God's Favorite Band by Asylum Street Spankers

This 2006 album was the Asylum Street Spankers idea of a gospel album.  It's an excellent album, though one might suspect that not everyone in this outfit was a believer.  Start with the cheeky title, and consider that they end their gospel album with an explicit expression of disbelief, specifically Wammo singing the Gershwin classic "It Ain't Necessarily So".  They won't make you forget Cab Calloway, but they were a sharp band.  You can hardly lose with this song.

The big centerpiece of the album, however, is a deadly serious straight reading of "The Last Mile of the Way".  Christina Marrs is one of the better singers walking the planet, and for having a band mostly noted for humorous intent she sounds utterly sincere and intensely committed to walking in the pathway of duty so that she can get that heavenly reward at the end of the journey.  I saw her singing this live around the time of this recording, and she about knocked me to my knees in prayer in the middle of a bar.  I've been listening to this back to back with the prime classic Soul Stirrers recording with Sam Cooke.  Now, the Spankers were not quite as good at harmony singing as the Soul Stirrers, which is about as harsh as saying that someone is not quite as good a guitar player as Jimi Hendrix. But Miss Christina here seems to me somewhere nearly as effective in singing the song as Sam Cooke himself.  I won't say that she did it better, cause I'm pretty sure that would be some kind of blasphemy - but it goes right into my bones when I listen to this recording.  It's about worth the price of the album just for this song.

But pretty much the whole album sounds really good in different affects and moods.  The opening instrumental of Blind Willie Johnson's "Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground" features the guitar playing of Guy Forsyth, and sets a beautifully somber tone.  The sound of this really draws me in to stop and listen closely to all the little vibrations. 

Miss Christina also does excellent readings of the traditionals "Each Day" and "By and By", though they're inherently by the songs not as emotionally intense as "The Last Mile of the Way".  Parsing this album out, one would get the idea that she's the main one who would be a true believer.  I would really dig a full straight on Christina Marrs gospel album. 

There are two original compositions on the album, both of them from Wammo.  "Right and Wrong" rates as one of the best two or three original songs I've heard from his pen, and uncharacteristically serious in tone.  He's presenting here as a non-believer arguing that regardless of which guru you're following, "it all comes down to right and wrong."  Not that I'm much of a true believer, but from where exactly would you get your definitions of "right and wrong"?  Jesus?  Ayn Rand? Louis Farrakhan?  I would present a little philosophical challenge to Brother Wammo regarding his charge to just take a look inside of yourself.  That's kind of a wild card, isn't it?  His other song is "Volkswagen Thing".  This little comic waltz is not as emotionally weighty, but it's surely a catchy little tune with a clever lyric. 

They made a beautiful lightly comic jam out of "Shadrach, Meshach and Abendego" getting an obviously less than serious tone out of talking about the brimstone and fire.  It's not anti-religious, just a little cheeky - and a really good arrangement, including some of the best vocal harmony of the album.

The Spankers' old clarinet playing hipster and spiritual guru takes the opportunity to whip up a sweet little New Orleans jam on "Down by the Riverside."  You have to love that.  God bless and preserve Stanley Smith.
 

Now, I don't know if the Asylum Street Spankers are really God's favorite band.  For one thing, as he notes in "Right and Wrong" Jesus might have some issues with Wammo for one.  But I bet he digs this album.


   

 

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