The latest part of the ongoing series chronicling, in no particular order, the greatest 1001 recordings made by Christian artists

847. SALLIE MARTIN SINGERS - SEEKING FOR ME, 1963. From the album 'God Is Here', VeeJay.
Sallie Martin (1895-1988) was known as "the mother of gospel music" who organised America's first all-female gospel group, owned what was to become the largest African American gospel music publishing company and as a vocalist, both with her Singers and as a solo, found gospel music fame despite having a voice that gospel expert Anthony Heilbut described as "all wrong, rough, gnarled, wide-ranging and shaky in all its registers from bass to second tenor." Despite her own vocal deficiencies the matriarch could certainly spot great singers on her tireless touring of African American churches and, as evidenced here, Shirley Bell was one of the finest. With a superlative organist, Kenneth Woods who has all the bluesy cadences of a Billy Preston, Shirley oozed soul as she got in the Spirit on this album track. The bit where Shirley sings "seeking in the sky" each note of "seeking" climbing the scale is a particularly glorious moment while the rest of the group chanting the title give Ms Bell time to improvise some more wonderful embellishments.
Tony Cummings

Denison Witmer

848. DENISON WITMER - GRANDMA MARY, 2000. From the album 'Are You A Dreamer', The Militia Group.
My attention to this gem was alerted by its inclusion in the list 100 Greatest Worship Songs Of All Time published on the web by a hipster believer who tried to tell his readers that Miles Davis' "Round Midnight", the Beach Boys' "God Only Knows" and even John Lennon's "Imagine" were worship songs. Despite his strange perspective I'm grateful to this particular blogger for reminding me of this delightful narrative song. "Grandma Mary" is a delicately performed reminiscence about the Pennsylvania-born folkster's grandmother. Starting with just Denison's delicately picked guitar, synths and percussion come in before ending like it began with that wistful guitar. The imagery is poignancy personified. "Mary, you are the mason jars in spring/The kitchen with the view across a hill/First memory is a Bible verse in song/The organ while my family sings strong/We sing along." Good on you, Grandma.
Tony Cummings

849. ARETHA FRANKLIN - I NEVER LOVED A MAN (THE WAY I LOVE YOU), 1967. From the album 'I Never Loved A Man The Way I Love You', Atlantic.
I'd been a staunch fan of soul music for five years when I first heard Aretha's classic single coming out of my radio. I was stunned. Here was one of the greatest, most soulful performances I'd ever heard coming from a singer I'd kind of written off as being of minor interest. I had the first recordings the teenage Aretha had cut in her father's church - they were OK gospel but too crudely recorded and too much an imitation of Clara Ward to be truly impressive. I had many of the non-gospel recordings Aretha cut for Columbia and they ranged from OK soul (her first UK released single "Today I Sing The Blues") to abysmal quasi-jazz (her readings of creaking show tunes like "Rock-A-Bye My Baby With A Dixie Melody"). I'd placed Aretha in the same category as Dinah Washington, a singer who'd let go of her gospel roots to appeal to a mass, ie, white, audience and in the process made music that showed traces of gospel-derived soul but had little mysterious power that gripped me every time I put on a record by Candi Staton, Clarence Carter or countless others. But with "I Never Loved A Man (The Way I Love You)" my whole perspective of Aretha changed. Producer Jerry Wexler took her to the legendary Fame Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama which, thanks in part to the ultra-tight house band, were turning out unforgettable Southern soul hits for singers like Staton and Carter. With a magnificent minor key, bluesy assertion of love written by Ronnie Shannon Aretha weighed in with a vocal of cathartic emotionalism to deliver Atlantic Records the major hit Columbia Records with all their resources couldn't.
Tony Cummings

