I just learned that Brother Claude Ely has a website, made by his great nephew Macel Ely II.

If you are not familiar with Brother Claude, you must become so. He was a Pentecostal preacher and recording star for King records and I would argue he is the missing link between old time music and rock and roll (He obviously had wide influence on Elvis and others, as you can hear in the playing and singing and becauxe they covered his songs). Brother Claude wrote many magnificent songs. He was a pluperfect genius.

See for yourself, there are some clips on the page or be wise and go buy his essential cd. "Aint No Grave Gonna Hold My Body Down" is the most well known, and rightly so. If nothing else, this song would have given Brother Claude his meeting in the air.

I heard back in the fall from the head of Dust to Digital records that there exists many more unreleased recordings of Brother Claude, a treasure trove he was trying to get to release. It is good to be alive.

Macel II is apparently writing a book about Brother Claude, which is forthcoming.

I really like his calendar of places he will be signing the book, with unknown dates, but all perfectly in order. It might not be a bad idea to begin assembling such calendars of events at time TBA and date TBA.