For The Living Of These Days
NOTES / LYRICS / REVIEWS
Release Date: September 5, 2006
For the Living of These Days was recorded at Fame Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama and features the legendary Spooner Oldham on Organ, Piano, and Wurlitzer.
Includes songs written by Kate and her favorite Muscle Shoals collaborators as well as songs by Woody Guthrie and Kris Kristofferson. Also features “Prayer of Thomas Merton” which Kate set to music. The CD cover art is by Mary McCleary.
“A sure-fire masterpiece!” –LIRA, Swedish Music Magazine
LYRICS
Jesus Christ
Jesus Christ was a man who traveled through the land
A hard working man and brave
He said to the rich give your goods to the poor
But they laid Jesus Christ in his grave
Jesus was a man a carpenter by hand
His followers true and brave
One dirty little coward called Judas Iscariot
Has laid Jesus Christ in his grave
He went to the preacher he went to the sheriff
He told them all the same
Sell all of your jewelry and give it to the poor
But they laid Jesus Christ in his grave
When Jesus come to town all the working folks around
Believed what he did say
The bankers and the preachers they nailed him on a cross
Then they laid Jesus Christ in his grave
The poor working people they followed him around
They sung and they shouted gay
The cops and the soldiers they nailed him in the air
And they laid Jesus Christ in his grave
Well the people held their breath when they heard about his death
And everybody wondered why
It was the landlord and the soldiers that he hired
To nail Jesus Christ in the sky
This song was written in New York City
Of rich man, preacher and slave
But if Jesus was to preach like he preached in Galilee
They would lay Jesus Christ in his grave
By Woody Guthrie
© Cromwell Music Inc. OBO Ludlow Music Inc. (BMI)
Kate: Guitar, Vocal
If I Ever Get To Heaven
If I ever get to heaven
Don’t know what I’ll find
Maybe streets of gold
Maybe peace of mind
Will there be water
Will there be wine
Milk and honey
On the other side
If I ever get to heaven
Don’t know who I’ll see
Maybe some old friends
Or family
Will you all be there
Waiting for me
Singing a song
About being free
I’m not thinking about leaving right now
Sometimes I wonder where I’m bound
There’s no place like heaven I’m told
Wherever it is you know I want to go
If I ever get to heaven
Don’t know who I’ll meet
Maybe kings and queens
Or beggars and thieves
Will there be lost souls
Who made their way home
Kind of like you
Kind of like me
By Kate Campbell & Spooner Oldham
© Large River Music (BMI)
SpoonRox Music (ASCAP)
Kate: Vocal
Spooner: Piano, Vocal
Without Him
Without him I could do nothing
Without him I’d surely fail
Without him I would be drifting
Like a ship without a sail
Without him I would be dying
Without him I’d be enslaved
Without him life would be hopeless
But with Jesus, thank God I’m saved
Jesus, oh Jesus
Do you know him today
Please don’t turn him away
Oh Jesus, my Jesus
Without him how lost I would be
Without him how lost I would be
By Mylon LeFevre
© Angel Band Music (BMI)
Kate: Vocal
Spooner: Wurlitzer Electric Piano
Be Thou My Vision
Be Thou my Vision, O Lord of my heart
Naught be all else to me, save that Thou art
Thou my best thought, by day or by night
Waking or sleeping, Thy presence my light
Be Thou my Wisdom, and Thou my true Word
I ever with Thee and Thou with me, Lord
Thou my Redeemer, my love Thou hast won
Thou in me dwelling, and I with Thee one
Riches I heed not, nor vain empty praise
Thou mine Inheritance, now and always
Thou and Thou only, first in my heart
Great God of Heaven, my Treasure Thou art
Traditional Irish Song
Kate: Vocal
Spooner: Hammond B3 Organ
Prayer Of Thomas Merton
My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going
I do not see the road ahead of me
I cannot know for certain where it will end
Nor do I really know myself
And the fact that I think that I am following your will
Does not mean that I am actually doing so
But I believe that the desire to please you
Does in fact please you
And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing
I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire
And I know that if I do this
You will lead me by the right road
Though I may know nothing about it
Therefore will I trust you always
Though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death
I will not fear for you are ever with me
And you will never leave me to face my perils alone
