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All of My Burdens/All of My Burdens I Take Them To The Savior
Old-time spiritual, gospel song
ARTIST: Bessie Griffin on Specialty label in 1958
CATEGORY: Traditional and Public Domain Gospel Songs
DATE: 1900s;
RECORDING INFO: All of My Burdens
Griffin, Bessie. Specialty label in 1958
Hummingbirds Band
RELATED TO: "Ain't that Good News,"
OTHER NAMES: "All of My Burdens I Take Them To The Savior"
PRINT SOURCES: Sing for Freedom: The Story of the Civil Rights Movement Through Its Songs By Guy Carawan 1966
NOTES: “All of My Burdens” or title by the Hummingbirds as "All of My Burdens I Take Them To The Savior" is a traditional spiritual covered by powerhouse gospel singer Bessie Griffin
Bessie Griffin (July 6, 1922 – April 10, 1989) was an African American gospel singer. Born Arlette B. Broil in New Orleans, Louisiana, she was steeped in church music as a child. She sang for a while with the Southern Harps, had her own radio show in New Orleans, and later appeared in night clubs, on Broadway and in 1962 on the Ed Sullivan Show.
Griffin performed briefly with "Queen of Gospel" Albertina Walker and The Caravans in 1953-1954 but spent most of her career as a solo artist. While often compared to Mahalia Jackson, Griffin had a lighter contralto that allowed her to achieve more vocal pyrotechnics — holding a note for long periods of time, continuing a song for as long as twenty minutes and ranging through three octaves.
Griffin began her known recording career with the Gospel Consolators, an a cappella group in New Orleans, in the late 1940s. They issued several 78 rpm shellac records with her billed as lead vocalist. After moving to Chicago in 1951, she worked briefly with The Caravans, a gospel group led by Albertina Walker, making a session with them for States in 1954. She left the group later that year, recording as a soloist for Al Benson's Parrot label.
After moving to Los Angeles she was signed in 1956 by Art Rupe of Specialty Records. After collaboration with Robert "Bumps" Blackwell, she recorded an album on the Decca label with an orchestra: "It Takes a Lot of Love"; she made "Portraits in Bronze" on Liberty; and joined the lucrative night club circuit singing and recording gospel albums in night clubs in the 1960s. She recorded a solo album for Savoy which was unremarkable except as a great example of her voice, and an album with the Gospel Pearls entitled "Gospel Soul" on Sunset, a subsidiary of Liberty. The Nashboro label released an album recorded live in concert in stereo and Griffin continued to tour and record as her health allowed, up to her death. There is an album on the Spirit Feel label which samples her four-decade long recording career.
In 1974 she appeared in the 20th Century Fox thriller, Together Brothers, which was filmed in Galveston, Texas. She played a female preacher, "Reverend Brown", who conducts a funeral service for a murdered policeman. The only witness to the crime is a little boy who is stalked and his "brothers" pull together and help apprehend the killer. The soundtrack for the movie was scored by Barry White.
On her passing in 1989, Bessie Griffin was interred in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California. Griffin's music was sampled in the 1996 dance track "I Know The Lord" by the band The Tabernacle. The same sample was also used in 1999 for the Shaboom track "Bessie".
ALL OF MY BURDENS- Bessie Griffin on Specialty label in 1958
All of my burdens, I take 'em to the Savior,
All of my burdens, Hmmm take 'em to the Savior,
All of my burdens, good Lord, take 'em to the Savior,
Ain't that news, hey, I know that's news.
Oh, and When I'm praying, good Lord, You told me you would hear me
Yes, when I'm praying, good Lord, said You would hear your child
When I'm praying, Lord, hear me
Ain't that good news, hey, tell the world that's news
When I'm sick, so sick Lord, You told me you would heal me,
When I'm sick, so sick Lord, You promised to heal my body now,
When I'm sick, so sick Lord, You promised to heal to me,
Ain't that good news, hey, I declare that's news.
Oh, and when I'm lonely, good Lord, You said You would comfort poor me,
And when I get lonely, lonely, lonely Lord, comfort, comfort your child,
when I'm lonely, good Lord, You send Your comfort to me
Ain't that news, mighty good news
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