My father was a pastor and we grew up going to church…a lot. The usual church schedule in a given week would be two to three hours each Sunday morning, again for an hour long service on Sunday evening and if that wasn’t enough, again on Wednesday evening. That means we sang a lot of hymns and of course How Great Thou Art was in the top of the catalog to sing.
I picked up this LP, Royal Telephone, by Joseph Niles & the Consolers over the holiday break. I liked that it had a reggae/ska feel to gospel songs. I didn’t realize they perform How Great Thou Art until spinning the full album yesterday and it brought back a flood of memories growing up in the church.
Memories aside, it felt great to hear a classic hymn sung in a light reggae style of this nature. Joseph Niles was from Barbados and was known as the godfather of gospel music there.
I hope to find more of his records in the wild soon!
Aaron Hartley 