The Soul Stirrers - Joy In My Soul: The Complete SAR Recordings (1965)

Tracklist

01. I'm A Pilgrim
02. Listen To The Angels Sing
03. Jesus Be A Fence Around Me
04. Toiling On
05. He's Been A Shelter For Me
06. Stand By Me Father
07. Must Jesus Bear The Cross Alone
08. Don't Leave Me Alone
09. I'm Thankful
10. I Love The Lord
11. He Cares
12. Wade In The Water
13. Lead Me Jesus
14. Heaven Is My Home
15. God Is Standing By
16. Oh How I Love Him
17. Since Jesus Came Into My Heart
18. His Love
19. No Need To Worry
20. Since I Met The Savior
21. Praying Ground
22. Amazing Grace
23. Free At Last
24. Something Here Inside
25. Time Brings About A Change
26. Joy In My Soul
27. Where Jesus Is
28. Looking Back
29. Oh Mary, Don't You Weep
30. Mother Don't Worry 'Bout Me
31. Lead Me To Calvary
32. All Over This World
33. When The Gates Swing Open


The Soul Stirrers provided Sam Cooke his launching pad toward stardom, so when he started SAR in 1960, he decided to return the favor by making the gospel group the first act signed to his label. Indeed, the mere availability of the Soul Stirrers prompted Cooke and his partners J.W. Alexander and S.R. Crain to form SAR, an unusual and risky move for black artists at the start of the '60s, but the Soul Stirrers inspired that kind of passion, even if Specialty Records wound up cutting the group from its roster in 1959. Cooke rushed the Soul Stirrers into the studio and they cut a session in 1959 with Sam's replacement Johnnie Taylor, but he would soon depart for his own solo career, with the group bringing in Jimmie Outler to sing lead. Outler wasn't as indebted to Cooke stylistically, but the records on Joy in My Soul: The Complete SAR Recordings -- an ABKCO/Ace release from 2015 that marks the first-ever digital release of this material (there are also four previously unreleased cuts here) -- still bear the imprint of Cooke, who produced a good chunk of this material and wrote many tunes to boot. Much of the similarity derives from a shared sensibility. While the harmonies may be firmly planted in the church, the production on these 33 tracks often resembles the nimbler sides Cooke recorded for RCA, a modernity that's accentuated by the Soul Stirrers' reliance on original material from Cooke, Alexander, Crain, Outler, and Leroy Crume. All this makes the Soul Stirrers' SAR recordings quintessentially contemporary gospel music: it's rooted in tradition but open-hearted and open-minded. Sometimes, the group might slide into sappiness ("Heaven Is My Home"), but these slight missteps are forgiven because this attitude also gave the group the slinky "God Is Standing By," the rolling "No Need to Worry," a wildly imaginative rearrangement of "Amazing Grace," and many other lively surprises that keep this feeling fresh and alive, even when the production sometimes bears all the hallmarks of its time.

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