Pap & Granny Duets 1981

The songs on this tape aren't quite as practiced as the ones I found on reel-to-reel, and they're a bit more melancholy. I generally think of Pap always singing old songs, Granny too for that matter, so I was surprised when researching these songs to learn that several of the songs were only a few years old at the time Pap and Granny recorded them on cassette tape. I assume that Pap learned some of these songs at singings he attended. Look closely at this picture, taken in their house, newly built by Pap, and you can spot the case of the Dove sitting on the couch to the left, causing me to think this picture may have been taken just before or after a church singing. As with the last upload of Pap and Granny, you can hear little me in the background and the bass strings of the Dove thundering throughout this recording. Pap told me that by the time I started playing, the top string didn't sound with as much authority because he forgot the guitar in a hot car, and by the time he remembered it, the bridge had pulled up from the heat. He glued it back down with Elmer's Wood Glue but accidentally spilled glue in the peg hole for the top string, deadening it slightly. It may not sound as good today but still sounds good. "Forgive Me, Lord" is partly missing at the beginning, and I was unable to recover the missing part. Pap would have learned this song from The Webster Brothers (who you can hear on YouTube), probably on the Cas Walker Show or Mid-Day Merry Go 'Round, but I don't know the writer. This upload features "I Looked All Over Heaven." For comparison, you can find a video of me and Granny singing the same song on this channel. This upload also features "I've Got Jesus," which I sang with Pap 11 years ago (also available to view on this channel). This upload includes a Louvin song. Pap and his brother Ray sang this song from time to time in concerts, and I always noticed the audience fall extra quiet. I believe they were struck by the song's sincerity. When Pap sang it (with Ray or Granny), he sang "to erase these awful things that I've done." Ira wrote the line as "to escape these awful things that I do." That present tense reveals the tragic figure that Ira was, showing that he was still grappling with alcoholism. Pap and Ray sang the song in D or E flat. The Louvins (who normally san everything as high as possible) recorded the song 2-3 frets lower in C. That key wasn't even possible for Pap and Ray because neither of them could hit notes as low as Charlie. Back when I understood less about singing, I wondered why the Louvins sang it there. I thought maybe they recorded the song before they fully learned it, and just didn't realize how low the key was. Eventually, I noticed that they doubled the octave on the last line of the chorus, something Pap never did with Ray or Granny. Then it made sense to me: the Louvins had to pitch the song very low in order to make that last line possible. They were fond of making their singing dynamic and liked to show many different ways they could approach the harmony in one song, switching parts around and going progressively higher. Their recording of "I Love the Silver in Your Hair" is another Good example of this. Perhaps a more similar example to "Oh Lord, My God" is "Nobody's Darlin' But Mine." In it, they switch octaves and parts without changing keys (as in Oh Lord, My God). Anyway, I could write an essay on that one song. Back to Pap and Granny: This upload ends with two original songs from Pap. It's easy to tell that these songs were still being developed at the time he and Granny sang them. To hear the way the songs finally wound up, you can find me singing them as solos (recorded in a studio) at this link:    / @paulwilson6260  
In the Coen Brothers film "Inside Llewyn Davis," the main musician character says that you should never let anyone hear your practice stuff. I tend to agree, but viewers on this channel seem to love hearing Granny & Pap so much, I figured I would let this rougher stuff see the light of day. Also, several people, such as Debbie Nixon, let me know how much they loved Pap's prayer in "I'm Not the Servant I Should Be," so I figured I would show those listeners where I pulled the audio from for the studio recording. The Bright Shinning Light is one of the most difficult songs to sing, even though it has just four basic chords. I like Granny's harmony in this recording. She hit a couple of strange harmony notes that I've only heard in one or two other songs. In case anyone was wondering, Granny sang the harmony on all of the songs in this upload. As always, I hope you enjoyed some these songs.

Listen to original singles released on Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/artist/5VX6Z...

Listen to original singles on YouTube:
   / @paulwilson6260  

Listen to Shepherd of My Soul (Album released in 2016):
https://open.spotify.com/album/4VnoOy...