Valley Songs, Arizona Dranes & Sister Rosetta Tharpe

I've stuck my hand up to do music at church every couple of months. I've never been a fan of most church music. Most hymns 1600 - 1900 I’ve found hard to connect with and pretty much all modern worship 1970 - now feels sappy at best and bland at worst. It's like I'm being asked to choose between classical music and middle of the road adult contemporary rock. For someone brought up a diet of classic and alternate rock (see list below**). It's not much of a choice.

As I started looking for songs it struck me that churches tend skip the era between 1900 and 1970. This period saw the birth of rock and roll born out of African American Spirituals and Church Gospel music. Surely Xn music’s most influential and finest hour in the last two hundred years. Two of it's greatest proponents are Arizona Dranes and Sister Rosetta Tharpe. I introduced Arizona Dranes' song "It's All Right Now" recently (I had to write my own verses because her lyrics were too difficult to decipher, damn 1920s recording technology). Sister Rosetta Tharpe is equally amazing (influenced by Arizona Dranes). As you can see from the three clips below she could challenge Angus Young (ACDC) or Toni Iommi (Black Sabbath) to an Gibson SG Guitar duel any day.

And here is some Arizona Dranes, Unfortunately no one has uploaded "It's All Right Now" to Youtube yet

Regular readers will know a while ago I asked if anyone had any “Valley Song” suggestions. This is my current "Valley Songs” hymnal

• 40 – U2*
• Ain’t no Grave - as sung by Fret Not
• Amazing Grace (sung to house of the rising sun) - as sung by Blind Boys of Alabama
• Back to the Cross- Traditional
• Be Thou My Vision - The Hymn
• By the Rivers of Babylon – Sinead Occonor*
• Come Lord Jesus – Author Unknown ( I grew up thinking this was a song every church knew but I think it may have been unique to my little Anglican church in Sydney)
• Do Lord - as sung by Johnny Cash
• Down by the Riverside - as sung by Sister Rosetta Tharpe
• Down to the River to Pray - as sung by Alison Krauss
• Everything – Tim Hughes
• Everywhere I go - as sung by Fret Not
• Face Of The Humbled Poor – Paul Gioia
• God of Justice – Tim Hughes
• Gods Love is Good – Dave Andrews
• Gospel Ship - Traditional
• Hallelujah I'm Ready - Traditional
• Have Mercy – Paul Gioia
• Hey Hey you say – Dave Andrews
• I am a Pilgrim - as sung by Johnny Cash
• I Know His Blood Can Make Me Whole - Blind Willie Johnson
• I Saw the Light - as sung by Fret Not
• I Shall not be moved - as sung by Johnny Cash
• I Still Pray – Kasey Chambers / Paul Kelly
• I Want Jesus to Walk with Me - Traditional
• I will be your Friend - Guy Davis*
• I’ll Fly Away - as sung by Fret Not
• I’m bound for the promised land - as sung by Johnny Cash
• In My Time of Dying / Jesus Gonna make up my dying bed - Blind Willie Johnson
• It's All Right Now - Arizona Dranes
• Jesus And Me – Paul Gioia
• Jesus On The Mainline - Traditional
• Keep Your Lamp Trimmed and Burning - Blind Willie Johnson
• Let Justice Roll – Dave Andrews
• Long May He Reign – Paul Gioia
• Long Way From Home – Glenn Kaiser*
• My Hope is built on nothing less (melody by Nicki Chiswell)
• No Turning Back - Traditional
• Nobody's Fault But Mine - Blind Willie Johnson
• Oh Happy Day - Traditional
• One Day – Dave Andrews
• Our Great God - Some modernish worship singer type people
• People Get Ready – Curtis Mayfield*
• Picture of Jesus – Ben Harper*
• Prince of Peace – Paul Gioia
• Ps 99 – Glenn Kaiser*
• River of Life - Traditional
• Shower Of Grace – Paul Gioia
• Some Great Day – Paul Gioia
• Still Small Voice – Paul Gioia
• Swing Low Sweet Chariot- as sung by Johnny Cash
• The Way of Chris – Dave Andrews
• This little light of mine - Traditional
• This Train - as sung by Glenn Kaiser
• Toublesome Waters – as sung by Johnny Cash
• Were you there when they Crucified my Lord – as sung by Johnny Cash
• What a Friend we have in Jesus (sung to melody of the rose)
• When the Tears Fall – Tim Hughes
• Why Do You Love Me? – Paul Gioia
• You're Gonna Need Somebody on Your Bond - Blind Willie Johnson
• You Got To Move - Traditional

A lot of the traditional songs you can find versions on Youtube as you can for Tim Hughes' songs and Johnny Cash's songs, Dave Andrews gives his songs away (music and MP3s) and Paul Gioia has some song samples on his website.

*denotes songs with church copyright issues, that is they don't appear on the CCLI database.

**My Rock Diet List: Tori Amos, Fiona Apple, Beastie Boys, Beatles, Bjork, Black Keys, Jeff Buckley, Nick Cave, John Coltrane, The Dirty Three, The Donnas, Bob Dylan, Ben Folds Five, Aretha Franklin, PJ Harvey, Jimi Hendrix, Hole, Blind Willie Johnson, Robert Johnson, Jeff Lang, Led Zeppelin, Morphine, Nine Inch Nails, Nirvana, Placebo, The Police, Public Enemy, Queen, Radiohead, Rage Agaiunst The Machine, The Rolling Stones, Elliot Smith, Sonic Youth, Tom Waits, Chris Whitley, The Who.