Reviewed by Tony Cummings

We've had to wait a long time for this one. In the 1940s this team of delicately precise harmonizers through their broadcasts on Nashville's WLAC became one of the best loved names in gospel. But fame and fortune didn't follow and they all but disbanded until in 1980 gospel archivist Doug Seroff brought the team back together for a performance in Birmingham, Alabama. Now 12 years on the Fairfields finally make it to album. The result is a delight. Timeless acappella renditions of traditional songs like "Swing Low Sweet Chariot" and "Children Go Where I Send Thee" are a poignant reminder of just how beautiful the pre-quartet jubilee sound actually was. Black gospel devotees may be astonished that there's a guest appearance by the Nashville Bluegrass Band and that this album was completed in co-operation with the Country Music Foundation but there's always been a closer link between black gospel and Southern (white) gospel than many realise. A heartening release that shows that the CCM industry is at last beginning to acknowledge its roots.

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