Ten For Today: Easter

Ada Richards, Trevor Dandy, Voices of East Harlem, Nun-Plus, Emily Bindiger, Patterson Singers, Sensational Saints, Shira Small, St. Andrew's Singers, Sr. Irene O'Connor

(Ths is an updated version of my Easter 2025 post. Recycling is good, and Jesus would approve.)

I don’t like Christmas, but I love Christmas music, and I am a secular Catholic, but I love some religious music. So Easter Sunday seems like a good time to explore some lesser-known gospel and weird Christian folk/psych oldies (a favorite sub-sub-sub genre of mine). In 1966, John Lennon famously said The Beatles were more popular than Jesus. I think he might have been wrong, or he might have sparked a different kind of backlash, because I could do a month’s worth of these posts focused on great Jesus/Christian music from just the 70’s.

Here are Ten For Today: Easter.

I know very little about this one, aside from the fact that it is awesome. I think it was released in 1970. I can’t find any information about Ada Richards.

West Indian-Canadian Trevor Dandy made up a batch of 2000 records for his church congregation in 1970, and they ended up in a dumpster. Lucky for us and the rest of the sophisticated music-listening public, God rescued them.

The Voices of East Harlem was founded by Chuck Griffin, who ran a community youth program and, with his wife, recruited the 20 or so young singers you see in this amazing clip, recorded at Sing Sing Prison in 1972. This one’s an Old Testament jam — written by Richie Havens.

Some sources say this one was released in 1970, and others say 1971. Either way, Nun-Plus was was five nuns (Nun) and a pair of biologial sisters who weren’t nuns (Plus), who made an otherwordly album of Catholic music treasures. I don’t know if any of my former classmates from 12 years of Catholic school read these posts, but I know they would back me up in saying there’s no way Sisters Donata Marie, Florette, Ambrosette and Gilmoira would have approved of something like this.

Emily Bindiger has had a long and successful career in singing and writing soundtracks, but in 1971, she released a stunning, largely forgotten debut album that included this sublime original.

It matters not your religious bent; if you are not dancing around the kitchen after listening to this 1971 Christian corker, you might want to check your pulse.

This, by The Sensational Saints, is from 1973, and I guess it’s a mash-up of Bill Withers’ “Ain’t No Sunshine” and the traditional/Boberg “How Great Thou Art.” I don’t know much beyond that.

This one, from 1974, was part of a senior project for Shira Small’s Quaker boarding school, according to the champion archivists at Numero Group. It is gorgeous.

I know little about this recording, from 1975, but these guys are Rays of God indeed.

Finally, those of us who were raised Catholic will probably wonder if Australia is another planet, because if an American nun had released this record, there might have been a lot of people very cross with her. Sr. Irene O’Connor released this in 1976, and it was recorded and engineered by her pal Sr. Marimil Lobregat.

I could go on (and on and on) but the rule is ten. Happy Easter if that’s your jam. Maybe say a prayer for the country today. Have a great Sunday if it’s not!

Joyce

A long-ago Easter in Dorchester, Massachusetts. Photo credit: probably Papa, but no way to verify.