Words by Thomas Merton, Thoughts in Solitude
© 1958 Abbey of Gethsemani
Permission granted by the Merton Legacy Trust
Music by Kate Campbell
© 2006 Large River Music (BMI)
Kate: Piano, Vocal
God Of Grace And God Of Glory
God of grace and God of glory
On Thy people pour Thy power
Crown Thine ancient church’s story
Bring her bud to glorious flower
Grant us wisdom, grant us courage
For the facing of this hour
For the facing of this hour
Lo! The hosts of evil ’round us
Scorn Thy Christ, assail His ways
From the fears that long have bound us
Free our hearts to faith and praise
Grant us wisdom, grant us courage
For the living of these days
For the living of these days
Cure Thy children’s warring madness
Bend our pride to Thy control
Shame our wanton selfish gladness
Rich in things and poor in soul
Grant us wisdom, grant us courage
Lest we miss Thy kingdom’s goal
Lest we miss Thy kingdom’s goal
Save us from weak resignation
To the evils we deplore
Let the gift of Thy salvation
Be our glory evermore
Grant us wisdom, grant us courage
Serving Thee Whom we adore
Serving Thee Whom we adore
Grant us wisdom, grant us courage
For the living of these days
For the living of these days
Words by Harry Emerson Fosdick
Music by John Hughes
Kate: Piano, Guitar, Vocal
Spooner: Hammond B3 Organ, Wurlitzer Electric Piano
Dark Night Of The Soul
You can pray with all your might
Till your knuckles all turn white
You can look the other way
Hope it’s gone with each new day
You can do your best to hide
You can hold it all inside
You can curse and shake your fist
You can ask why God why this
There is peace somewhere I’m told
There’s a fire out in the cold
There are wonders to behold
In the dark night of the soul
You can give in to your doubts
Try to figure it all out
You can fight the fight alone
Do your best to drink it gone
There is peace somewhere I’m told
There’s a fire out in the cold
There are wonders to behold
In the dark night of the soul
Trust your spirit to be your guide
You’ll come out on the other side
In the absence of the light
Let the shadows hold you tight
You can let your fear and pain
Wash over you like rain
There is peace somewhere I’m told
There’s a fire out in the cold
There are wonders to behold
In the dark night of the soul
In the dark night of the soul
By Kate Campbell & Walt Aldridge
© Large River Music (BMI)
Cross Key Publishing Co. Inc./Waltz Time Music Inc. (ASCAP)
Kate: Piano, Vocal
Spooner: Hammond B3 Organ
When I Let Jesus Take My Hand
Sometimes when I’m alone and my heart is troubled
And life seems too big to understand
A song of peace is sent down from heaven
When I let Jesus take my hand
He walks and talks with me whenever I’m lonely
And he tells me of a promised land
Then the still waters flow way down in my soul
When I let Jesus take my hand
Oh sweet serenity
When he touched me
And made me whole
Whenever I’m in need and problems surround me
And life seems too filled with demands
A ray of sunshine is sent down to guide me
When I let Jesus take my hand
Then the still waters flow way down in my soul
When I let Jesus take my hand
When I let Jesus take my hand
By Spooner & Karen Oldham
© SpoonRox Music (ASCAP)
Kate: Vocal
Spooner: Piano, Vocal
Terrible Mercy
I hear some people say
There’s no burning cross
No holocaust
And we are not to blame
No trail of tears
No fallout here
No coming judgment day
I hear some people shout
There’s no poverty
No undeserved disease
And no body counts
No toxic waste
No ozone rays
No sermon on the mount
Oh for ears to hear
And eyes to see
Terrible mercy
Terrible mercy
Lord I believe
Help my unbelief
I hear some people cry
There’s no corporate greed
No slavery
And no one is denied
No justice due
No need for truth
No cross on which to die
I heard someone say
Blessed are they
Who walk in peace
For goodness sake
Great is their reward
By Kate Campbell & Mark Narmore
© 2006 Large River Music (BMI)
Caketaker Music/Sony ATV Tree Music (BMI)
Kate: Piano, Vocal
Spooner: Hammond B3 Organ
Would They Love Him Down In Shreveport
If they saw him riding in
Long hair flying in the wind
Would they love him down in Shreveport today
If they heard he was a Jew
And a Palestinian too
Would they love him down in Nashville today
If they saw him talk with ease
To the junkies, whores, and thieves
Would they love him out in Wichita today
Would the rich men think it funny
If he said give up your money
Would they love him up on Wall Street today
If he made the wine from water
