Thursday, July 16, 2015

George McCurn--I'm Just a Country Boy (1963)


Gospel music has always informed popular music.  

Country, Rock and Roll, R&B and Soul all have been influenced at some level by Gospel. 

It's not surprising then that most of the singers of those genres came out of the church. 

Some, like Johnny Cash and Elvis were influenced by the songs of the church, and at least in Presley's case, it's stage manner as well. Others like Sam Cooke and Aretha Franklin were actually singing gospel music before switching to more secular material. 

George "Ooppee" McCurn spent the 1950's as a member of two of gospel's greatest groups; The Fairfield Four, and The Pilgrim Travelers. After being invited to tour with The Ink Spots through Europe in 1961 and 62, Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss asked him to be a part of the new A&M label. 

McCurn was blessed with a wonderful bass voice, and listening to this and his other recordings, it was obvious that he could sing just about anything with a resonance that (many times) outshown his material. This was probably the reason why he never made a dent on the charts...Alpert and Moss never really found a place for him to really open up with the material. It reached #100 and was his highest charting song.

The material in the case, was a fine folk song co-written by Fred Hellerman, a member of the seminal folk group, The Weavers. It was first recorded by Harry Belafonte in 1954 and covered by many, including a number 1 country hit by Don Williams in 1977. 

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