Aubrey Ghent Can't Nobody Do Me Like Jesus: Sacred Steel, Vol. 4 CD

Personnel includes: Aubrey Ghent (steel guitar).
Personnel: Aubrey Ghent (vocals, steel guitar); Andy Furgeson (keyboards); Gary Williams (drums).
Recording information: Mirror Image Studio, Gainesville, FL (05/1997).
Photographer: Chris Strachwitz.
Arranger: Aubrey Ghent.
Ghent is pictured on the cover of this fourth volume in the Sacred Steel Guitars series. He looks friendly and is smartly dressed in a bright blue-hued take on a cleric's said black and white. Aubrey's look is complete with an eye-catching handkerchief and stone set in the collar. He reminds me of the jovial priest who married my sister in a Las Vegas chapel. I do not think Ghent has any desire to stroll the streets of Sin City, but he looks just as fun to be around as that clergyman was. The music on this disc backs up that theory. Herein is the energetic electric steel guitar music that "drives" Holiness-Pentecostal services of southern Florida. As vocalists Lori Ghent and Tarlisha Barr sing praises to the Lord, Ghent answer each line and works on up to an inspired multi-bar melody. A fast, even beat is had from the drums and some. Tasteful coloring is done with keyboards that sound like a trebly organ. The power of the electric steel guitar in this setting show in its vocal-like way of articulating interpretable lines for these spirited gospel hymns. Ghent proves masterful at providing an instrumental answer to "melisma, " the style of African-American vocalists to interject multi-syllable phrasing into a song. This album is equally moving as a musical or spiritual experience. ~ Tom SchulteDown Beat (5/98, p.67) - 3 1/2 stars (out of 5) - "You'll never completely appreciate traditional gospel classics until you hear the Reverend Aubrey Ghent play them on his lap-steel guitar..."