Search - Various Artists :: In Spirit: Trumpet Gospel

Lillian McMurry's Trumpet Records may have been short-lived, but this 16-track chronicle of the Southern gospel label's recordings offers ample evidence of its vitality. The fact that it was the contrivance of a young woman made it a 1950s anomaly. McMurry, however, found a surplus of vocal talent around her Jackson, Mississippi, base in the three years she operated the company. Represented here are the jubilee quintet the St. Andrews Gospelaires (a semiprofessional outfit that was McMurry's first discovery), the Argo Gospel Singers, the Southern Sons, the Blue Jay Gospel Singers, Brother High Dent, and the Carolina Kings of Harmony. Heard in tandem, Trumpet's lineup represents robust hard gospel near its roots; In the Spirit as a whole offers a window into a place where worship and entertainment were fundamentally tied. --Steven Stolder