Friday, January 01, 2010

Old Ulster Gospel Music - the Echoes of Grace

(NB: If you're reading this on Facebook, the original post is from my blog)

I remember the Echoes of Grace singing at Carrowdore Mission Hall a few times when I was a wee lad, probably late 1970s or early 1980s. They were from the Shankill area of Belfast, and sang some great old gospel music. Their tapes (along with classic Johnny Cash) were probably the ones that were played most in our house when we were growing up. I digitised one of the Echoes of Grace's tapes recently to burn onto CD for my parents. Here are two tracks for you - "Light At The River" by Bill Anderson, and a real cracker of an outro.

Light At the River:


Outro:


Back then, meetings were recorded onto audio tape by setting a tape recorder on the window sill nearest to the platform - a bit like this old ITT one shown below. A far cry from iPods and MP3s!

C5DB0163-BC3C-40FB-8AD9-923E2E5FAE74.jpg

1 comments:

Colin Maxwell said...

I remember thonITT machines. They were real workhorses. They were built to last. And you got them fixed when and if they ever gave up the ghost. Unlike today's throwaway culture. I must've recorded and listened to hundreds o' Bible messages on them.

Ah...the eighties.

{Sigh}

There was militant Christianity in those days, I can tell ye! You could eyeball certain people whom ye cannae look sidewards at the day.