How Great Thou Art (1996)

This 1996 gospel album features Willie on vocals and guitar, Bobbie on piano, and Jon Blondell on bass. Bobbie appears to be playing an organ on the title track, “How Great Thou Art.” This gospel album seems a bit more heartfelt and serious than some of his others. It doesn’t sound like Willie is just going through the gospel motions. He seems to mean these songs. “Swing Low Sweet Chariot” swings, as it should. The duet between sister and brother, piano and vocals, makes for a pleasingly distilled and paired down performance. Willie’s in no hurry on these songs, with a 6:59 “Closer Walk with Thee” and three other tracks over 5 minutes long. Willie even lets Jon solo on the bass toward the end of “Swing Low.” It is interesting to look at my list of favorite Willie records and notice that so many come from the 1990s:

Storytellers (1998)

Spirit (1996)

Who’ll Buy My Memories (1991)

Teatro (1998)

Me and the Drummer (2000)

Night and Day (1999)

How Great Thou Art (1996)

I wonder what it was about the 1990s that brought out the best in Willie’s music (for me at least). Was it the trouble with the IRS? The sense of loss? The emotions just seem closer to the bone, more like the demo tapes. Willie takes it nice and slow on “It is No Secret,” and “Kneel at the Feet of Jesus” seems to include a bit of Trigger along with Bobbie’s piano. This is no throwaway gospel album. It should be better known. Willie’s “Just as I Am” rises above the familiarity of the tune. His “Just a Closer Walk with Thee” stretches to almost seven minutes. Bobbie’s piano seems more melancholy than I have ever heard it. Willie slows it down by singing behind the beat, jazzing it up even on a gospel album. “Farther Along” may be my favorite on this album. This album has the same authentic spiritual vibe as Willie’s 1996 “Spirit” album. And Bobbie is clearly feeling it, too. Willie stretches out the beat, the meter, the notes farther and farther along in the song. You have a Bach-like, Baroque sense of striving for something ineffable in the guitar and piano and vocals. It is no easy feat to make “What a Friend We Have in Jesus” sound fresh and new, like Willie wrote it, but that’s just what he does. He ends with “In the Garden,” and his voice strolls along like he is walking with God in the Garden. This album has a presence, a seriousness, a gravity that seems to be found in a more concentrated fashion in Willie’s recordings from the 1990s. Add this to my untenable top ten.