The How Great Thou Art Sessions, Volume 2

Barely 3 months after the release of the first volume in this series, the 2001 label came up with #2. Is it as good as the first one, or not?

Cover art

Like on the first volume, the designers of 2001 did an outstanding job. Informative liner notes with marvellous pictures, most of them rare. One with Lee Majors (The 6 Million Dollar Man) deserves special attention, a really great shot. Believe us, you will thumb over and over again through this booklet, with or without listening to the CD. We wish every release, being it by BMG or bootleggers, had cover art like this.

Content

Again like on the first volume we have 7 different titles, but this time it is unfair to count one of them, since take 1 of “Where Could I Go But To The Lord” is so short, you can hardly count it. Also again in mono, the CD starts with the swinging gospels “So High” and “By And By”, songs that will not bore us quickly, and the joy of them works contagiously.

Something we can’t say of the next song, “Without Him”. To each his or her taste, but we get bored after several takes of this song. Mentioned should be that take one sounds very different from the other takes, as if the sound has been pressed together. Almost we would say “like between the doors of an elevator”, but that is physically impossible with a song. Gladly the sound improves with the next takes.

“If The Lord Wasn’t Walking By My Side” brings back the joy we had with the first couple of songs before the already mentioned take of “Where Could I Go” leads us to “Love Letters”. A beautiful, delicate ballad and the fact that most takes are known doesn’t bother at all. These sessions were named after the main goal, recording the How Great Thou Art album, but also a few none gospel songs were recorded. Now it is time for a big surprise. In sparkling stereo we get several takes of “Down In The Alley”, one of the most underrated Elvis-songs in our opinion.

Conclusion

Again 2001 lived up to its image and delivered a wonderful product. Whoever thought the FTD-series "killed" the bootleg market is proved wrong. We admit only very few can compete with the FTD-releases, but with releases like these the 2001 label certainly can.

Track listing :
01- So High (take 1), 02 - So High (takes 2, 3), 03 - By And By (takes 1, 2), 04 - By And By (take 3). 05 - By And By (take 4), 06 - By And By ( takes 5-8), 07 - By And By (take 9), 08 - Without Him (take 1), 09 - Without Him (take 2-7), 10 - Without Him (take 8), 11 - Without Him (takes 9-11, 13), 12 - Without Him (take 14), 13 - If The Lord Wasn't Walking By My Side (take 1), 14 - If The Lord Wasn't Walking By My Side (takes 2, 3), 15 - If The Lord Wasn't Walking By My Side (take 4), 16 - If The Lord Wasn't Walking By My Side (take 6), 17 - Where Could I Go But To The Lord (take 1), 18 - Love Letters (takes 1, 2), 19 - Love Letters (takes 3-5), 20 - Love Letters (take 7), 21 - Love Letters (take 8), 22 - Down In The Alley (take 1), 23 - Down In The Alley (takes 2-4), 24 - Down In The Alley (take 6), 25 - Down In The Alley (takes 7, 8).