Congregatin' and Preachin'

The recent rainy weather in Georgia has made me feel a little contemplative.  

As I ramble through the roots of different genres of American music lately, I'll have moments when a certain song impacts me in some way, it resonates and touches me in a way that is difficult to explain.  Maybe it's a quality of feeling or a soulfulness; sometimes it's a song with a sense of acute joy or melancholy.  The emotion isn't always the determining factor, and often times, it's even better if I can assemble a range of the emotional spectrum in a playlist.  

So it may not be surprising that the following songs have jumped out at me lately, and, at least in my own mind, there's a  thread of connection between them.

You guys might think this is a stretch...but here goes.  

Mississippi Fred McDowell's "What's the Matter Now"

Charles Mingus' "Wednesday Night Prayer Meeting"

Donny Hathaway's "Sugar Lee" 

While the types of songs are different from each other -- from raw Delta blues, to blues- and gospel-inflected jazz, to 70's soul -- the obvious common thread is rooted in the African American experience. And while that's not part of my direct personal experience, I think anybody in 21st century who listens to music has internalized that influence to some extent. 

I think what I react to most strongly in all the recordings is the form  of back and forth communication  and communion between the musician and his listeners, or between the musicians themselves.  The Fred McDowell song is a part of Alan Lomax's 1959 field recordings as he journeyed through the Mississippi hill country.  As part of the recording, Lomax captured the shout-outs, catcalls, and comments by McDowell's friends while he played. If you listen closely, there's even a person sweeping a broom, which makes for a soft sense of percussion and accent in the background. The lyrics can be found here.

Interestingly, Charles Mingus' 'Wednesday Night Prayer Meeting', from the album Blues and Roots, was also recorded in 1959, then released in 1960. I'll be the first to admit, I don't think of myself as a jazz person; I'm just barely dipping a toe into that ocean.  But I can recognize the  power  and swagger in Mingus' composition, and the interplay musically and vocally which grabs the listener.

Hathaway's 'Sugar Lee', from the Everything is Everything album, was released in 1970.  There's the obvious common thread of the double bass between this and the Mingus song.  And 'Sugar Lee' comes across more as a bouncy, good natured competition between fellow show-offs.  I love the flavoring added by  the hand claps, and  shout-outs, and the preachin'.  

What do you think - too much of a stretch to link these songs?
What elements do you respond to?