Few musical traditions are as deeply woven into the American story as Gospel music. For generations, songs of faith have been heard in churches, homes, camp meetings, revivals, and concert halls across the nation.
The Inspirations are celebrating that heritage with their newest Horizon Records album, Songs For Our American Culture, released July 24.
The 13-song collection arrives during America’s 250th anniversary year and draws attention to the important place Gospel music has held in American life.
Gospel Music and the American Story
In announcing the project, Inspirations member Roland Kesterson reflected on the many kinds of music that have accompanied America’s history, from the sounds of the Revolutionary era to the instruments heard in homes and mountain communities in later generations.
That history eventually leads to an important question: What would American musical culture be without Gospel music?
For The Inspirations, the answer is found throughout Songs For Our American Culture.
Rather than attempting to reinvent the quartet’s sound, the project celebrates the kind of Gospel music that has endured across generations. Familiar quartet harmonies, country influences, traditional arrangements, and songs centered firmly on the Gospel message give the recording a connection both to Southern Gospel’s past and its continuing future.
Songs Rooted in Gospel Tradition
The album opens with a new treatment of “O How I Love the Lord” and closes with “I Mean To Be There.”
Along the way, listeners will hear songs including:
- “Eye of the Storm”
- “In the Shadow of the Cross”
- “Lord Walk With Me”
- “One More Valley”
- “Resting In the Arms of a Never Failing God”
- “Home Sweet Home”
- “Then We’ll Be Glad”
- “Jesus Is Coming Soon”
The collection includes everything from waltz-time arrangements and country-flavored selections to the classic quartet style for which The Inspirations have long been known.
One particularly noteworthy selection is “Home Sweet Home,” a new song written by Jewel Kesterson Scott.
Two Legendary Quartets Come Together
Perhaps the album’s most historically interesting moment comes with “Jesus Is Coming Soon.”
The Inspirations are joined on the recording by members of The Oak Ridge Boys, bringing together two names with deep roots in Southern Gospel history.
The connection goes back nearly six decades. Both groups recorded “Jesus Is Coming Soon” in 1967. Now, almost 60 years later, they have come together around the song once again.
Duane Allen of The Oak Ridge Boys also praised the distinctive sound of the current Inspirations lineup, noting the individuality of their lead singers and the unmistakable harmony that has given the group its identity in Gospel music.
A Heritage That Continues
The Inspirations themselves have become part of the history they are celebrating.
The group was formed in 1964 in Bryson City, North Carolina, and became a full-time touring group in 1969 after establishing their Singing In The Smokies event. More than six decades later, The Inspirations remain one of Southern Gospel music’s recognizable quartet names.
That makes Songs For Our American Culture particularly fitting.
It looks backward without becoming trapped in the past. These are younger voices carrying forward a musical tradition established long before they stepped onto a Gospel stage.
And ultimately, that is what gives this album significance beyond America’s 250th anniversary.
Styles change. Generations change. Singers change.
But the Gospel does not.
Songs For Our American Culture is available now through Horizon Records and major digital music services.
Source: This article was independently written by SoGo Music based on information released by Horizon Records and reporting from Singing News Magazine.