by Cousin Geoff

Wendy Miller & Mike Lilly recorded this album, Country Old Country New on Brighton, Michigan’s Old Homestead record label in 1975.  A really strong album throughout, it features a great original spiritual roots song, My God’s Not Dead.  The song was written by Mike and his mother, Betty Lilly.

I’m drawn to this type of music because of it’s honesty.  I’ve been increasingly into bluegrass music the past few years, and it’s roots music at it’s finest.  My dad and I drove up north this past weekend and we listened to XM’s bluegrass junction station the entire way.  So in my quest to dig deeper into the genre, I’ve naturally found some wonderful local records, as this overlaps with my love of long-lost Michigan recordings.

I’ve always found a similar connection to bluegrass and reggae.  Both are music of the people with similar themes thoughout, including their own sources of spiritual strength: Jesus with bluegrass and Jah with reggae.  My God’s Not Dead reminded me of the Bob Marley song Jah Live, written in response to the negativity towards Rastas after the death of their profit, Etheopean Emporer Haile Salassie I.  Bob put out this song a day or two after his death, with an incredible response by Jamaican Rastafarians.

 

Fellow Wailer and devout Rastafarian Peter Tosh’s first solo album (although he was backed in the studio by many members of the Wailers-but not Marley) was the epic Legalize It.  The track Igziabher (Let Jah Be Praised) remains a Rastafarian classic, and displays Tosh’s amazing songwriting abilities.