Kyle Boreing
Jul 26, 2010
Observations
Recording Oddities: The Cathedrals – “Cherish That Name” LP
When I first decided to tackle what has become a series of posts about the recording process in SG, one of the first songs that came to mind was The Cathedrals’ 1982 recording of “Canaanland Is Just In Sight” from the table project, Cherish That Name. To me, it was one of the definitive examples of a recording “oddity,” but the more I listened to the rest of the album, I noticed more oddities, one in particular being “Bigger Than Any Mountain,” so for this installment, I’ll cover those two songs in one post.
First off, a little backstory…..
In the summer of 2001, I attended Stamps-Baxter School of Music. On the weekend during some down time, I drove down the street from Trevecca Nazarene University (where the school was being held) into downtown Nashville. One of the stops I made was at Lifeway Christian Store, and while I was there, I found a display full of a “new” Cathedrals CD: Cherish That Name. I wasn’t too familiar with the Cat’s catalog at the time, and the package proclaimed that this was a previously-unreleased album featuring Kirk Talley, Mark Trammell, and Roger Bennett (and, of course, George Younce and Glen Payne). I grabbed a copy and went back to school.
When I arrived back to the dorms, I showed off my find to my roommate, David Mann (who is now singing baritone with Mark Blackwood). Being the Cathedrals historian that he was, Dave quickly told me that the album HAD been released before, because his dad owned it. He then went on to point out two things he remembered from it.
One is that the beginning of “Bigger Than Any Mountain” sounded like it had been chopped off. I gave it a listen, and sure enough, the opening notes DO sound rather abrupt. Apparently, when the song was originally recorded, there was at least a piano chord intro before the group started singing the opening lines (very common practice), but when they edited out the chord (or possibly an entire musical intro), they pretty much literally cut it out, leaving a very sudden “Bigger than all my problems” to start the song.
Three tracks later, I heard a cover of one of my favorite songs, “Canaanland Is Just In Sight.” The arrangement was laid back and acoustic-driven, and modulated by a 4th twice throughout the song. Dave also pointed out that the last chorus had several mistakes. For one, the drummer missed a snare hit during the first line, leaving a bit of a gap in the rhythm.
Secondly, George sings the wrong words, and it is left untouched. During “We will be there by and by,” George sings “We must” instead of “We will.” The mistake wouldn’t be so noticable if he hadn’t stopped singing when he realized his mistake. He messed up, quit singing, and picked back up on “by and by.”
To be fair, the reason this album was marketed as “previously unreleased” is because it was originally a table project not sold in stores. Such recordings are done on a budget and usually pretty quickly. They are not meant so much to be perfect as they are to help turn a buck at a show.
Now, this CD is almost as rare as the LP it came from. Cathedral Records lasted just a few years and vanished, and the CD isn’t available in stores anymore. Some show up on eBay and Amazon from time to time, however, so if you should find a copy, give it a listen. Mistakes aside, this is one of my favorite recordings, and also marks the debut of Mark Trammell with the group.
