Produced by Donny Henderson & Phil Cross
Independent
poetvoices.net
Format: CD & USB (as of this writing)
Release Date: Fall 2024
Format Reviewed: CD

SONG TITLES: King Jesus (Maurice Delamont / Kay Delamont) / I Know (Aubrey W. Mullican / Ervin T. Rouse / LaVerne Tripp / Lois Mann) / After Calvary (LaVerne Tripp) / I Know What Lies Ahead (Sylvia Canter) / Show Me The Way To Go (Jeff Tweel) / Here’s A Song For The Man (Duane Allen) / Through It All (Andrae Crouch) / I Would Crawl All The Way (To The River) (Kenneth E. Jones / Curly Putman / Dan Wilson) / He Did It All For Me (Duane Allen / Sager Powell) / Jesus Is Coming Soon (R. E. Winsett)

Since The Oak Ridge Boys announced their American Made Farewell Tour last year, I fully expected tribute albums to start showing up. One I didn’t exactly expect was a project from Phil Cross & Poet Voices. In fact, I wasn’t even aware that this project existed until a friend sent me a picture of it from NQC last week (I ordered a copy that afternoon).

Most of the songs on this album are from the Oaks’ peak gospel years of 1970-73, with some later gospel songs sprinkled in. By and large, they stick to their original arrangements pretty closely, but there are a few surprises. The title track, for example, has a false ending before leading into a heretofore unheard (at least by me) third verse, mimicking the live arrangement the ORB often used as an encore. “I Know” also deviates from the album cut and is almost a direct lift from a later live version.

Tenor Jeff Snyder gives a solid performance of “After Calvary,” which stays pretty faithful to the original studio cut, right down to some of Little Willie Wynn’s vocal slides. At times, he seems to be doing a note-for-note redo, but it works well here. Likewise, bass singer K.C. Armstrong channels the late Noel Fox pretty well on “Through It All,” though at times, it sounds like he might be reaching a bit in the upper register. That’s not a knock against Armstrong, mind you; Fox was such a unique vocalist who could bounce between rumbling bass to lead vocal range with seemingly little effort, which is what made the original ORB cut of “Through It All” stand out, but I think this version probably would’ve been better had it either been re-arranged somewhat or maybe dropped a step.

As for the newer material, PV pulls a fan favorite from their multi-platinum Fancy Free album with “I Would Crawl All The Way (To The River),” which again stays faithful to the original recording. This is probably one of the better cuts on this collection, as the energy seems a little higher. Donny Henderson’s lead vocals here also fit the song well. My only complaint is the phrasing is a little vanilla compared to the Oaks’ take (that, and the last note goes on unnaturally long).

The group also bravely cover two songs from the Oaks’ 2001 From The Heart project with “I Know What Lies Ahead” (itself a cover of the Charles Johnson & The Revivers take) and “Show Me The Way To Go.” I say “bravely,” because From The Heart is widely considered to be a landmark album for the ORB, and while PV does a fine job on both titles, the songs are probably the weakest of the project just in comparison. That may not be entirely fair, as the rest of the album has the advantage of covering songs from 50 years ago, but their inclusion, while nice, is unnecessary.

The more surprising of the arrangements is “He Did It All For Me,” co-written by Allen and Sanger Powell and previously covered by a number of artists. While most groups (Oaks included) do the second verse as a lead solo, Snyder is given the feature as the tenor, which is an interesting approach, but one that works well. I don’t know that I’m a fan of the walk-down bass vocal at the end, but at least it’s something unique.

While “King Jesus” and “I Know” drew inspiration from the Oaks’ live performances, “Jesus Is Coming Soon” sticks to a fairly traditional arrangement that, sadly, sounds like many other covers of this song. By the early 70’s, the ORB had notably altered their arrangement of the song to be more uptempo with a more driving style and tempo, and this is what I’d hoped PV would’ve gone for here rather than the straight-ahead southern gospel standard sound. Seeing as this is among the Oaks’ more well-known gospel hits, I guess it’s better to er on the side of caution, but my preference would’ve been the updated take.

At any rate, it’s clear that Poet Voices are fans of The Oak Ridge Boys, and this tribute album is a fine way to show it. It serves as a highlight of one of the most well-known quartets in the music industry. I don’t know if this is planned for a wide release or not (the CD has graphics on it for Spotify, Pandora, Apple Music, and Amazon, though it’s not currently available on those platforms as of this writing), but it’s worth a purchase at the table or from their website.