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ACL: Mighty Clouds of Joy
Mighty Clouds of Joy is one of the quintessential groups in the history of gospel music, but the first half of their set at ACL Fest was quite ordinary. “The Temptations of Gospel” were wearing T-shirts and kicking out pretty generic growling fare for a crowd that didn’t know any better.
There’s great gospel music that fills the soul, and there’s a bunch of empty exalting that’s just filler. The Mighty Clouds were trafficking in the latter, digging up a cover of “Love Train,” when they seemed to even be boring themselves.
The group, led by original belter Joe Ligon, finally caught a groove around the half-hour mark and drove it home hard core. An octave-leaping falsetto take on “Walk Around Heaven All Day” was spiritually invigorating, if not a tad too drawn out.
There’s no denying that there was a lot of talent on the WaMu stage Friday night, but the Mighty Clouds’ set could only be characterized as disappointing.
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