Gave it to their sons and daughters
What would the folks in Salt Lake City say
If he talked of brotherhood
As he walked their neighborhoods
Would they love him up in Boston today
If he said love those who use you
And forgive those who abuse you
If he turned the other cheek what would you say
Would you laugh and call him crazy
And send him on his way
If he walked right into your town today
By Bobby Braddock
© Sony/ATV Tree Publishing (BMI)
Kate: Vocal
Spooner: Hammond B3 Organ, Wurlitzer Electric Piano
There’s A Wideness In God’s Mercy
There’s a wideness in God’s mercy
Like the wideness of the sea
There’s a kindness in his justice
Which is more than liberty
But we make His love too narrow
By false limits of our own
And we magnify His strictness
With a zeal He will not own
For the love of God is broader
Than the measure of our mind
And the heart of the Eternal
Is most wonderfully kind
There’s a wideness in God’s mercy
Like the wideness of the sea
Words by Frederick W. Faber
Dutch Folktune
Kate: Piano, Vocal
They Killed Him
There was a man named Mahatma Gandhi
He would not bow down, he would not fight
He knew the deal was a-down and dirty
And nothing wrong could make it right away
But he knew his duty and the price he had to pay
Just another holy man who dared to be a friend
My God, they killed him
Another man from Atlanta, Georgia
Name of Martin Luther King
He shook the land like a rolling thunder
And made the bells of freedom ring today
With a dream of beauty that they could not take away
Just another holy man who dared to make a stand
My God, they killed him
The only Son of God Almighty
The holy one called Jesus Christ
He healed the sick and he fed the hungry
And for his love they took his life away
On the road to glory where the story never ends
Just the holy Son of Man I’ll never understand
My God, they killed him
There was a man named Mahatma Gandhi
A man named Martin Luther King
The only Son of God Almighty
The holy one called Jesus Christ
On the road to glory where the story never ends
Just the holy Son of Man I’ll never understand
My God, they killed him
My God, they killed him
My God, they killed him
By Kris Kristofferson
© Jody Ray Publishing Co. (BMI)
Kate: Piano, Vocal
Spooner: Hammond B3 Organ
Faces In The Water
(Civil Rights Memorial Song)
I see faces in the water of a time not gone by
I see places in the water where so many souls won’t die
I hear babies and their mothers
Crying Lord, oh lord why
I hear wailing for their brothers
And their fathers without life
From the faces in the water
Brightly shines through freedom’s cry
I see faces in the water of new life that answers why
Through those faces in the water
We can feel a change draw nigh
You can see the clouds are moving
Giving way to the light
People everywhere are saying
Now’s the time for love to shine
From the faces in the water
Came a better world we can’t deny
You can see the clouds are moving
Giving way to the light
People everywhere are saying
Now’s the time for love to shine
From the faces in the water
Came a better world we can’t deny
By Dr. Greg McPherson
© 2005 Southern Poverty Law Center
Kate: Vocal
Spooner: Wurlitzer Electric Piano
There Is A Balm In Gilead
There is a balm in Gilead
To make the wounded whole
There is a balm in Gilead
To save the sin sick soul
Some times I feel discouraged
And I feel like I can’t go on
Oh but then the Holy Spirit
Revives my soul again
There is a balm in Gilead
To make the wounded whole
There is a balm in Gilead
To save the sin sick soul
Traditional African-American Spiritual
Kate: Vocal
Spooner: Piano
REVIEWS
With a voice as sublimely majestic as a peach tree swaying in incessant summer heat, Kate Campbell delivers an album that testifies to God’s love with tenderness, wonder and power. You might recognize Oldham–who plays a rich array of keyboards here, including Hammond B-3 and Wurlitzer electric piano–as one of the legendary Muscle Shoals musicians. (“Days” was recorded at Fame Studios, home of the Muscle Shoals sound.) Teaming without a backing band, Campbell and Oldham conjure an alchemy that’s palpable and thick as a Faulkner narrative; the hymn “God of Grace and God of Glory” gets an unexpected jolt from a minor-key turn, while Myron LeFevre’s “Without Him” weds Oldham’s Wurlitzer and Campbell’s dusky singing into a gospel lullaby. Also welcome here: Campbell’s call for tolerance on songs such as “Terrible Mercy” and “Would They Love Him Down In Shreveport.”