850. DUSTIN KENSRUE - GRACE ALONE, 2013. From the album 'The Water & The Blood, Mars Hill Music.
I'd always admired Dustin's gravelly vocals with mainstream hitmakers Thrice though I had to admit some of the band's lyrics leaned too much towards obscure metaphor for someone like me. When the announcement came that Thrice were calling it a day and Dustin was working on a worship project I wondered whether his undoubted musical skills would best be served in writing and recording music intended for congregational worship. I needn't have worried. 2013's 'The Water & The Blood' album is crammed full of singable songs, with lyrics where every word is understandable yet go much deeper than the banalities of some modern worship lyrics. Pride of place went to "Grace Alone". It was effectively the testimony for every born again believer. "I was an orphan lost in the Fall/Running away when I'd hear your call/But Father, you worked your will/I had no righteousness of my own/I had no right to draw near your throne/But Father, you love me still." Then comes the payoff. "And in love before you laid the world's foundation/You predestined to adopt me as your own/You have raised me up so high above my station/I'm a child of God by grace and grace alone." What one reviewer labelled "indie/blues/folk/rock/post-rock" has seldom roared from the CD speakers with such truth content. And reformed theology has seldom been expressed so succinctly.
Tony Cummings

851. EDNA GALLMON COOKE - SOMEBODY TOUCHED ME, 1953. From the various artists album 'Soul Chronology 2: This Old Heart Of Mine', History Of Soul.
Madame Gallmon Cooke, as she preferred to be called, toured the southeast of American billed as "Sweetheart Of The Potomac" and by 1953 was already an established star as she travelled the Gospel Highway. One writer was later to describe Edna as a "transcendent moaner and a mistress of note-bending which musicologists call melisma and church folks call curlicues, runs and flowers and frills." In 1953 the singer recorded "Somebody Touched Me" for Republic Records. It's a traditional song that down the decades has been recorded by everyone from Southern gospel's The Cathedrals to folk rock icon Bob Dylan but it's Madame's version which bites home deepest.
Tony Cummings

852. THE STRANGE FAMILIAR - SURRENDER, 2014. From the album 'The Day The Light Went Out', Krian Music Group.
The Ohio-based pop rock band rose above the thousands of acts clamouring for mainstream attention when major TV shows like The Vampire Diaries and Pretty Little Liars picked up on some of their finely crafted and often haunting music. But it was the songs on The Strange Familiar's fourth album 'The Day The Light Went Out' which made the group's most obvious declarations of faith. The songs were written at a time when the group's founders Jeff and Kira Andrea were preparing for the birth of their first child and the songs express pain and struggle but suffused with joy, hope and expectation. "Surrender" is the group's best. Its lyrics go "The battle won't be won overnight my love/The fields are stained with blood so bright/Every day is another fight/But hope will keep us marching on." Kira's voice is truly captivating.
Tony Cummings

Gemstones

853. GEMSTONES - FIRE IN MY HEART, 2012. From the album 'Elephant In The Room', Independent.
Those who know their hip-hop history will know that Demarco Castle (now known as Gemstones) once recorded for Lupe fiasco, one of mainstream rap's big hitters. But it is since Demarco turned his life over to the Lord that his best work has appeared and this cut from his 2012 free mixtape 'Elephant In The Room' is up there with the best hip-hop recordings ever made. After a brief soul sister sung intro Gemstones launches into a stunning East Coast flow so rapid it will take 20 plays to pick up every word. He pours out a withering denouncement of the gangsta rap hip-hop scene the emcee was once part of when he rapped as Gemini. He describes it as an "industry full of wannabees" where "half of those who've got it don't even know what they're doing." But then the emcee continues how "I wasn't ready to feast./I walked away from the tables" and ends with an aside aimed at "all you rappers, all you fake emcees, talking about crack you never sold, talking about neighbourhoods you know you can't go in." A reality check for rappers and fans alike.
Tony Cummings

854. THE DAVE BRUBECK QUARTET - TAKE FIVE, 1959. From the album 'Time Out', Columbia.
When this captivating instrumental hit the UK pop charts in 1961 I loved it though it was years before I began to understand its historical significance - the first modern jazz recording ever to become a pop hit in both the USA and Britian - and many more years before I learned that pianist, band leader and academic Brubeck was a committed Catholic Christian. "Take Five" was written by saxophonist Paul Desmond whose catchy blues scale melody is still captivating today while the two-chord piano vamp and the very unusual quintuple 5/4 time (which gave the tune here its name) are the other major elements in making this my favourite ever piece of jazz. Jazz purists might argue that the truncated version heard on the single lost some of its improvisational jazz elements and, I suppose, some Christian music devotees might suggest that "Take Five" shouldn't be included in a list of all-time great Christian music tracks. All I can say in response is that Desmond, Brubeck and co created a truly wonderful piece of music.
Tony Cummings

