Is My Living in Vain

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Originally recorded in Bailey Cathedral in 1979, the title cut of this jubilant recording remains every bit as immediate and fresh as it was the day it was made. It is impossible to feel blue upon hearing the organ pump in the name of salvation and the glorious voices of the Dynamic Clark Sisters join in praise and affirmation as one sister posits, "Is my living in vain?" and they assert in multipart harmony: "No, no, no, no-no-no! / Of course not!" Deep faith is roused by Karen Clark's positively possessed lead on "Speak Lord," the bar to worship is raised on the emphatically delivered "Ha-Ya (Eternal Life)," and the sisters are joined by their mother, Mattie Moss Clark, on the reverent "They Were Overcome (By the Word)." At the forefront of the modern black gospel movement in the late '70s and early '80s, the Clark Sisters, as proven by this magnificent disc, were and ever will be thoroughly dynamic as messengers of joy. --Paige La Grone