Gospel music has always been a big part of Darin & Brooke Aldridge’s world. On their eleventh studio album, Soul Condition, which is available now on Billy Blue Records, songs of faith take center stage, focusing on the rewards of God’s blessings and joyful reunions in heaven.
Bluegrass fans will recognize many of the musicians on this album, including Cody Kilby, Kristin Scott Benson, Tim Surrett, Mark Fain, and Eamon McLoughlin (staff fiddler for the Grand Ole Opry). Some tracks also make use of piano, organ, and percussion, giving it a bit of a contemporary Christian music feel, but bluegrass is always the predominant flavor.
Brooke handles most of the lead vocals, but Darin sounds great on his three lead songs, including I’m Going Up When He Starts Down, by legendary bluegrass songwriter Paul Williams and Jeffrey Orr.
The album gets started with the catchy gospel rave-up You Don’t Knock. John Cowan provides harmony vocals on a Staples Singers R&B gospel song he and New Grass Revival introduced to the bluegrass scene in 1984. Darin & Brooke previously released their fun rendition as a single, which now joins recordings by everyone from the Kingston Trio to Don Gibson, and “The Trio” of Dolly Parton, Emmylou Harris, and Linda Ronstadt.
Soul Condition contains traditional songs by writers like Homer Jackson and Luther Presley as well as more contemporary-sounding tracks such as It’ll Be Worth It After All, which finds Christian music’s Jason Crabb sharing lead vocals with Brooke.
A new studio version of When He Beckons Me Home to Stay now joins Darin & Brooke’s original live recording that gained them a 2013 nomination for IBMA Gospel Recorded Performance of the Year. “That song was actually the first demo Brooke and I did together after we met,” Darin explained in a Bluegrass Today article by Shannon Turner. “It’s been with us a long time. It goes back to both of our families and churches, and it’s a big thing for George Shuffler to be the songwriter on it.”
One of the collection’s highlights is Where Could I Go But to the Lord, a hymn you may remember Emmylou Harris singing on her album, Angel Band. The song ends with an a cappella choir made up of Darin and Brooke’s family members, recorded at the Linville Falls Community Church in western North Carolina, where Darin’s uncle is the pastor.
The album concludes with When We’re Gone, Long Gone, featuring Sonya Isaacs Yeary and Becky Isaacs Bowman. Written by Kieran Kane and James O’Hara of the O’Kanes, and also recorded by the Dolly/Linda/Emmylou trio, the song is a beautiful statement of the legacy of love and caring we leave behind.
The album is nicely recorded and mixed. Bluegrass gospel fans, be sure to give it a listen!