–Louis R. Carlozo/Chicago Tribune
Emmylou Harris once sweetly grumbled that “the living room has gone out of the music.” She meant that Nashville had moved from homemade country music to a high-tech studio sound that eliminated mistakes but also emotion and spontaneity. Kate Campbell’s For the Living of These Days is living room music. You get the feeling – in this case, a good feeling – that Ms. Campbell is on the other end of the sofa, pouring out songs of faith. She and music partner Spooner Oldham confine themselves to guitar, piano, electric piano and Hammond B-3 organ. Some selections were done in one take. The CD contains a mix of hymns and contemporary songs that no commercially minded producer would indulge. Woody Guthrie is represented by the rather angry “Jesus Christ,” and Kris Kristofferson with the angrier “They Killed Him.” Both bear witness to the danger of living out Jesus’ message fully. With a low, rangy voice, Ms. Campbell does wonderful renditions of gospel tunes, including Mylon LeFevre’s “Without Him.” She’s strong on the hymns, such as “God of Grace and God of Glory.” Her riskiest effort – one with great emotional payoff – is to set to music a prayer of Thomas Merton. That tune, like the entire CD, offers a grownup faith, encompassing doubts and hard times.
–Sam Hodges, Dallas Morning News
Singer Kate Campbell is known primarily as a literate storyteller with a strong base in Southern folk music. This, her 10th CD, isn’t her first gospel disc. 2001′s Wandering Strange reached back into the hymns she grew up on as a Baptist preacher’s daughter in Louisiana; on it, her soprano voice is backed by a country-pop band, and the drums provide a lot of the kick.Here, she has stripped down her sound to her acoustic guitar and longtime musical partner Spooner Oldham’s piano and organ. Her fuller, deeper voice sounds at times like it could come straight out of a Wednesday-night prayer service. About half the disc is taken up with social gospel songs, leading off with Woody Guthrie’s Jesus Christ. Here, Campbell’s warm voice takes on a talkish tone that turns to a genuine wonder and anger at Christ’s death. The strongest of these songs is Terrible Mercy, with a strong but halting piano surrounding Campbell’s tremulous voice, which holds a sense of mercy’s promise. The disc’s other half is made up of songs of praise, which Campbell delivers in a brave voice with a quiet, soulful, bluesy feel. In God of Grace and God of Glory, her voice begins almost whisperlike and builds to its fullest in front of Oldham’s bassy organ. It carries a wearied joy that feels like it would fill a church into the next days. GRADE: A-
–Arthur Paine, Ft. Worth Star-Telegram
I don’t know what to call this album. Labels like Southern gospel, contemporary Christian, singer-songwriter all fit but ultimately fail to really describe the music. Just call it great. It combines two of the most talented lights of Southern music, Kate Campbell and Spooner Oldham, in a deeply moving, religious-themed program. They perform songs ranging from an eighth-century Irish hymn, “Be Thou My Vision”, to wryly contemporary pieces like “Would They Love Him Down in Shreveport?” Best of all, the album has a strong Alabama flavor. It was recorded at Fame Studios in Muscle Shoals, where Oldham is something of a living legend. He and his partner, Dan Penn, wrote some of the world’s greatest soul songs — pieces like “I’m Your Puppet,” “Dark End of the Street” and “Do Right Woman, Do Right Man” — and worked with the seminal artists who made them hits. Campbell, born in New Orleans and raised in Nashville, has an Alabama background as well, dating to her days as a student at Samford and Auburn. The new album not only showcases Campbell and Oldham as songwriters, collaboratively and individually, but it also focuses on the work of Walt Aldridge, an Alabama native and longtime Campbell songwriting partner; Mark Narmore, an Alabamian who has written songs for Shenandoah, Blackhawk and John Michael Montgomery; and Dr. Greg McPherson, another Alabama native whose “Faces in the Water” is a beautifully evocative song about the Civil Rights Memorial in Montgomery. This is not Campbell’s first religious