Religious music for less than devout

In 2005 Marty Stuart And His Fabulous Superlatives (my favorite band since NRBQ lost Al Anderson, Tom Ordolino, and Joey Spampinato) made an album entitled Souls' Chapel. About it the company promo said: "A no-holds barred Gospel celebration steeped in deep-southern soul and stripped down to its spiritual essence."

In 2014 Marty and his band released the album Saturday Night/Sunday Morning. SN is sub-titled Rough Around The Edges, SM Cathedral. Both the profane and the profound on one album. ;-)

You don't have to be a believer to like the albums, but you had better like Hard Country, Hillbilly, Bluegrass, and Gospel. Oh, and their b*st*rd step-child, Rock 'n' Roll.

While T Bone Burnett’s music and lyrics are not overtly Christian, he’s a believer. He was a member of the church Dylan started attending during his conversion, the church where the two met, I believe. T Bone was a member of Dylan’s Rolling Thunder Revue cast. T Bone’s now-ex-wife Sam Phillips had a career in the Contemporary Christian field (under her real name, Leslie Ann Phillips) before going secular.

Speaking of Bob, Lennon was extremely critical of Dylan gettin’ religion. Guess he hadn’t listened all that closely to Bob’s lyrics. My God, had he not heard the John Wesley Harding album?!

@213runnin, and Buddy's recordings (he converted the couple's Nashville home's front parlour into a studio, and records there. When Julie isn't feeling well, he runs a mic upstairs and records her in bed!) have a very unique, "alive" sound. Sometimes a little brash, like live music.

I forgot to mention the recordings of Minneapolis church choirs and organists made by speaker designer Robert Fulton, released as LP's on his ARK label. INCREDIBLE sound quality! Very transparent, with great inner detail (you can hear each individual voice in the choir), and very deep bass. The pipe organ's pedal notes will made your listening room walls shudder! 

Before Buddy & Julie Miller were recording and performing together, Julie had a career as a Contemporary Christian artist. I have her Meet Julie Miller album on the Myrrll label.

Iris Dement was raised in a Pentecostal home, and her albums are filled with Christian themes and references. The Christian Right did not take well to her criticism of GWB (give a listen to her "Wasteland Of The Free"). Her Lifeline is a Gospel album, and if you haven’t heard her sing, when you do you will see why Merle Haggard, Emmylou Harris, Buddy Miller, and Joan Osborne are big fans of hers, as was John Prine, with whom she collaborated and toured.

So am I; I saw her live in a smallish theater just before the pandemic shut down social gatherings. She told some great stories, including one involving John. She’s much funnier than you would expect, very self-deprecating.

I recorded an album with a real good Christian songwriter in 1975-6, which remains unreleased. I have the master tapes (I engineered), if anyone wants to put it out ;-) . He employed the chord progression, and melodies and harmonies of J.S. Bach, Mozart, and Brian Wilson as fodder for his songs. One spooky one is entitled "Who'll Be Ready For The Big Surprise?"

I can’t believe Dylan’s Slow Train Coming, Saved, and Shot Of Love haven’t already been mentioned.

Aretha Franklin: Songs Of Faith. Recorded in 1956 in a Baptist church in Detroit (Aretha was 14 years old!), originally released on J-V-B Records, rereleased in ’65 (with extra tracks) in ’65 on Checker Records.

Larry Norman was a very well-known figure in the Christian Rock movement (and may still be). He made a bunch of albums, and if his name sounds familiar (unless you’re from San Jose or are a Rock historian, I doubt it ;-), he was one of the two lead singers in the 1960’s 1-hit wonder group People, known for their cover of The Zombies "I Love You".

Ritchie Furay of Buffalo Springfield and Poco also went Christian, making a fair number of albums for the Christian Rock market.

Almost all the music composed by J.S. Bach is of a spiritual nature, much of it written to be performed at his day job, a church organist.