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All My Friends Are Sinners (1978)
Sally Hilder |
After Threedom, street-preaching and some well acclaimed
songs there was an expectation that Robert Wolfgramm would record
an album of his gospel songs. Elusive as always, Robert agreed to do so
on the proviso that he was not the singer.
In September 1977 I introduced Robert to one of my high school
students, Sally Hilder, who sang for him more or less on the spot. He liked
her immediately. That evening Robert, Genna Levitch and I created the
Galilee (Records) partnership. We signed an agreement with Sally (and
her Mum) and we recorded the All My Friends Are Sinners album in
December 1977.
There was an understanding amongst ourselves that Galilee should be
somewhat different from other Christian musical ventures. We had never heard
of session musos being used on previous Christian recordings, and we unashamedly
hired the best. Furthermore, Galilee resisted Christian ‘praise’ music,
so popular at the time. The mood was towards the blues – or a howl – derived
from the Old Testament Book of Psalms. Check: Lord I Wish I’d Never
Known.
The following musicians played on All My Friends Are Sinners:
Vocals: Sally Hilder and Robert Wolfgramm; Arranger: Charlie Hull;
Recording & mixing: Paul Bryant; Cutting engineer: Don Bartley;
Electric piano and Arp-omni mini-Moog: Charlie Hull; Guitars: Mick Reid,
Robert Wolfgramm and Lowell Tarling; Slide guitar: Sam Melamed; Bass: John
Coker;
Reeds and tenor sax: Graham Jesse; Drums: Ron Papos; Mouth harp: Colin Mack.
Artwork: Carl Needham. It was released as a Galilee record under Spotlight
Music.
Songs: On A Cross, Have You Heard The News? Procula, Waggoner & Jones,
Praise To The Lord, Alone In The Garden, Simon’s Song, Trinity, Father
In
Heaven, Bringing To You, I Wish I’d Never Known.
Sally’s album was extremely well received. It was awarded ‘Album
of the
Year’ by a Christian magazine, and songs from the LP are sung in churches
today. Had we continued as we had started, we would have surely earned
our place in Australian Gospel music. But we did not.
Available from:
- All My Friends Are Sinners was pressed twice and is also available
on cassette. So it is not impossible to acquire secondhand,
- LP records can be purchased from genna@levitch.com.au
- All My Friends Are Sinners has been transferred to CD format, but is not commercially
available.
- To contact Robert Wolfgramm: robert.wolfgramm@gmail.com
- To contact Sally: Sally Sanderson, PO Box 551, Inverell, NSW, 2360.
- Two copies have been lodged at Avondale College: (1) in the lending library
and (2) in the Heritage Collection.
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