recording. In 2001, her album “Wandering Strange” celebrated her Baptist musical roots. Oldham, too, has made his mark in the field, most notably as a studio sideman and road band member for Bob Dylan’s gospel era. His organ and piano work has graced many of Campbell’s projects over the years as well. Campbell says the inspiration for “For the Living of These Days” came from a 1996 collaboration of singer Mavis Staples and blues keyboard man Lucky Peterson. Their “Spirituals and Gospels: Dedicated to Mahalia” took a stripped-down approach that appealed to Campbell. The inspiration for the individual songs, however, came from far and wide. The album opens with Campbell on solo acoustic guitar singing Woody Guthrie’s “Jesus Christ.” Set to the tune of the traditional ballad “Jesse James,” it envisions how Jesus would be received if he returned to New York in the 1940s. The idea is updated in Bobby Braddock’s “Would They Love Him in Shreveport?” Made famous by George Jones, the song poses the question of how a wine-drinking Palestinian Jew who chose to consort with sinners and low-lifes would be viewed in 20th-century America:
“Would the rich men think it funny
If He said give up your money?
Would they love Him up on Wall Street today?”
“Prayer of Thomas Merton,” written by the celebrated Trappist priest/monk, is a gorgeous performance, sung with deep feeling by Campbell to Oldham’s understated organ accompaniment. The melody will be familiar to most Southern churchgoers, as will Harry Emerson Fosdick’s 1930 “God of Grace and God of Glory,” which we used to hear around Thanksgiving. The title of Campbell’s new album is drawn from Emerson’s 1956 biography. Oldham and Campbell wrote some of the album’s most effective music. A drive home through a thick fog in the Tennessee Valley inspired Oldham and his wife, Karen, to compose “When I Let Jesus Take My Hand.” The bare-bones performance adds to the song’s simple power. Musically, Campbell and Aldridge’s “Dark Night of the Soul” begins like Paul McCartney’s “Let it Be” but 16th-/scentury Spanish mystic St. John of the Cross inspired the lyrics. Campbell sings beautifully throughout, her middle Tennessee accent a prominent part of the proceedings. On some of the songs, Oldham offers a soft vocal harmony or counterpoint. The fact that they’re able to convincingly perform some of the weaker material, like Kris Kristofferson’s “They Killed Him” — compare it, if you will, to Dylan’s bizarre recording — is a testament to the spirit-flame that warms and illuminates this album.
–Ben Windham, Tuscaloosa News
Kate Campbell and southern soul architect Spooner Oldham have crafted some memorable moments together in recent years, but in the gospel-oriented For the Living of These Days, they have reached a depth of feeling remarkable even for their collaborations. There’s nothing fancy here: Campbell simply opens up her heart, digs into her soul, and feels to the core every message she imparts with such gentle urgency. Oldham supplies a few humble background harmonies, but his main role is to buttress Campbell’s stately vocalizing with down-home, backwoods church piano and organ. Spare and respectful, reverent and transportive, these performances beg only to be heard. Campbell doesn’t exactly take a noncommital stance here, though; rather, she wears her topicality with appealing demureness. In Bobby Braddock’s “Would They Love Him Down in Shreveport,” she renders Christ’s tribulations with bemused sweetness, over Oldham’s rich organ chording. In “Jesus Christ,” which Woody Guthrie modeled on his rewrite of the traditional outlaw ballad “Jesse James,” Campbell, accompanied only by her softly strummed acoustic guitar, describes misunderstood historical figures, each betrayed by a “dirty little coward,” each aligning himself with the downtrodden, each meeting a violent end. Gentle, organ-fueled pleas (“Be Thou My Vision”), acoustic guitar-and-organ exultations (“God of Grace and God of Glory”), and a moving, searching, nearly a cappella rendering of the African-American spiritual “There Is a Balm in Gilead,” suggest the varieties of religious experience in a thought-provoking style that is sneakily didactic but intensely mesmerizing.
