Key to the Kingdom

Washington Phillips

album cover

The Complete Works of a Gospel Powerhouse

Like many in the rural South in the early decades of the twentieth century, Washington Phillips (1880–1954) didn't consider singing and playing music any kind of job. The East Texas gospel pioneer—whose complete works, recorded between 1927 and 1929, are collected on this single disc—was a farmer, a tinkerer, and a traveling preacher welcomed by Methodist and Church of God congregations. In the years after his musical career, he was said to lead a "solitary" life; he lived with his mother, selling homemade syrup he made from sugarcane. When he performed, which was rarely, it was on street corners.

Under slightly different circumstances, however, Phillips could have been a full-time musician; the world would have been a richer place. He sings hymns with a grandfatherly warmth, his tone plaintive but free of torment. Phillips sounds devout without putting on airs; when he proclaims "I Am Born to Preach the Gospel," it's impossible to question his sincerity. Phillips accompanies himself on a zither-like instrument (sometimes two, playing one with each hand) that he modified himself, and this enhances his delivery: At times the strings are positively celestial, and yet they can produce a gritty, urgent sound when attacked with force (cue up "Denomination Blues"). The sound, which influenced such solo performers as Sister Rosetta Tharpe, is a world unto itself, an utterly original offshoot of gospel and blues that stays with you long after the last track ends.

Genre: Gospel
Released: 2005, Yazoo
Key Tracks: "Lift Him Up That's All," "Denomination Blues"
Next Stop: Sister Rosetta Tharpe: Gospel Train
After That: Rev. Gary Davis: Harlem Street Singer
Book Page: 598

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Comments:

#1 from Tim Ihssen, Tacoma, WA - 08/05/2009 2:21

Take Your Burdens to the Lord and Leave it There is one of the best songs I’ve heard. Phillips’ tentative vocals matched with the “divine ice cream truck” sounds of the dolceola make it my go-to song in times of spiritual distress.

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