Various Artists – Good God! Born Again Funk

Not a resurrection, but a rebirth. In 2006, we were first hearing what seemed to us a conundrum: gospel singers performing pious gospel songs, and devoutly, but doing so amid hot, sweaty, earthy sounds drunk on the same moonshine downed by any blues singer thumbing his way up north from the Mississippi delta. The Father of Gospel himself, Thomas Dorsey, was just such a bluesman. Known as Georgia Tom, he came to Chicago to play with folks like Tampa Red and Ma Rainey, recording bawdy numbers like “Tight Like That” and “Eagle Ridin’ Papa.” With his 1932 composition, “Take My Hand, Precious Lord,” Dorsey, utterly disconsolate after the death of his wife and newborn son, suited his blues in the armor of faith. From the river of pain where he stood, he saw salvation as clear as day. Like Dorsey, the performers on both Born Again Funk and A Gospel Funk Hymnal, as we’ve come to know them over the years, no longer sound so conflicted. They’re boldly assured. So is their music.