Track Listing

1. Old Time Religion - Chanticleer, Joseph Jennings
2. Deep River
3. Jesus Come by Here - Chanticleer,
4. All Night, All Day
5. We Shall Walk Through the Valley in Peace
6. Where the Sun Will Never Go Down: Ain't That Good News, Good News, ... - Chanticleer, Tomas Hart
7. Steal Away
8. I've Been 'Buked
9. Lord I Want to Be a Christian - Chanticleer,
10. Am I a Soldier of the Cross
11. Twelve Gates to the City - Chanticleer, Joseph Jennings, , , Randall Wong

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #8472 in Music
• Released on: 1994-06-07
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .24 pounds

Customer Reviews

Sophisticated Spirituals & Gospel
This recording has Chanticleer's usual wide range of styles and moods. It also meets their usual impeccable standards for intonation, vocal precision, diction, tone quality and virtuosity.

There are pieces in the traditional "high spiritual style" of "Deep River" with its rich, dark sonorities, "Steal Away to Jesus" with its hushed longing, and the incredibly controlled, restrained and meltingly beautiful "We Shall Walk Through the Valley in Peace." There are also emotional, toe-tapping pieces like "Ole Time Religion" and "All Night, All Day".

The sheer, irrepressible joy of "Twelve Gates" has me hitting the replay button at least once.

I find the pieces that are in the style of upbeat Gospel a bit less satisfying than the traditionally styled ones, but they are still fun and quite enjoyable. Also the sequence of some of the pieces doesn't sit well with me: the contrasts are sometimes too strong.

For the individual pieces however, it is a fine recoding. It encompasses the range of spirituals and Gospel music with a breadth and depth that few, if any, ensembles can match.

Hooray for Acapella Music!
With so many artist who can't sing, sampled music and lyrics you can't understand, enter Chanticleer. Their tone, pitch and diction is a joy to behold. You can actually understand the lyrics to every song. This is the album that these trained muscians learned by rote. Learning music by rote is very difficult and tedious for trained musicians but the results are well worth it. New life is breathed into these old standard hymns and spirituals. The harmonies are well constructed, modern and very tight. They are flawless.

Listening to these masters of music sing acapella is so refreshing. It gives you a chance to hear the richness of each voice and the way each voice blends with the next. Key changes are very difficult without instruments but Chanticleer has mastered this art. Musical director Joseph Jennings is very demanding and he requires perfection. Very few things are perfect in this world but Chanticleer comes as close as you can get.

The male sopranos are of particular interest because while they do not have a feminine quality to their voices, they reach very high notes without screeching. Think of this music as a warm snuggly blanket for the ears on a cold and frosty night.

My words are inadequate here. All I can advise is that you try listening to this album for yourself. You will wonder why you never heard of them (if you haven't) and find yourself buying one album after another. Enjoy!!!

Fabulously Moving!
I recently heard a review of a Chantacleer CD on NPR and decided then and there that I had to have some of their music. I love the unaccompanied voices! And this CD is absolutely heavensent! The rich, pure vocals will give you goosebumps. I'm not much for "church music outside of church", but I'm so glad I bought this CD. Don't pass this one up!