The CaseQuarter label out of Montgomery, Alabama burst on the scene in 2003 with God’s Got It by gospel singer/guitarist Rev. Charlie Jackson. The album collected astounding archival recordings by the Baker, Louisiana-based minister and introduced this distinctly Southern raw-sounding gospel music to a new, wider audience. The label issued an excellent follow-up, You Without Sin, Cast the First Stone by Isaiah Owens, a contemporary Alabama performer whose rough-and-reckless guitar and unhinged singing brought to mind a gospel version of rockabilly wildmen Hasil Adkins and Charlie Feathers.

CaseQuarter’s newest release documents one of the last groups still singing in the gospel quartet style of the 1950s, not exactly a genre known for the gritty expressionism of its first two artists. Where Jackson and Owens were always on the verge of screaming and never shied away from turning their amps up into the red a la Buddy Guy or Junior Kimbrough, the Spiritualaires lean toward rich harmonies and their guitarist Curtis Harris sounds more like Pops Staples or Curtis Mayfield. Still, the music of the Spiritualaires is in no way slick or commercially produced. In fact, part of the charm is that some of the tunes are taken from radio appearances that include the group’s spoken thanks to sponsors like Tuskegee Ready-Mix and other local Alabama lore, lending the disc a welcoming, informal feel. And the music is tremendous. From the opening blues-based taunt “I’m Going to Tell on You” (which beautifully captures the voices and handclaps) to the beckoning lead vocal of Robert Marion on “Come Over Here” to the country tune “Some Folk Say,” there’s a bounty of joyful, inspiring, and genuinely moving music on this disc. How encouraging to hear music of this vitality still being made in the South.