Gospel revival

Souls' Chapel
Marty Stuart and His Fabulous Superlatives
(Superlatone/Universal South)

Good morning, sisters and brothers. Welcome to the HickoryWind Hour of Gospel Power. I'm the Reverend Rich Ringolsby, and friends, I want to tell you a story of redemption. I said I want to tell you a story about re-DEMP-shun. Can I get an amen? ... I want to tell you a story about sin, sisters and brothers. I want to tell you a story about sal-VA-tion. Can I get an amen? ... I want to tell you a story about JE-sus. I said I want to tell you a story about the healing power of JE-sus! Can I get an amen, sisters and brothers?

It's a story about Brother Marty Stuart. It's a story about how Brother Stuart was knocked to the depths of despair. He was knocked to the depths of despair by indifference in the marketplace. He was wallowing in the depths of despair because he was twice arrested for drunk driving. Brother Stuart could have stayed down, sisters and brothers. He could have stayed down and chosen sin. I say yay-us, he could have chosen sin but he chose salvation, my friends. He chose salvation and he was filled with the Holy Spirit. I said he was lifted by the Holy Spirit, and this congregation can be, too.

Step into "Souls' Chapel," the first gospel album by Stuart and his Fabulous Superlatives, and be saved from despair and from the temptation of mediocre music.

Step into "Souls' Chapel," my friends, and feel the healing power as the first strains of shimmering, tremolo-laden Telecaster wash over you and cleanse your soul on the opening track, the Staple Singers' "Somebody Saved Me."

I know you need salvation, sisters and brothers. Maybe you've been tempted. Tempted by lesser talents. Tempted by downloaded singles instead of worthy, well-crafted albums. Perhaps you've been prideful, unwilling to accept artists' travels down roads to new challenges and unfamiliar styles. Perhaps you've been jealous, jealous of Brother Stuart's early successes in mainstream country.

Cast away your sins, sisters and brothers. Cast away your blues, or keep them if you please. The gospel according to Brother Stuart is equal parts Saturday night and Sunday morning. We know it can be this way. Blues and gospel need not be worshiped in different houses. The Lord welcomes those who lovingly meld the sacred and profane. Brother Ray Charles preached that good word for more than 40 years before going on to his greater reward last year.

Brother Stuart, too, blends the blues with gospel, and you can't help but give yourself over to it. Channeling the spirit of the dearly departed Roebuck "Pops" Staples and his family band, Brother Stuart and his Fabulous Superlatives – Brother Kenny Vaughan (vocals, guitar), Brother Harry Stinson (vocals, drums) and Brother Brian Glenn (vocals, bass) – will take you to the temple of twang and for nearly 48 minutes show you the healing power of Jesus' love. I said they show you the healing power of JE-sus, sisters and brothers.

Fear not, friends. This road to righteousness is a familiar one. Brothers Stuart and Vaughan pave the way with tasty guitar licks borrowed from the secular world. They take the form of bluesy fills on "Lord, Give Me Just a Little More Time." Follow the familiar riff borrowed from "Baby Please Don't Go" on "Way Down." And the story-song tradition of another revered but departed saint/sinner, Brother Johnny Cash, is even preserved on "The Gospel Story of Noah's Ark." Amen!

You'll feel the spirit, sisters and brothers. You'll feel it coursing through you in the swelling waves of B-3 organ from Barry Beckett on "Way Down," "I Can't Even Walk (Without You Holding My Hand)," "It's Time to Go" and Steve Cropper's "Slow Train." You'll be lifted by the heavenly choir of Stuart and the Superlatives in four-part harmony on "The Unseen Hand" and "There's a Rainbow (At the End of Every Storm)." But you'll be lifted higher still, people. I say you'll be lifted higher still when Sister Mavis Staples joins the band on her father's "Move Along Train."

Now that you've found your way back to the path of the righteous, the Superlatives provide the instrumental backdrop on the closer and title track, "Souls' Chapel," so you may worship in your own way.

My simple sermon can take you only so far, sisters and brothers. Get your hands on the gospel according to Brother Stuart. Follow his example and you can find salvation in the "Souls' Chapel" any day of the week, so long as you're playing it loud. Praise the Lord, and pass the headphones.

Can I get an amen?