–David McGee, Barnes & Noble
There’s no sacrilege intended in terming this spiritually minded collaboration a match made in heaven. Kate Campbell has won a loyal folk following with her purity of tone, literary inspirations, and depth of moral vision. Spooner Oldham has supplied soulful keyboards behind artists ranging from Percy Sledge and Aretha Franklin to Bob Dylan and Neil Young, and has further distinguished himself as songwriting partner of the great Dan Penn. This collection of hymns and contemporary material in a Christian vein benefits from the stripped-down intimacy and one-take immediacy of their performances as a duo. “If I Ever Get to Heaven,” a Campbell-Oldham composition, speculates on the afterlife, but the most pointed material concerns the religion’s radical message for life on earth, with Woody Guthrie’s “Jesus Christ,” Bobby Braddock’s “Would They Love Him Down in Shreveport,” and Kris Kristofferson’s “They Killed Him” each suggesting that a second coming could result in another crucifixion. Whereas some of the more traditional-sounding material, such as the Irish “Be Thou My Vision” and “There’s a Wideness in God’s Mercy,” stresses the comforts of religion, original material from Campbell–including “Dark Night of the Soul” and “Terrible Mercy”–explores the complexities. Whatever the message, Oldham’s gospel piano and bedrock organ are worth hearing on their own.
–Don McLeese, Amazon Editorial Review
“I’m completely overwhelmed. Kate Campbell and Spooner Oldham’s new album of white gospel is a sure-fire masterpiece. Campbell’s warm voice floats above Oldham’s gentle touch of keyboards. Together they create a piece of timeless beauty, music so joyful, it will make the most evil denier of God near-religous!”
–LIRA – Swedish Music Magazine
Although country and Anglo-American folk have a lot of common heritage (both are descendants of Celtic, Welsh, and British folk), the two have often parted company in a big way when it comes to political and social attitudes. Folk has long been a bastion of liberal activism, whereas country is one area of the music world in which neocons are not hard to find — which is why the Dixie Chicks caught so much flack for criticizing the George W. Bush Administration in 2003 (no one on the folk circuit is going to boycott Ani DiFranco or Phranc for opposing the neocon agenda). Folk audiences, on the whole, are disdainful of the modern country/pop/gospel artists who openly support far-right organizations like the Christian Coalition, but that doesn’t mean that folk has to be secular or that the folk scene is anti-religion — and For the Living of These Days is a perfect example of a Christian-themed folk album. With this 2006 recording (which boasts Spooner Oldham on piano and organ), Southern singer/songwriter Kate Campbell maintains both a Christian focus and a folk orientation. This 45-minute CD is definitely country-influenced, but the performances are more folk than country; that is true on Campbell’s own songs as well as inspired performances of Woody Guthrie’s “Jesus Christ,” Bobby Braddock’s “Would They Love Him Down in Shreveport,” and Kris Kristofferson’s “They Killed Him.” For the Living of These Days is not a heavily political release, and yet, some of the material does acknowledge the more liberal/progressive strains of Christianity. “They Killed Him,” with Kristofferson’s favorable reference to Hindu activist Mahatma Gandhi, is not exactly typical of the sentiments one associates with a Jerry Falwell sermon. Bottom line: For the Living of These Days is excellent as both a Christian album and a folk album.
–Alex Henderson, All Music Guide