Bible & Tire Recording Co.

For fans of old school gospel, one particular show scheduled for tonight, December 3rd — An Evening of Sacred Soul with Elizabeth King and Elder Jack Ward — will feel like the Great Awakening, as the Bible & Tire Recording Co. presents an evening loaded with unique elements to bring earthy, down-home gospel to life like never before. It all stems from several years’ worth of work and planning by Bruce Watson, fellow sanctified soul enthusiast (and erstwhile Royal Pendleton) Mike Hurtt, and the once and future DJ and visionary of Memphis gospel, Pastor Juan D. Shipp.

“I always wanted to do a gospel thing,” says Watson. “All the modern gospel stuff that I’ve heard lately is pretty horrid. One of my jobs is collecting old masters and buying old labels and stuff, and that gospel stuff from the ’60s and ’70s was always just so amazing, and I just didn’t hear that in modern gospel music. So basically I wanted to create a Memphis based label that concentrated on recording gospel music and try and make it sound like it was recorded in the ’60s and ’70s. And also reissue stuff.” That became Bible & Tire Recording Co. in 2019.

As Watson explains, “I contacted Pastor Shipp and said, ‘Look, I’m starting this gospel label and I would love to buy the rights to the D-Vine Spirituals label and kick start this new label.’ And suddenly I was working with the Barnes Brothers, with the Elizabeth King release and the box set for the D-Vine Spirituals stuff, which is absolutely amazing. So that’s how it all came together.”

Tonight will be an apotheosis of sorts for all of these projects, with an exclusive showing of a documentary, The D-Vine Spirituals Story, followed by performances by Elizabeth King and Elder Jack Ward, supported by the Sacred Soul Sound Section. A meet-and-greet/record signing with the artists will be held at Memphis Listening Lab at 6 p.m. prior to the show.

The documentary promises to be well researched, as extensive liner notes for Bible & Tire’s D-Vine Spirituals box set were penned by author Hurtt, perhaps best known for the book he co-wrote with Billy Miller, Mind Over Matter: The Myths and Mysteries of Detroit’s Fortune Records.

As Watson notes, Hurtt was integral to the process of unearthing the D-Vine Spirituals catalog. “Mike’s really the one who saved these recordings. He reached out to Pastor Shipp and asked, ‘What’s the story?’ So Mike and Pastor Shipp drove down to Southhaven and got all the tapes, and stored them all in Scott Bomar’s for the longest time. And every time I’d go over to Bomar’s, I walked past that closet filled with those tapes. And I’d say, ‘Hey Scott, you’re not gonna do anything with those tapes?’ Then he called and said, ‘I’m not gonna do anything with those tapes.’ Finally he called and said, ‘Man, are you gonna come get these tapes?’ And I was like, ‘Of course I will!’ But if Mike Hurtt hadn’t taken the initiative and gotten the tapes with Pastor Shipp, none of this would have happened, as far as D-Vine Spirituals. We transferred 150 master tapes, and they were all in pretty good shape.”

Now, thanks to Bible & Tire, not only are the gems of the ’70s gospel label’s catalog being re-released, artists from that era like Elizabeth King and Elder Jack Ward are finding new audiences and releasing new albums. It will all be on display tonight, both live and onscreen, at the Crosstown Theater.

An Evening of Sacred Soul with Elizabeth King & Elder Jack Ward
Friday, December 3rd, 7 p.m., Crosstown Theater

Elder Jack Ward, age 83, may be the greatest gospel singer you’ve never heard of. True, Bruce Watson’s Bible & Tire Recording Co., founded on the older aesthetic of “sacred soul” rather than modern jazz/funk/fusion gospel, has given new life to a few singing careers in the field, and many of them were not well-known at the time. Yet some, like Elizabeth King, were quickly embraced by media outlets like NPR, vice.com, and American Songwriter. Ward’s name hasn’t received as much attention but may soon follow suit, now that his album of songs, freshly recorded with the Sacred Soul Sound Section at Delta-Sonic Sound, has been released.

One thing distinguishing his album, Already Made, from other Bible & Tire releases is Ward’s songwriting. While many gospel singers focus on breathing new life into classic church music, Ward composed every song on the album. As he tells it, it has always been thus. “I’ve been writing basically since I started singing, when I was 8 or 9 years old,” he says. “I grew up listening to the Grand Ole Opry and such … Ernest Tubb, a lot of guys, I used to pattern after them. I never did try to record them. But when I was in the cotton field I used to sing, ‘I’m walking the floor over you. I can’t keep awake and it’s true.’ [laughs] Yes. It was just a gift that was in me, and I can just about sing any type of song. But I had stuff of my own. What you’ve been listening to [on the new album], that is my way of singing, ‘This is what I like. This is me. No one else.’”

That talent for composition served Ward well when he first journeyed to Memphis from his hometown of Itta Bena, Mississippi, at age 18, determined to make a life in music. He fell in with a group called the Christian Harmonizers, and their 1964 single on the Stax subsidiary Chalice stayed on the charts for an impressive stretch of time. “‘Don’t Need No Doctor’ was a hit for about two years, off and on,” says Ward. “Isaac Hayes was playing piano on both of those sides. The flip side was ‘Jesus Will Send Down His Blessings.’ Those are the two songs I wrote. And I can tell you about the fast one, ‘Jesus Will Send Down His Blessings.’ I was walking when I was in my 20s. I heard someone saying ‘Help me!’ from down in a deep ditch. I couldn’t see it so good. It was almost dark, and I was headed back home from going to see a girl. And he said, ‘Help me out!’ The guy was drunk, and I pulled him out and he appreciated that. And I went from there on that particular song.”

From there, Ward and a new group, the Gospel Four, recorded his originals with Pastor Juan D. Shipp’s D-Vine Spirituals label, which Bible & Tire has gone on to acquire and reissue in recent years, and whose roster from the ’70s has continued to supply Watson’s new imprint with much talent, including Elizabeth King. As Watson notes, “Elder Ward has a notebook” full of compositions. “We had a tough time narrowing the list down to 10 songs. Ward has an otherworldly gift.”

In true Bible & Tire style, the songs are arranged and recorded using the same house band featured on other releases by the label, including Will Sexton and Matt Ross-Spang on guitars, George Sluppick on drums, and Mark Edgar Stuart on bass. Lucero’s Rick Steff adds keyboards (full disclosure: so do I), but the really captivating sounds come from Ward’s own family.

“I’ve got two sons in Ohio, and they’ve been up there for a spell. But I’ve got my three daughters and my son here, they do the background,” says Ward. “I started them off when they were about 7 or 8.” Now, they are deeply involved in his ministry and often sing with him. “The First Temple Holiness Church, 701 Pearce Street. Smokey City. My wife is the evangelist, and our daughter is in the ministry. Sometimes my wife sings with us, and most of my children and grandchildren. I’ve got some great-grandchildren coming, too. So I’m still in it. I love to sing, love to preach, love to teach. That’s me!”