Golden Gate Gospel Train

Gurt Casworks Concert, Bristol Beacon, 2012.

In their heyday the Golden Gate Quartet were the ultimate hot gospel vocal group. They formed in 1934 as the Golden Gate Jubilee Singers, a traditional African American piritual quartet, but soon changed their name and developed their style. They started mixing in the clever arrangements associated with barbershop quartets and hotter rhythms borrowed from gospel and blues music. Sometimes they also threw in vocal sound effects and jazz-like scat singing, both heard to great effect in Golden Gate Gospel Train.

They recorded this song in 1937, basing it on the traditional spiritual Gospel Train Is Coming.