The Louvin Brothers

Item: Satan Is Real
Author: Jamie Lee Rake

Satan Is Real

(1959)

Reviewed by Jamie Lee Rake

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Label Vintage CapitolThe LighthouseNovember 1997

bluegrass country gospel

One look at the cover of this re-release of classic country gospel from 1959 and you may be wishing for a vinyl re-pressing, too. Charlie and Ira Louvin, with arms outstretched and cavalier smiles adorning their faces atop pink shirts, black ties and white linen suits, are in the foreground of a scene of a 12-foot, fanged and horned red plywood Prince of Darkness. The background is made to look like Hades-thanks to burning tires and exploding rocks that nearly burned the Col. Sanders-like duds from the backs of the great traditional country & western siblings.

The music has held the test of time, too. Satan Is Real tells some of life's shadowy side that comes before anybody gets to the Light. It's a twelve-song cycle that mines from the same despair and misery as much of the non-gospel country the Louvins recorded. Even so, when joy is given its due on jaunty jumpers like "The River Of Jordan" and "There's A Higher Power," the brothers' sorrow-tinted harmonizing infuses the happiest sentiments with the bittersweetness of a Christian life given to the Pauline divided longings of wanting to be home with the Lord and being an alien to all but the brothers and sisters in faith. Even if they weren't always living it, The Louvin Brothers here were singing of conscientious godliness like they were wearing sackcloth and ashes to the Opry.

The imagery is rife with the fire and brimstone of the Louvins' Pentecostal roots. Titles like "Are You Afraid To Die," "The Kneeling Drunkard's Plea," "The Drunkard's Doom" (which reads like a self-contained soap opera), and "Satan's Jeweled Crown" give indication of the seriousness and sorrow conveyed here. The occasional use of organ alongside guitar and piano adds to the churchiness and gives the slightest aura of melodrama.

Bringing in the rear is "I'm Ready To Go Home," a song that fully addresses the conflict of an aged believer's desire for heaven and reluctance to leave earthly home and hearth.

If the beauty of Charlie and Ira's harmonizing doesn't grab you, this isn't the album by which the "why is country music so depressing" gripers are going to be aesthetically converted, even if all these songs have happy endings.