Definitely one of the greatest blues compilations ever, the list of contributors is jaw dropping, Tom Waits, Lucinda Williams, Rickie Lee Jones, the Cowboy Junkies among others covering the brilliant songs of Blind Willie Johnson…The album was funded via a Kickstarter campaign that featured cigar box guitars made of wood from Willie Johnson’s 1920s/1930s Marlin, Texas, home that he shared with wife Willie B Harris. These ten unique folk instruments are individually numbered and collectively known as the Blind Pilgrim Collection. The album “Reflects the enduring, mercurial influence of the artist, but also the weight the Christian gospel imposes on questions of the human condition as it encounters suffering, joy, mercy, loneliness, death, and resurrection.” The Press praised the album saying “Producer Jeffrey Gaskill’s able guidance has resulted in 11 stirring renditions which replicated the soul of the songs not just the sounds.
Willie Johnson wrote a lot of good songs and a lot more people have heard of him because of this. His memory and his songwriting deserve to be heard,
Tracklist 0:00 A1 –Tom Waits The Soul Of A Man 3:29 A2 –Lucinda Williams It’s Nobody’s Fault But Mine 7:24 A3 –Derek Trucks, Susan Tedeschi Keep Your Lamp Trimmed And Burning 10:36 A4 –Cowboy Junkies Jesus Is Coming Soon 14:53 A5 –The Blind Boys Of Alabama Mother’s Children Have A Hard Time 19:35 A6 –Sinéad O’Connor Trouble Will Soon Be Over 22:54 B1 –Luther Dickinson, The Rising Star Fife and Drum Band Bye And Bye I’m Going To See The King 26:49 B2 –Lucinda Williams God Don’t Never Change 31:13 B3 –Tom Waits John The Revelator 34:04 B4 –Maria McKee Let Your Light Shine On Me 38:02 B5 –Rickie Lee Jones Dark Was The Night—Cold Was The Ground
The Fat Angel Sings 