Where Glory Ran Screaming From the Room...

When you're addicted to pop culture, you sometimes find yourself, like many addicts, sucked into a sleazy underbelly, a world of terror and amazement and bizarre things such as most of the world probably never imagines.  You might find yourself up 'til all hours watching some movie so strange and shocking that it would drive a clinically insane person right back into the arms of sweet, sweet Mama "Sanity".  You might pick up and read (with delight) some book which, were you not a pop culture addict, you would fling across the room in disgust.

And sometimes...yes, sometimes, my friends, you get sucked into the world of outsider music and "rare audio".  Everything from vanity recordings (where someone actually bought studio time so they could release an album) to old answering machine tapes and hours and hours of unfunny prank phone calls.  Yes, this is the kind of stuff some of us live for.

Radio station WFMU has twice now (once in 2003, once in 2007) done something they call the 365 days project.  Basically, every day for one year, someone posts a strange, rare, bizarre, or just funny recording to the project, and the files are left up for download indefinitely (barring an artist request that they be removed).

I didn't discover the little gem I want to tell you about on the 365 project, but that's how I managed to actually hear the amazing LP that is Esther Lee's "Where Glory Began".  First, as a little taste, I'll let you soak up the cover art of this amazing recording.

    

That's Esther herself, on her death bed, recording the album.  Yep, this isn't your typical vanity press Christian album.  Sure, a number of those were recorded by people who were blind or had no hands or something like that, but this one was ACTUALLY RECORDED BY A WOMAN ON HER DEATH BED!

No one seems to know much about Esther...where she was from, how old she was when she died...heck, what she died FROM...these are all mysteries.  All we really have is the single image on this album cover and the recording of Esther's sweet, wavering, rather fragile voice.  Don't let the fact that I called this a Christian album put you off if that sort of music isn't your speed.  The first few songs are actually seemingly more about accepting death.  The Christian material doesn't really kick in until the fourth or fifth cut, and even then, the voice is pleasant enough that those with different belief systems, etc., can tune the message out.

Here's the song list:

1. Floatsome Driftwood

2. She Said Goodbye

3. Dust on Your Picture Frame

4. Materialistic Man

5. I Know It's Love

6. His Crimson Blood

7. The Joy Came Down

8. Oh Glory Hallelujah

9. Jesus is the Christ

10. Your Rugged Cross

11. Jesus of Blue Gallilee

12. The King is Come

13. Go Into the World

Download the album here and be sure to check out the archive for both rounds of WFMU's 365 project.