One of the obvious things about old gospel music is how stark and direct it can be - the very opposite of a lot of the woolly stuff that's around these days - and so it can be quite shocking to the modern ear. This history of What Would You Give in Exchange for Your Soul? is that it was one of the first songs recorded by the Monroe Brothers in their first recording session in North Carolina on 17 February 1936. They had learned it as boys in the rural Baptist churches of Kentucky in the 1920s from a hymnbook called "Millennial Revival: for Revival, Church and General Use" by James D. Vaughan which had been published in Lawrenceburg, Tennessee around 1928. This was the biggest selling record of the Monroe Brothers' careers. They recorded a further 3 versions in 1937. We've tried to keep the simple, plaintive sound of the original, but we need to work on the harmonies and guitar parts. Here it is, recorded in one take at the scullery table:
What Would You Give in Exchange for Your Soul? - Scullery Table Demo version
Originally recorded by the Monroe Brothers, 17 Feb 1936, in North Carolina
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(ex Low Country Boys) - Welcome to the Thompson Brothers' blog, by Mark Thompson and Graeme Thompson, founders and original lead vocalists of the Low Country Boys. These days we're doing something similar but simpler - old-time gospel music in the classic mandolin/guitar "brother duet" tradition of the early 1900s. This blog will tell you more about the great brother duets, and other aspects of evangelical rural American culture and its Scotch-Irish / Ulster-Scots cultural roots - and a wee bit about our own music too.
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