Help: Need name of singers to old gospel song

Subject: RE: Help: Need name of singers to old gospel song
From: Burke
Date: 22 Oct 01 - 07:20 PM

Your album cover description does sound like the one Jim Dixon mentioned.

Most of the material on it has been reissued in the Alan Lomax collection Southern Journey. Vol. 4, Brethren, We Meet Again : Southern White Spirituals. The version by Ruby Vass of "The Old Gospel Ship" is solo with guitar. You can hear a 30 sec. cut at Amazon & probably other internet record stores.

The Lomax material from his 1959 "Southern Journey" has been issued & reissued on LP's and CD's in so many combinations & series that it's almost impossible to track the particular song you want.

Are you sure you've got the right LP for the song you've described?

Subject: RE: Help: Need name of singers to old gospel song
From: FluffyFeet
Date: 21 Oct 01 - 08:11 PM

Hi you all. I got all choked up when I re-visited this wonderful site and saw that there were replies to my question. You all are so kind in responding so quickly, so here in this little space I want to send a global thank-you and then I'd like to reply to each of the repliers individually. I can tell you, as a group, this much: The Old Gospel Ship version that I am longing to find may not have been sung by The Southern Sons or the Blind Boys, but for some reason those singers' names come to my feeble and fading memory (maybe because they sang other songs on that album set?). Okay, thanks all. Now I will respond to each of you personally.

Subject: RE: Help: Need name of singers to old gospel song
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 21 Oct 01 - 08:03 PM

Yeah, I've got the Ruby Vass recording, but the ubiquitous Fluffy Feet is looking for a black quartet. I too have a Southern Sons Cd, but the song isn't on there. I don't ever remember hearing a black group do the song, and I've looked through my collection with no luck. If someone doe's know where to find a black version, I'd be interested in knowing it too, as I have a black gospel quartet and would love to add the song to our repertoire...

Subject: RE: Help: Need name of singers to old gospel song
From: 53
Date: 21 Oct 01 - 03:48 PM

the good old gospel ship was also performed by the imperials in the early 80's but i can't remember what album it was on.

Subject: RE: Help: Need name of singers to old gospel song
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 21 Oct 01 - 02:35 PM

Could the album you're thinking of be this one? The Gospel Ship: Baptist Hymns & White Spirituals from the Southern Mountains. It is a compilation that includes "The Old Gospel Ship" performed by Ruby Vass. The CD was issued in 1994, but it looks like a reissue of an older vinyl LP, which another web site says was issued in 1977. The CD cover is white with yellow lettering and a drawing of a church.

Subject: RE: Help: Need name of singers to old gospel song
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 21 Oct 01 - 01:53 PM

HI, just got home from a wonderful festival in Dartmouth, Mass. I'll check the Southern Sons CD I have, and the rest of my collection. I don't recall every seeing it by the Five Blind Boys. There are albums that just say The Blind Boys, The Five Blind Boys, The Five Blind Boys of Alabama and The Five blind Boys of Missisippi. I just bought a CD of the Five Blind Boys of Alabame that has two complete albums on it. I learned Old Gospel Ship from the Carter Family, which is where Joan Baez did too, you can be sure.

Get back to you after I unpack..

Subject: RE: Help: Need name of singers to old gospel song
From: masato sakurai
Date: 21 Oct 01 - 01:21 AM

An all-black quartet singing "The Old Gospel Ship"? I have one Southern Sons CD (Southern Sons Quartet: I Love the Lord, P-Vine), but the song isn't there. I've checked Blues and Gospel Records 1890-1943, 4th ed. (Oxford) and Gospel Records 1943-1969, 2 vols. (Record Information Services), but there're no recordings of it by the Southern Sons or the Southern Sons Quartet (two different groups). No recordings by black singers under this title before 1943 (the latter discography doesn't have a title index). The versions I have of this song are by Ruby Bass, the New Lost City Ramblers, and Joan Baez, none of them are black singers. Haven't found the Five Blind Boys of Alabama version yet, though the Five Blind Boys of Mississippi recorded "Old Ship of Zion" in 1951.

~Masato

Subject: RE: Help: Need name of singers to old gospel song
From: wysiwyg
Date: 21 Oct 01 - 12:17 AM

There are several Mudcatters who may know the answer. I can tell you, tho, that I think you may have your Blind Boys all mixed together-- I think there is an older group called the Five Blind Boys, and a current one called Blind Boys of Alabama.

Anyway I love your Mudcat name! Are you new? I don't recall seeing your tootsies hereabouts. Do you know about the Gospel Tape Lending Library? (click that)

Would you be interested in Mudcatters' High-Octane Music Ministries (click that) or Spirituals (click that)?

~Susan

Subject: Need name of singers to old gospel song
From: FluffyFeet
Date: 20 Oct 01 - 11:44 PM

Hi everyone. I'm wondering any of you can help me. Years ago I had a 2-album set of gospel/hymns, but I've long since lost that wonderful set. Anyway, on those albums, there was a song called The Old Gospel Ship, and from my vague memory of reading the group's name years ago I'm pretty sure it was an all-black quartet -- something like The Southern Sons (original group), or maybe The Five Blind Boys from Alabama -- but I can't remember exactly the name of the group. It was the best version of that song that I've ever heard -- sort of bouncy and perky and the lead singer had a very bassy-type voice, and it must have been recorded in the 30s or 40s, so it was before the Gaither / Red Smiley / Joan Biaz / Happy Goodman versions.

The 2-record set was a compilation of many other gospel songs and hymns. The cover was yellow (I'm pretty sure), and I think it had a outline sketch of a church drawn in green. Thanks to all who read this and are interested. I've been searching for that 2-record set for ages and I've searched the Internet but I can't find that particular version of that particular song sung by that particular group. :-)