The Gospel Collection
The Gospel Collection | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Studio album by George Jones | ||||
Released | April 4, 2003 (2003-04-04) | |||
Genre | Country, gospel | |||
Length | 76:28 | |||
Label | Bandit Records | |||
Producer | Billy Sherrill | |||
George Jones chronology | ||||
|
The Gospel Collection is the 58th studio album by American country music singer George Jones, released on April 4, 2003 on the Bandit Records label, and the first single, "I Know A Man Who Can" was released through Rick Hendrix Company.
Background
Jones's fondness for gospel music is well documented. The singer revealed to Jessica Walden of The 11th Hour magazine that his first musical memory was singing in church with his mother Clara and, in the 1989 documentary Same Ole Me, he recalls that he learned how to play the guitar at the church where his mother, a devout woman, played piano. The church was run by Brother Burl Stephens (with whom Jones would credit as co-writer of several songs on his 1959 gospel album Country Church Time) and Sister Annie, who George remembered "taught me my first chords on the guitar, like C, G, and D and things like that, and I started hangin' out over there more often. She'd get her guitar and we'd pick and sing together...We used to do all the really old gospel songs." Jones love of gospel music actually predated his exposure to country music, which he would not hear until his family acquired their first radio. Jones had also recorded a gospel album with his then-wife Tammy Wynette in 1972 called We Love To Sing About Jesus on Epic Records, which had been produced by Billy Sherrill. For nearly two decades, Jones and Sherrill would form one of the most successful artist/producer relationships in country music history, which included the recording of "He Stopped Loving Her Today", until Jones left Sony Music for MCA Nashville in 1991. Sherrill had actually been retired for years near the end of their run, producing only Jones. He came out of retirement to produce The Gospel Collection. Jones decision to record the album is said to have been informed by his near-fatal crash in 1999, when he ran his SUV off the road while driving drunk. The crash was a significant turning point, as he explained to Billboard in 2006: "...when I had that wreck I made up my mind, it put the fear of God in me. No more smoking, no more drinking."
Reception
Jones's 58th album peaked at number 19 on the Billboard country albums chart and number 3 on the Billboard Christian albums chart. It received positive reviews but it was also the first album that - after fifty years of singing, forty years of drinking, and literally thousands of shows - reveals cracks in the singer's legendary, mercurial voice. Thom Jurek of AllMusic notes: "There is no doubt he is still a great singer, but his ability to throw his voice around and hit the higher notes in his baritone register is all but gone. With his more limited stylistic vernacular, however, Jones digs deep and gets the tunes across, making them swing and sway with emotion and honky tonk swagger." John Morthland of Amazon.com compliments Sherrill's production, writing that "Circuit-preacher’s son Billy Sherrill, who guided Jones’s 1970s commercial ascension, came out of retirement to produce these 24 songs (on two discs) and, especially for a guy accused back then of gussying up country too much, he forges an austere sound."
Review scores | |
---|---|
Source | Rating |
Allmusic | link |
Track listing
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
---|---|---|---|
1. | "Amazing Grace" | John Newton | 3:23 |
2. | "It Is No Secret" | Stuart Hamblen | 3:12 |
3. | "Just a Little Talk with Jesus" | Cleavant Derricks | 2:11 |
4. | "Never Grow Old" | James Cleveland Moore, Sr. | 3:19 |
5. | "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" | Traditional | 2:50 |
6. | "Why Me Lord?" | Kris Kristofferson | 2:58 |
7. | "I'll Fly Away" | Albert E. Brumley | 3:00 |
8. | "Precious Memories" | J. B. F. Wright | 4:16 |
9. | "Just a Closer Walk with Thee" | Traditional | 3:01 |
