Little David (Play On Your Harp)

Growing up in a White Southern Gospel music household, not much really grabbed our attention: a few songs by the Statesmen Quartet, or the Blackwoods, and one modern pop production by the Imperials… but we had an old 45 RPM record from the 1950s, that had obviously been recorded in some gospel crusade tent with sawdust on the floor and a shouting, hollering, hell-fire and brimstone evangelist giving it all he had. It was almost like a field recording by an anthropologist, and that crackly version of the traditional standard had stayed with me throughout my lifetime. It’s been decades since I’ve heard the record, and most of the words were unintelligible to begin with, so I finally put a version down of my own, making up lyrics wherever necessary.