David Bruce Murray
Diana Brantley
Kyle Boreing
Phil on Southern Gospel
Steve Eaton
I have been cleaning out my music collection recently as I began selling off many duplicate copies of LPs/CDs, etc. I came across one group and couldn’t believe that in the two years I have had this blog I haven’t featured any of their music. The Orrells were a trio, based out of Detroit MI, composed of famed songwriter Gordon Jensen, Larry Orrell and Wayne Hilton. In the late 1960′s, the group transitioned to a trio from the Orrell Quartet.
The trio recorded several albums on the Heart Warming label before becoming Gordon Jensen & Sunrise in the mid 1970′s. It was the Orrells that introduced many of Gordon’s biggest songs. ”Redemption Draweth Nigh”, “Tears Are A Language (God Understands)” and the song being included in this smack down feature this week; “The Coming Of The Lord”.
The Orrells recorded “The Coming Of The Lord” on a 1970 recording titled Gospel Music Is The Thing. Listen to the Orrells take the first half of the song.
The Oak Ridge Boys had a nice version of this song on both their International and Performance albums from 1971, but the version I want to use in the smack down feature this week is a more recent version recorded by Paid In Full.
I wanted to put a trio arrangement up against another trio arrangement. Paid In Full recorded “The Coming Of The Lord” on their 2005 recording Lovin’ Out Loud. This is when Jeff Crews was still singing tenor with the group.
Paid In Full will take the second half of the song. The arrangements do vary in tempo. Which trio takes the smack down this week?
The Oaks Ridge Boys’ Performance version.
Okay, between these two is a harder choice. The pitch on the first had me cringing otherwise it would probably win. The up tempo that the Oaks does is nice, but on Paid In Full’s the drum fills in particular don’t seem to be a good fit. So, I don’t really have an answer on this one.
Once again, Q-Man hijacks a blog to turn it into an Oak Ridge thead!
Loved the Orrell Trio back in their heyday. They were cutting edge and always had wonderful new songs written by Gordon Jensen. Their quartet with Jim Murray and Buddy Liles wasn’t bad, either!
Paid in Full for me. The Orrell version was too “weepy”!
I would love to hear the Oak’s Version though
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I pick Paid In Full for the tempo,made it much better.I did like the steel on the Orrell version though.