Maceo Woods Amazing Grace / Seeking Salvation

Rare & Hard-To-Find Audio CDs (series)

2 LPs on 1 CD: AMAZING GRACE (1975)/SEEKING SALVATION (1959).

Originally released on Vee-Jay (18002) & Vee-Jay (5001).

This discount-priced two-fer combines two Rev. Maceo Woods albums from the vaults of Vee-Jay Records, 1959's Amazing Grace and 1975's Seeking Salvation. (The annotations on the back cover get the original release information backwards.) On the 12 tracks from Amazing Grace, Woods plays a church organ on a series of spirituals, putting his own spin on the familiar tunes. The material from Seeking Salvation, which appears to have been a belated release of early-'60s recordings the first time around, combines more of Woods' instrumental interpretations with vocal numbers performed by a chorus. Woods is an effective organist, but this is music best-appreciated by the religious faithful or organ aficionados. ~ William Ruhlmann