Album Notes

"If church sounded anything like the recordings on Let It Be Real I'd never have a problem getting up on Sunday mornings...the perfect antidote to the slick, overproduced music we are constantly bombarded with."
--Jeff Harris BAD DOG BLUES WITR 89.7 ROCHESTER,NY

"Listening to this modern Gospel as music is more than enough, as its as passionate as its Blues sister and outdoes in intensity not only most of the tripe that passes as gospel today, but much of its R&B and R&R children, as well. What's fascinating, too, is how the latter secular forms have come back to influence their roots."
--Mike Westerfield, Sisyphus Tracks Internet Radio

NOT YOUR GRANNY'S GOSPEL!
Recorded live in the Mississippi Delta, Let It Be Real showcases the engaging style of Gospel practiced there today. Geared to and feeding off the excitement of the congregation, the music packs all the rhythm and punch of the hottest R&B, supporting a level of emotional involvement unusual in purely secular music. Though the groups featured here display differing styles each represents the power of music when it is more than mere entertainment.

REVIEW FROM BAD DOG BLUES WITR 89.7 ROCHESTER,NY
March 2002
"Stand on the Ocean Records is a new label committed to recording live roots music right at the source. This undiluted, warts and all approach is captured on the label's first two releases both recorded live in the Mississippi Delta. LOWDOWN, DIRTY, MISSISSIPPI DELTA BLUES collects a batch of tough local blues artists caught live in the Mississippi juke joints while LET IT BE REAL captures a dozen fiery gospel performances taped in local churches...
If church sounded anything like the recordings on Let It Be Real I'd never have a problem getting up on Sunday mornings. The nine groups on this collection play in a variety of styles but all share a raw edged passion that's sadly lacking in most contemporary gospel. Like the above collection all these groups are homegrown products recorded live at the Travelers Rest Church and Moorhead and Christ Temple in Cleveland, Mississippi. Highlights include a pair of numbers by the Gospel Lites including the rousing "Let It Be Real" and God's Messengers featuring a excellent gravely voiced lead singer on the funky "Hold On" and the storming eleven minutes of "God Is Good." Other highlights include the very bluesy Delta Country Boy on the rocking, harmonica driven "This Train", Sarah Blair & The New Life Singers on the moving "You Ought To Live", William McGhee & Greenwood Jubilee on the tough, bluesy "You Gotta Move" and Aurther Strong Jr. delivering a strong message on "Hang Up Your Hangups."...
Stand on the Ocean Records has delivered a the perfect antidote to the slick, overproduced music we are constantly bombarded with. Both these excellent collections deliver music that's the real deal straight from Mississippi proving that classic Delta blues and gospel are still alive and well."--Jeff Harris
For the full review go to:http://www.baddogblues.com/reviews.htm

REVIEW SISYPHUS TRACKS INTERNET RADIO
March, 2002
Various Artists, Let It Be Real (Stand on the Ocean, 2001). "Just weeks ago, we featured another collection - Lowdown, Dirty, Mississippi Delta Blues - from this new Chicago-based independent label dedicated to recording authentic roots music at its source. This is the flip side of the same coin - an album of Deep Gospel likewise recorded in the Mississippi Delta, but churches have replaced the dives and juke joints of the Blues effort. No, people, we're not trying to "church you up" like Cab Calloway did to Jake and Elwood Blues. Listening to this modern Gospel as music is more than enough, as its as passionate as its Blues sister and outdoes in intensity not only most of the tripe that passes as gospel today, but much of its R&B and R&R children, as well. What's fascinating, too, is how the latter secular forms have come back to influence their roots."
--Mike Westerfield, Sisyphus Tracks Internet Radio

STAND ON THE OCEAN RECORDS
Ever wonder what the music sounds like before the suits, focus groups and PC police get their hands on it?

Suspicious that what the mega-corporation that once was a record label has been feeding you is just a pale imitation of what is going down in the jukes and honky-tonks?

Crave a more intimate connection with the performance than you're getting from that seat in the last balcony of the basketball stadium?

Stand On The Ocean Records aims to satisfy all those needs regardless of the genre you love most.

We plan to deliver a superior level of authenticity and excitement by recording various styles of grassroots American music, in live performance, in the environments in which they were born and raised.

Be it blues out of Delta jukes, bluegrass from brush arbors of the Blue Ridge Mountains, gospel recorded at sanctified service in the rural South, or zydeco captured in bayou honky tonks, wherever we go we'll get you as close to the bone and as far from the bullshit as possible.

Get a taste of what happens when the musicians, audience and culture come together where the music is as natural as breathing.