Rose Maddox and the Vern Williams Band’s Beautiful Bouquet is a set of fourteen gospel songs, released on LP by Arhoolie Records (Arhoolie 5030) in 1983 and reissued on CD (Arhoolie CD 9058) in 2006. It was recorded on 20 and 21 November 1982 at Bay Records in Alameda, California, in memory of Maddox’s son Donnie, who died on 1 August 1982. Chris Strachwitz and Maddox produced it, and Michael Cogan engineered.
Maddox, who was born in Alabama, had grown up singing gospel songs with her family before the Maddox Brothers and Rose became a California country act, and she had worked shows with Vern Williams and his band through the 1970s and 1980s. According to Strachwitz’s notes, Williams and his band sang at Donnie’s funeral and then appeared with her at the Western Regional Folk Festival in San Francisco, where she asked him to make a gospel album with them. She picked the songs; Strachwitz asked for only one, “Turn Your Radio On.” After a couple of rehearsals, they recorded all fourteen in two afternoons. The program includes “We Are Climbing Jacob’s Ladder,” “Church in the Wildwood,” “Farther Along,” “I’ll Fly Away,” “In the Sweet Bye and Bye,” “Take Me in the Lifeboat” and “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot.”
Maddox sings with Vern Williams, who also plays mandolin; his son Delbert Williams on guitar and vocals; Keith Little on banjo, guitar and vocals; Ed Neff on fiddle and mandolin; and Kevin Thompson on bass.
Tracklist
- 1 We Are Climbing Jacob's Ladder 2:17
- 2 Beautiful Life alt version 2:43
- 3 Church in the Wildwood 2:46
- 4 When God Dips His Love in My Heart 2:39
- 5 I Can't Feel at Home 3:10
- 6 Farther Along alt version 3:05
- 7 I’ll Fly Away alt version 3:57
- 8 Sweet By and By alt version 3:18
- 9 Kneel at the Cross 2:23
- 10 Turn Your Radio On alt version 1:22
- 11 Beautiful Bouquet 2:46
- 12 Take Me in the Lifeboat 2:28
- 13 If We Never Meet Again alt version 3:46
- 14 Sweet Low Sweet Chariot 3:04
