Heavenly Treasures

This is one of the earliest all-gospel recordings by Doyle Lawson with Quicksilver, the band he formed after leaving the Country Gentlemen in the late '70s. You can hear hints of his future direction all over this album: ornate a cappella quartet arrangements alternating with driving bluegrass settings, the willingness to cross stylistic boundaries (note the pedal steel on "Too Much to Gain to Lose"), an obvious admiration for African-American gospel traditions ("Jezebel"). All of these elements would be further refined in future projects, and the fact is that as powerful as this album is, there are flaws that would gradually be eliminated as Quicksilver's personnel shifted and coalesced over the following 20 years. The lead voice on "Too Much to Gain to Lose" is a bit off, for example -- not something Lawson would stand for just a few years later. All in all, this is a worthy gospel album, but not quite up to Lawson's highest standards. ~ Rick Anderson