back to church
Swanee Quintet, “Prayer Changes Things,” live, 2011
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lagniappe
reading table
You think you care what this book is about, but really you care how it sounds.
—Joe Moran, First You Write a Sentence (2018)
*****
random sights
yesterday, Oak Park, Ill.
back to church
Swanee Quintet, live, 2017
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lagniappe
random sights
this morning, Oak Park, Ill.
*****
reading table
In the summer of 1948, chance deposited my wife and me in the bleachers of a tiny one-ring circus playing under a tent on the outskirts of Florence.
—William Maxwell (1908-2000), The Outermost Dream
Happy 4th of July!
The funkiest, countriest quartet. As a church once rocked to guitarist William ‘Pee Wee’ Crawford’s vamps, the late Reuben Willingham quipped, ‘This may not be a Fish Fry, but it sure got soul.’ The Augusta-based Swanees maintained the same background—Charlie Barnwell, Rufus Washington and the good-humored falsetto James ‘Big Red’ Anderson—for over thirty years. Some of James Brown’s grooves were first set down by his friends the Swanees. Veteran leads included Willingham, Johnny Jones (the finest singer in the post Sam Cooke tradition, with a range from baritone to high falsetto, and a more vivid, sanctified persona than his idol Cooke) and Percy Griffin.
—Anthony Heilbut, The Gospel Sound: Good News and Bad Times (6th ed. 2002)
*****
Swanee Quintet, live
“What Are They Doing In Heaven” (featuring Johnny Jones), TV broadcast
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“Little Talk With Jesus” (featuring Johnny Jones), TV broadcast
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“New Walk” (featuring Reuben Willingham and Johnny Jones), TV broadcast
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“Doctor Jesus” (featuring Percy Griffin and Johnny Jones)
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lagniappe
listening room
Sly Stone, gospel singer
*****
Happy Birthday, Louis!
Louis Armstrong Birthday Broadcast, WKCR-FM (’til 9:30 a.m., 7/5/10)
music clip of the day 