- Record Label: Alligator Records
- Release Date: Feb 26, 2016
Buy Now
| Buy on |
|
- Critic score
- Publication
- By date
-
Feb 29, 2016This is the best Americana album of the year. It reminds us all the way out here in 2016 that Blind Willie Johnson’s songs are still alive, and there is no better way to pay tribute to one of the finest American artists who ever lived.
-
Apr 1, 2016The album, which was funded by producer Jeffrey Gaskill through Kickstarter, is full of treats; and Johnson deserves 21st-century acknowledgement.
-
Mar 22, 2016Thanks to this well-constructed compilation CD (including a very informative booklet), his legacy will be exposed to a new generation of musicians, and music fans.
-
Feb 29, 2016The disc, with its 20 page book of notes and details on Johnson’s short life (he was 45 when he passed in 1947), is beautifully packaged, making this a wonderful and longtime gestating homage to one of America’s most treasured, if often overlooked, blues and gospel singers. But, at under 45 minutes, you’re left wanting more.
-
Feb 29, 2016An understandable reverence prevails over most of these primarily straight-forward interpretations, but a handful dig a level deeper.
-
Mar 8, 2016Like its predecessor, God Don't Never Change 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.
-
Feb 29, 2016Williams finds the sweet spot between the blues and the gospel that Johnson so amazingly brought to his music. The other contributions showcase the everlasting value of Johnson’s material.
-
MojoFeb 29, 2016Johnson recorded 30 songs between 1927 and 1930, and 11 are covered here by a curious, though often great, selection of artists. [Apr 2016, p.89]
-
Feb 29, 2016A collection that leaves so much on the table in terms of possibility. Many of these selections are too on-the-nose, kowtowing to Johnson’s legacy as though kneeling before his corpse at a wake.