Train Don't Leave Me
Recorded live at the first annual Sacred Steel Convention in winter 2000, this righteous and raw collection features multiple players--theCampbell Brothers, Aubrey Ghent, Elton Noble, and Calvin Cooke among them--testifying with all the vigor of the converted via lap- and pedal-steel guitars and howling vocals. Captured, appropriately, at Florida's House of God Holiness Pentecostal Church, one of a group in which this sort of music has accompanied services since the '30s,Train Don't Leave Mevisits familiar songs in the gospel canon ("Just a Closer Walk with Thee," for instance), yet breaks with tradition by eschewing touchstones like choirs and organs for the bluesy grit and sepia tones of the steel. If there's such a thing as Southern-fried roadhouse gospel--and really, there should be--Train Don't Leave Meis it. Hallelujah for the innovation.--Kim Hughes