Dorothy Morrison: Brand New Day (1970) ...plus

Dorothy Morrison was lead singer and co-author for the The Edwin Hawkins Singers' recording of ‘Oh, Happy Day’, a song that was a gospel music arrangement of an 18th century hymn and became an international hit in 1969, reaching US #4 and UK #2 on the pop charts. It has since become the National Anthem of all American Gospel Groups. As was common in gospel circles, they produced and distributed their own LP, ‘Let Us Go into The House of the Lord’, recorded live in church. The success of this first album helped spark a revolution that introduced gospel music to new listeners worldwide, selling seven million copies. Following that success, Dorothy Morrison performed live on stage with CSN&Y, Joan Baez and Joni Mitchell at the Big Sur Folk Festival in 1970, and toured with Van Morrison. She also did some recordings with Boz Scaggs, Rita Coolidge and Ricardo Sands. The album I am posting today, recorded for Buddah in 1970, is full of heart felt and soulful tunes led by Dorothy Morrison’s fine vocals. She actually got her start singing pop tunes, but on Brand New Day she is doing gospel and very effectively. Besides her own lead, a strong female chorus backs her up and pushes the tunes along. That is heard on tracks like ‘Hi De Ho (That Old Sweet Roll)’, ‘Fire and Rain’, ‘The Border Song’, ‘Brand New Day’, ‘Peace Brother Peace’, ‘Can You Believe’, and ‘Get High on Jesus’. There’s also the great grooving soul tune ‘Top of the Mountain’, the uplifting ‘Black California’, and a good cover of ‘Spirit in the Sky’. I have also included three bonus tracks here: her 1975 hit ‘I Can't Go Without You’, the 1971 rousing gospel 'Rain' and the aforementioned Edwin Hawkins Singers' recording of ‘Oh, Happy Day’, from 1969. Thanks to EliotW for sharing this!http://soulstrut.com/, http://en.wikipedia.org/

Dorothy Morrison & The Allen Temple BC Men's Chorus singing 'Oh, Happy Day':