The Sensational Nightingales were briefly one of the greatest quartets of gospel's golden age, and this album proves it. Almost all of the tracks on this album feature the awesome and terrifying vocals of the Reverend Julius Cheeks, the greatest gospel shouter of them all. He's the man who taught Sam Cooke to shout and was the principal inspiration for a young Wilson Pickett. Cheeks was as great an arranger as any other in quartet music (check out "Standing At The Judgement") and peppered his best work with soulful and downhome ad-libbed interjections, anticipating James Brown's funk preaching by more than ten years. A great tribute to one of the unsung heroes of American music. |