Sunday, August 9, 2015

Fred Lowery

Artist: Fred Lowery
LP: Fred Lowery Whistles Your Gospel Favorites
Song: "Whispering Hope" 
[ listen ]
Song: "Shall We Gather At the River?" 
[ listen ]
Song: "Sweet Hour of Prayer" 
[ listen ]

Fred Lowery, who was born in Palestine in 1909 (no, not that Palestine, this one), lost his sight after coming down with scarlet fever when he was only two years old. But though Fred Lowery may have been blind, he still had his vision. When he was around 19 years old and in school, Fred met a bird imitator who encouraged him to take up whistling. Fred did, and soon he was performing with the likes of Vincent Lopez and Horace Heidt and their respective orchestras and he starting scoring hit records like his 1939 rendition of "Indian Love Call." This 1967 LP, on which Lowery whistles some of my gospel favorites, seems like the perfect thing for a wonderfully cool, sunny and  breezy Sunday morning—my first as I enter my 47th year on Earth. You can read more about Fred here and in the liner notes below.

[ Fred Lowery: November 2, 1909 — December 11, 1984 ]

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