855. LARRY MILLER - BATHSHEBA, 2015. From the album 'Soldier Of The Line', Big Guitar.
Those well steeped in British blues rock will know that Miller is a giant of the genre and though he's never received the fame and fortune of Clapton and Moore there are plenty of fans who've followed the veteran's career down the years will agree with Guitar/Bass magazine that Larry offers "blues-rock brilliance". But it's not just his mesmerising guitar playing which makes Miller such a compelling performer. He is also a fine songwriter as "Bathsheba" demonstrates. Cross Rhythms' reviewer described "Bathsheba" as a "simply stunning depiction of King David's sexual temptation" and that's just what it is. After Larry sings the stark account of the king's fall into lust, then murder, comes some biting guitar work which demands repeat play. A modern classic in a timeless style.
Tony Cummings

856. DAVID MEECE - WE CAN OVERCOME IT ALL, 1985. From the album '7', Myrrh.
Despite being a regular Nashville CCM hitmaker in the '80s David never really registered in the UK. And in truth he didn't really deserve to. Despite being an excellent classically trained pianist with a light pop singing style that resembled the mainstream's Christopher Cross Mr Meece travelled down some decidedly dodgy musical roads including some wince-inducing Bee Gees impersonations complete with execrable falsetto and some equally painful "inspirational" ballads. But by 1985 David finally started recording music which 30 years on is still worth a listen. The highlight on the '7' album is a call to engage in the spiritual fight with a simple but telling chorus ("We can overcome it all/When we put our trust in him") accompanied by some thunderous percussion. A Nashville pop gem.
Tony Cummings

857. MARTHA SCANLAN - GET RIGHT CHURCH, 2007. From the album 'The West Was Burning', Sugar Hill.
Martha is one of the finest performers of old-time, traditional music in America who gained some mass media attention when she was heard on the Cold Mountain film soundtrack as a member of the Reeltime Travelers. Her rendition of this song with its mesmerising chant "Get right church and let's go home" is a timeless piece of folk art.
Tony Cummings

Greg and Rebecca Sparks

858. GREG & REBECCA SPARKS - CARVE A TUNNEL, 1993. From the album 'Field Of Your Soul', Etcetera.
Husband and wife Greg and Rebecca had a somewhat chequered musical past, once being members of the cheesy pop band Bash-N-The-Code. But after two albums released under the name Sparks, the duo came up with what the Encyclopedia Of Contemporary Christian Music called "their masterpiece". On 'Field Of Your Soul' alongside numbers that sounded like Tina Turner fronting the Rolling Stones was this gem, a withering denouncement of racism which then, as now, permeates American society. Underscoring Rebecca's dazzling armoury of whoops, hollers and growls there's a sample of Martin Luther King to drive home the message. Rebecca once joked that on 'Field Of Your Soul' songwriter/producer Greg turned her into "a rock'n'roll mama." It was a masterly move.
Tony Cummings

859. CALVARY CHAPEL, MERRITT ISLAND, FLORIDA - I LIFT MY HANDS, 1992. From the album 'Blessed Jesus: Worshipping Churches', Calvary Chapel.
South Africa's Andre Kempen wrote the worship classic "I Lift My Hands" back in 1989 and since then it has touched church and festival goers around the globe. Its lilting melody and words addressed "To the coming King/To the great I AM" make it a timeless expression of reverential love. But in this church age where we see some churches and leaders tragically abandoning biblical doctrine in favour of multi-faith liberalism and swathes of non-church-goers making their idols out of footballers, family or finance it's "I Lift My Hands" declaration of divine resolve which hits home the hardest. "And I will serve no foreign god/Or any other treasure/You are my heart's desire/Spirit without measure." The Calvary Chapel recording of the song isn't perfect. Despite being produced by seminal UK rocker Malcolm Wild, of Malcolm & Alwyn fame, it favours a small choir arrangement which, for me, teeters dangerously close to the middle of the road. But such is the power of those words it batters down any aesthetic resistance.
Tony Cummings