Search - Burl Ives :: How Great Thou Art

Inspirational gospel

prince of reviews | Orlando, Florida United States | 05/28/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I loved the messages to his songs. They are positive ones. Here's a good example. One of the songs is called, Count Your Blessings. the kind of songs you might sing in church. Others the listener might be familiar with are Rescue the Perishing; Shall We Gather At The River; and God Be With You. All the songs have either organ or piano accompaniment. Burl Ives has a very beautiful baritone voice. I think anyone who loves gospel music sung in the traditional manner that it was meant to be sung will love this album."

Burl Ives best sacred hymn collection

Larry VanDeSande | Mason, Michigan United States | 01/01/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Tenor Burl Ives is best known for his Christmas tunes he sang to accompany film and cartoons but he was an excellent performer of sacred humns, as well. This is his finest collection. While no longer available new, you can buy it from a collection of Amazon vendors at better prices than I paid an ebay vendor some years ago.



By my reckoning, Burl wasn't the greatest singer technically. He often slides from note to note and occasionally goes sharp. But these minor inflections do nothing to displace the passion and commitment he exhibits on these songs of life, death, God, absolution and religious commitment.



Best in this collection for me, by quite a distance, is "Beyond the Sunset," a marvelous tenor tune where the lead singer (Burl) goes an octave above the choir at the conclusion in a moment that gives me goose flesh. I wish I could do that!



My second favorite in this collection is "Power In the Blood", a tune mainstream churches rarely sing anymore. Other great ones from the Echo Records twofer inlcude "On Jordan's Stormy Banks", "Softly and Tenderly", "Victory in Jesus", "Will the Circle Be Unbroken" and "When We All Get to Heaven"...although I enjoy and admire Barbara Mandrell's version of the final hymn far more than Burl's.



If you don't know Burl Ives and have never seen him act or sing -- he starred in 30 films, the best of which includes "Wind Across the Everglades"(1958), "East of Eden" (1955) and "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" (1958) -- and you like sacred hymns, you won't go wrong picking up this collection.



The sound on these CDs isn't always so good but a little fiddling with your controls will fix that. Burl's soft tenor never stresses you and always gives uplift. He was a great ambassador for God and Christianity and that ambassadorship continues in this collection."