"Where the Soul of Man Never Dies"

Download: ANGLIN BROTHERS: Where the Soul of Man Never Dies"

To keep everything new, the first song I'll post is a song I heard today for the first time, from an archival Library of Congress LP of religious songs, released in 1976. It was bought at my favorite record shop, Mississippi Records, a shop so good I'm cautious to mention it to anyone who doesn't know about it but they'll never sell online so I guess it's "safe." Best store I've been in since Tompkins Square Books & Records (RIP). Anyway, the proprietor, Eric (who is about to become infamous for selling "the most expensive record ever") told me there are about a dozen Anglin Bros. songs out there but no one single collection of them.

I got home, listened to the song many times, then googled, allmusicked, and gemmed; while I can find nary a compilation with them on it let alone a single artist collection, AMG states that in fact there IS an Anglin Bros. LP, even though they do not list it: "In 1979, Michigan's Old Homestead label produced a compilation containing all the Anglin Brothers' commercially released songs; the album reveals a songbag heavy with humorous and sentimental pieces in venerable molds," so I shall be looking for this intently.

Recording in the late '30s, the Anglins were an early country brother duo sort of a la the Delmores (who were mentors), Stanleys, Louvins and Monroe Bros. To judge by this one song (according to AMG an all time favorite of Hank Sr.'s) they might have been as good as those others, too. I love the Dilaudid drip pacing! So hard to tell from just one song, of course -- and while the harmony is close, it's not the rapidly-entwining-RNA-strand perfection of, say, the Louvins.

There's a brief bio. of the Anglins here. They are not even mentioned in James Goff's Close Harmony: A History of Southern Gospel, nor could I find them listed in Bluegrass Breakdown or any other books sort of on the subject I have laying about.

Just what I needed--another record collecting obsession! Krikey.