Until arriving in Tennessee a few months back I had no notion that the entire thriving subgenre of gospel bluegrass existed. That gospel was part of the bluegrass canon was inescapable, for one inevitably reads about the influence of shape note gospel singing on the formulation of the genre, but that specialists existed, had evolved…there they are, on public access TV and in the racks at the stores.
In fairness, it’s hard to guess which I know less about, bluegrass or the Christian god. And yet the room is covered in religious folk art, there’s a banjo leaning in the corner, and the day’s mood was set off by the arrival of the new Fairfield Four disc. In any event, these singers are in the hands of a god all but unknown on the West Coast. What matters to these ears has always been the blue, keening sound of this (and most) music, not the speed-jazz of contemporary bluegrass solos. On those terms these are both happy discoveries.
Neither Williams nor Lawson are young men, but both sing with rich and joyous grandeur. Williams, Charles Wolfe’s helpful liner notes reveal, is a mandolinist who was featured tenor in the legendary Jimmy Martin’s ensemble until his 1963 conversion. Ain’t God Good is his first recording since then, save a brief 1969 reunion with Martin. Paired here with the vocals of James King, much of King’s band and Jason Carter, who fiddles for Del McCoury, the 62-year-old singer proves still to have an amazing voice, full of power and free of strain.
Williams has also, during that considerable hiatus, written some fine songs, though it’s more the swing and the melody one hears across the room, the sweet passion of the sound, than the message. His are comparatively simple, ageless songs, delivered as if from a distant and untouchable place.
Lawson’s latest is less of an event, as he records and performs on a regular schedule. Kept & Protected has a contemporary sheen to it, all the crispness of modern technology, all the technique of modern players. None of that bad, mind you, just different, less gripping, less compelling. Something like the difference between Rosetta Tharpe and Amy Grant, if not so pronounced.
