4. Bessie Griffin & The Gospel PearlsSwing Down, Sweet Chariot
I discovered Bessie Griffin when a friend of mine bought one of her records based on the cover. It was in the 25 cents bin at a time when we bought a lot of records just to see what they sounded like and we didn’t have any money. We picked up a lot but I think this was the greatest find. My friend Laura got it and I borrowed it constantly. I just played the shit out of it. They weren’t well known and they still aren’t well known but as a group they just have this incredible feeling. I think the piano player in the band was Bessie’s cousin and there were a lot of singers ’cause they would trade off leads between three different women and the sounds were so powerful, and it had the same effects of like, Sister Rosetta Sharpe, and she wasn’t even well known. She was kind of forgotten at that time. So it was really interesting to find musicians that no one seemed to talk about.
