20 Gospel Favorites (Rural Rhythm RC-187) is a 1988 cassette reissue of Sings Country Gospel Songs, an LP Rural Rhythm first issued in 1967 (RRHB 187). It has the same twenty tracks in the same order. Rural Rhythm put the program out again on CD in 1997 (RHY-187) under the 20 Gospel Favorites title, and in 2014 under the original name.
The songs were recorded in Akron, Ohio, in 1967. The Bluegrass Discography credits them to Hylo Brown & his Timberliners. Brown sings every track and plays guitar. Jack Casey plays a second guitar, Ross Branham plays banjo, Danny Milhon plays Dobro and Dick Brickles plays bass. The program is mostly old hymns, spirituals and sentimental home-and-mother songs, among them “Sweeter Than the Flowers,” “Jacob’s Ladder,” “Walking in Jerusalem,” “Paul and Silas,” “If I Could Hear My Mother Pray Again,” “Two Little Orphans,” “Where the Soul Never Dies” and “Just a Closer Walk with Thee.”
Brown was born Frank Brown in River, Johnson County, Kentucky, in 1922. He got his nickname on WPFB in Middletown, Ohio, from Smoky Ward, a performer on the show who couldn’t remember his name and called him “Hi-Lo,” a joke about his vocal range. He recorded for Rural Rhythm from 1966 to 1968, a run that produced this album and several others.
Tracklist
- 1 Sweeter than the flowers 1:45
- 2 Wait for the light to shine 1:40
- 3 No hidin' place down here 1:44
- 4 The ship that mother sailed on 2:07
- 5 Gently waves the weeping willow 2:00
- 6 Workin' on a building 1:22
- 7 One step more 3:12
- 8 Jacob's ladder 1:52
- 9 Lamp lighting time in the valley 1:32
- 10 Will the angels play their harps for me 1:58
- 11 Walking in Jerusalem 1:24
- 12 Methodist pie 2:25
- 13 If I could hear my mother pray again 1:44
- 14 Where the Soul Never Dies alt version 2:01
- 15 He's coming to us dead 2:07
- 16 Two little orphans 1:49
- 17 Too many parties 2:42
- 18 Our home will be lonesome tonight 1:20
- 19 Paul and Silas alt version 2:20
- 20 Just a Closer Walk With Thee alt version 2:49