10. | "In the Garden" | C. Austin Miles, Johann Pachelbel | 3:28 |
11. | "Lonesome Valley" | Traditional | 3:39 |
12. | "When Mama Sang (The Angels Stopped to Listen)" | Danny Walls, Bob Warren | 3:32 |
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
---|---|---|---|
1. | "Peace in the Valley" | Thomas A. Dorsey | 3:26 |
2. | "What a Friend We Have in Jesus" | Charles Crozat Converse, Joseph M. Scriven | 4:13 |
3. | "Softly and Tenderly" | Will Lamartine Thompson | 3:08 |
4. | "The Lily of the Valley" | William Charles Fry, William Shakespeare Hays | 2:35 |
5. | "The Old Rugged Cross" | George Bennard | 3:13 |
6. | "Leaning on the Everlasting Arms" | Elisha Hoffman, Anthony Johnson Showalter | 3:04 |
7. | "Family Bible" | Walt Breeland, Paul Buskirk, Claude Gray | 3:33 |
8. | "Mansion Over the Hilltop" | Ira Stanphill | 3:34 |
9. | "If I Could Hear My Mother Pray Again" | James Rowe, James W. Vaughan | 3:19 |
10. | "How Beautiful Heaven Must Be" | A. P. Bland, A. S. Bridgewater | 3:21 |
11. | "Jesus Hold My Hand" | Albert E. Brumley | 3:31 |
12. | "I Know a Man Who Can" | Jack Campbell, Jimmie Davis | 4:02 |
External links
- George Jones' Official Website
- Record Label
- v
- t
- e
- Grand Ole Opry's New Star
- Country Church Time
- White Lightning and Other Favorites
- George Jones Salutes Hank Williams
- George Jones Sings Country and Western Hits
- George Jones Sings from the Heart
- George Jones Sings Bob Wills
- Homecoming in Heaven
- My Favorites of Hank Williams
- I Wish Tonight Would Never End
- George Jones Sings Like the Dickens!
- I Get Lonely in a Hurry
- The Race Is On
- Mr. Country & Western Music
- New Country Hits
- Old Brush Arbors
- Trouble in Mind
- Country Heart
- Love Bug
- I'm a People
- We Found Heaven Right Here on Earth at "4033"
- Walk Through This World with Me
- George Jones Sings the Songs of Dallas Frazier
- The George Jones Story
- My Country
- If My Heart Had Windows
- I'll Share My World with You
- Where Grass Won't Grow
- Will You Visit Me on Sunday
- George Jones with Love
- George Jones Sings the Great Songs of Leon Payne
- George Jones (We Can Make It)
- A Picture of Me (Without You)
- Nothing Ever Hurt Me (Half as Bad as Losing You)
- In a Gospel Way
- The Grand Tour
- Memories of Us
- The Battle
- Alone Again
- I Wanta Sing
- Bartender's Blues
- My Very Special Guests
- I Am What I Am
- Still the Same Ole Me
- Shine On
- Jones Country
- You've Still Got a Place in My Heart
- Ladies' Choice
- Who's Gonna Fill Their Shoes
- Wine Colored Roses
- Too Wild Too Long
- One Woman Man
- You Oughta Be Here with Me
- And Along Came Jones
- Walls Can Fall
- High-Tech Redneck
- The Bradley Barn Sessions
- I Lived to Tell It All
- It Don't Get Any Better Than This
- Cold Hard Truth
- The Rock: Stone Cold Country 2001
- The Gospel Collection
- Hits I Missed...And One I Didn't
- Burn Your Playhouse Down – The Unreleased Duets
- What's in Our Heart (with Melba Montgomery)
- Close Together (As You and Me) (with Melba Montgomery)
- Bluegrass Hootenanny (with Melba Montgomery)
- George Jones & Gene Pitney – For the First Time! Two Great Stars
- George Jones & Gene Pitney – Recorded in Nashville, Tennessee! (with Gene Pitney)
- It's Country Time Again! (with Gene Pitney)
- Double Trouble (with Johnny Paycheck)
- A Taste of Yesterday's Wine (with Merle Haggard)
- Kickin' Out the Footlights...Again (with Merle Haggard)
- George Jones & The Smoky Mountain Boys
- Hillbilly Hit Parade
- George Jones Singing 14 Top Country Song Favorites
- George Jones Sings His Greatest Hits
- The Fabulous Country Music Sound of George Jones
- Long Live King George
- The Crown Prince of Country Music
- A King & Two Queens (with Judy Lynn and Melba Montgomery)
- Blue & Lonesome
- Heartaches & Tears
- Famous Country Duets
- Hits by George
- The Best of George Jones
- All-Time Greatest Hits, Vol. 1
- Encore
- Anniversary – 10 Years of Hits
- By Request
- Super Hits
- Friends in High Places
- Super Hits, Volume 2
- 16 Biggest Hits
- 50 Years of Hits
- God's Country: George Jones and Friends