Sunday, July 01, 2007

Farewell to "The Boss"


Bill Moss & The Celestials - Keep On Using Me Jesus

As promised, today's selection is in tribute to gospel's Bill Moss, who passed away at age 76 this past week. As I mentioned in my post on Tuesday, Moss and his group, The Celestials, did a lot to bring a contemporary sound to the genre (his family pointed out in interviews this week that he helped bring the electric piano, for instance, into gospel), but he never lost the "good news" focus and worked all the way up until his health failed him. Today's selection comes from the great comp Repent Ye Funky Heathens, and it finds Moss and the group taking a page from Bill Withers' "Use Me" to create a statement of total dedication to God. RIP Bill, and thank you for bringing some "get down" to the gospel for which today's gospel artists should be thankful.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Jason

Which Bill Moss LP's can you highly recommend?

Gregg

Cies said...

Gregg,
I would recommend his seventies albums for Jewel.

Jason,
I can't find the Trikont compilation you're referring to. Do you have more information about it?

Cies

The Stepfather of Soul said...

Cies, the "Correction Section" makes another appearance. Repent Ye Funky Heathens! The Gospel Groove is not a Trikont release (I got it confused with the two Overcome! Preaching in Rhythm and Funk volumes they did). I downloaded material from Repent some time ago and, sadly, I don't know what label put it out. I haven't been able to find it via Google, either. Email me privately and I'll try to get the material to you if you want to hear it.