Rev. Johnny L. Jones: The Hurricane That Hit Atlanta

Label: Dust to Digital

This wild set is from the excellent Dust-to-Digital label — and in a just world, we shouldn't have to tell you anything more! Alas... The righteous Reverend Johnny L. Jones, who still hits his Atlanta congregation like a hurricane every Sunday, here releases a double-disc package of rough, bluesy gospel that stretches all the way back to 1957, with nothing previously released. The sermons on The Hurricane That Hit Atlanta — which rise in pitch and energy and will get any saint or sinner feeling closer to heaven — and songs are as rousing as anything you can name, but it's stuff like Jones's radio spots that put this collection over the top. Let's just say that Troy's Supermarket probably saw a dramatic increase in business after Jones took to the air for them ("green bell peppers: two for one dollah!"). "Yes to Jesus Christ" will have even stone-cold atheists feeling the passion with its organ-and-singalong power, while Jones's versions of "When the Gates Swing Open" and "Sometimes I Feel like a Motherless Child" rank with the most moving I've heard. Great, gritty, vibrant American art! (M.L. Thrope)