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LP
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BTRC 030LP
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"Memphis gospel singer Elder Jack Ward's spirit took flight on April 11, 2023 after a remarkable life of spreading God's word through example, message and most especially, song. His latest album, The Storm, had just been released by Bible and Tire Records at the time of his passing and has now become the final word and work of a life well lived. Like its 2021 predecessor, Already Made, The Storm captured an element of Ward that producer Bruce Watson found truly rare in the world of gospel music: song writing . . ." --Michael Hurtt, April, 2023
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LP
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BTRC 022LP
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"Dedicated Men of Zion (DMZ) -- the sacred soul quartet from eastern North Carolina who are all related to one another by blood or marriage -- has come a long way since the release of 2020's Can't Turn Me Around on producer Bruce Watson's Bible & Tire Recording Co. label. They have performed at globalFEST, Telluride Blues & Brews Festival, and Fresh Grass festivals. They have earned the acclaim of Brooklyn Vegan, NPR Music, and The New York Times. They scored placements on best of 2020 lists from NPR Music and the Philadelphia Inquirer. With Bruce Watson of Fat Possum at the helm, they have surpassed their debut with The Devil Don't Like It, out on Bible & Tire Recording Co. The Memphis-based Sacred Soul Sound Section provided the supple but sinewy grooves, featuring GRAMMY winner Matt Ross-Spang on guitar (Jason Isbell, Margo Price, John Prine), drummer George Sluppick (Rufus Thomas, Albert King, J.J. Grey & Mofro, Chris Robinson Brotherhood), guitarist Will Sexton (Alejandro Escovedo, Roky Erickson), bassist Mark Edgar Stuart (Elizabeth King, Alvin Youngblood Hart), and organist Al Gamble (St. Paul & The Broken Bones)."
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2LP
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BTRC 014LP
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"Eleven groups in eight days. A marathon recording session in a makeshift storefront studio in a 100-year-old building in the tiny Eastern North Carolina town of Fountain. Once the idea for the project was in place, Alice Vines of the Glorifying Vines Sisters started calling local musicians. It didn't take her long to line up almost a dozen groups to come lift their voices and represent the region's unique Sacred Soul traditions. When the groups on this record gathered to record in February of 2020, they couldn't have known that the world was on the heels of a global pandemic, or that the year would bring great turmoil and social upheavals. But in the reality created by gospel songs even the greatest of trials are not surprising, nor can they be ultimately devastating. Every time singers stepped up to the mic during these sessions, they created a sonic world where no amount of bad news can undermine the truth of The Good News. Even when 'you can't really see a solution to what you're dealing with at the moment,' says Kiamber Daniels of Faith and Harmony, singing gospel music will remind you, 'hey, I'm still here; I got what it takes to make it through this. It will give you a sense of peace.' Produced by Bruce Watson (Fat Possum/Big Legal Mess/Bible & Tire), this collection of sacred soul recordings of Eastern North Carolinian gospel groups is a one-of-a-kind exploration. With a rich heritage of family gospel music, the artists in this area have been honing their craft over generations and have their own way of making the material original and unique. This is Sacred Soul of North Carolina."
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LP
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BTRC 016LP
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"Fresh off the success of Elizabeth King's Living In The Last Days, producer and engineer Bruce Watson of Bible & Tire Recording Co. strikes hot with another veteran voice of Memphis sacred soul. Elder Jack Ward, who once recorded for the legendary Stax and Chalice Records arrives with his debut solo effort Already Made, after decades of giving his life to his work in the church."
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LP
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BTRC 012LP
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"Memphis, Tennessee, 1972: Seated behind a primitive mixing board in a tiny Quonset hut at 64 Flicker Street, just a stones' throw from the Illinois Central railroad tracks, Pastor Juan D. Shipp crackles over the AM airwaves with an electrifying array of the latest and greatest in gospel quartet sounds. With an audience that spans the width and breadth of the Bluff City, from truck cabs to taxi stands, from Mid-Town to Orange Mound, from the Peabody Hotel to Payne's Barbecue, if you're a fan of Memphis's thriving gospel scene, you're locked into 'Juan D' at K-WAM, 'the Mighty 990,' the very station that --twenty years earlier, during its first incarnation as KWEM across the river in West Memphis, Arkansas -- had first brought blues wizard Howlin' Wolf to the ears of recording engineer Sam Phillips. Now, two decades later, having revolutionized the music world with Sun Records and its holy trinity of Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis and Johnny Cash, the Wolf still remained Phillips' favorite. 'This is where the soul of man never dies,' he'd memorably declared of the six-foot-six gravel-voiced force of nature, a description that could just as easily be applied to so many of the artists whose records Shipp is now spinning over the air."
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LP
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BTRC 010LP
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"Full length album from the legendary D-Vine Spirituals queen, Elizabeth King. At 79 years young, Elizabeth has reemerged as a shining light in the Memphis soul-gospel scene. Producer Bruce Watson (Bible & Tire Recording Co./Big Legal Mess/Fat Possum) continues to broaden his landscape of 'Sacred Soul'. With a line-up of seasoned, Memphis session musicians, these recordings of early D-Vine material are brought back to life with a fire, not yet previously realized within the catalog. Living In The Last Days is the new Sacred Soul debut record from the gospel soul veteran Elizabeth King."
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2LP
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BTRC 008LP
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Sacred Soul compilation containing gems from one of Memphis' most legendary gospel subsidiaries: JCR Records. Recorded in the early 70's, JCR Records was the subsidiary of D-Vine Spirituals. "Memphis, Tennessee 1972: Seated behind a primitive mixing board in a tiny Quonset hut at 64 Flicker Street, just a stones' throw from the Illinois Central railroad tracks, Pastor Juan D. Shipp crackles over the AM airwaves with an electrifying array of the latest and greatest in gospel quartet sounds. With an audience that spans the width and breadth of the Bluff City, from truck cabs to taxi stands, from Mid-Town to Orange Mound, from the Peabody Hotel to Payne's Barbecue, if you're a fan of Memphis's thriving gospel scene, you're locked into 'Juan D' at K-WAM, 'the Mighty 990,' the very station that --twenty years earlier, during its first incarnation as KWEM across the river in West Memphis, Arkansas -- had first brought blues wizard Howlin' Wolf to the ears of recording engineer Sam Phillips. Now, two decades later, having revolutionized the music world with Sun Records and its holy trinity of Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis and Johnny Cash, the Wolf still remained Phillips' favorite. 'This is where the soul of man never dies,' he'd memorably declared of the six-foot-six gravel-voiced force of nature, a description that could just as easily be applied to so many of the artists whose records Shipp is now spinning over the air."
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