time days.\u00a0 <\/p>\n
In sound, this album leans more towards the country gospel rather than bluegrass gospel, but it is still very traditional on most of its tracks \u2013 with the exception of the lyrical turnabouts on \u201cThe Old Thing\u2019s Walkin\u2019 About,\u201d which tries to blend the country with the modern in its message and marries it to a gospel choir sound.<\/p>\n
Standouts on this album include \u201cLost As A Ball In High Weeds\u201d which, despite the country phrasing that runs the risk of coming off corny, really hits home due to its straightforward message and excellent quartet arrangement. Kudos to Bradley Walker for some stunning bass vocal work. Meanwhile, \u201cI\u2019ll Meet You In The Morning\u201d is perfect in its a cappella arrangement reminiscent of many mountain church houses. The title track \u201cGive Me Jesus\u201d is another traditional track, which is so simple it could have been written in ten minutes, but Cordle\u2019s arrangement does it justice. \u00a0<\/p>\n
Other tracks feel like something is missing, such as the traditional \u201cTwo Coats.\u201d Many artists have done this one, but Cordle\u2019s approach doesn\u2019t quite reach the heights others have achieved on this track. Similarly, \u201cThe Old Ship Of Zion\u201d is a tried and true song that crosses well between the Southern and bluegrass gospel genres but lacks something here, which prevents it from becoming a great track.<\/p>\n
While not up to the caliber of his previous effort, Give Me Jesus<\/i> still holds up as a solid all-gospel effort.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":88,"featured_media":33245,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[8820],"rating":[5612],"class_list":["post-45054","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-larry-cordle","rating-rating-b-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/45054","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/88"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45054"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/45054\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33245"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45054"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45054"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=45054"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=45054"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}