I am not religious. Not even a little. So when I listen to gospel music, there is naturally a gap between me and the people singing. But to be irreligious is not necessarily to be without a spiritual side, and music has always been my connection to it. I don't pretend to have answers-- for all I know, the intangible effects of music could be 100% chemistry or the handiwork of an involved god-- but I do know that music has strange powers. It can lift you up, if not to Heaven, then at least out of a funk; it can access places and emotions that you don't get to in daily conversation, regardless of what the singer is actually saying. It can be hopeful without saying anything hopeful, sad without saying anything sad, joyful without saying a word.

More tangibly, music can activate the parts of the brain that govern movement, and here's where it gets really easy to ignore my differences with other belief systems and just get into someone else's groove. This weeks Beacon From Mars selection is a collection of funk and soul-influenced gospel music recorded between 1970 and 1985. It's also funky enough immediately to grab any listener with a taste for rhythm-- even if you don't roll with the boy Jesus, there's a good chance you can enjoy the storytelling and feel the sheer passion these performers put into their music. Right in the last song, the Victory Travelers deliver a screaming, devotional blast called "I Know I've Been Changed" that hinges on a key couplet heard in numerous funky gospel tunes: "I dropped in the water, the water was cold/ Chilled my body but not my soul." It's a powerful image and says a lot about the singer's faith without sanctimony.

The body/soul divide is less clear-cut on the Golden Echoes' "Packing a Grip". A grip is of course a handbag-- what is she putting in that bag that she'll need in Heaven? Whatever it is, it's funky. Ada Richards is somewhat sly on her wailing number, "I'm Drunk and Real High (In the Spirit of the Lord)"-- replace the word "judge" with "love" in the first verse and you'd have a pretty dirty song on your hands. Likewise, the Sensational Five Singing Sons deliver a social protest song clothed in religious vestments on "Coming on Strong, Staying Along", referring to their faith as "a new gun" in the city. The call to "rise up" in Andrew Wartts & the Gospel Storytellers' "Peter and John" also directly echoes the conscious soul of the 60s and 70s, albeit in a different context-- it could be that the band was subtly sending one message to the faithful and another to the ghetto. "Peter and John" is a unique and highly entertaining casting of a story from the Book of Acts into a boiling funk setting that veers between start-stop passages and slinky J.B.'s-inspired street funk with palm-muted guitar and a light touch on the snare drum.

These groups came from all over the eastern half of the U.S., and the array of styles included here is practically a cross-section of American soul and funk in the 70s. There's a power to the simple sound of that many people all working toward the same end, giving it all they've got (and sometimes singing a bit sharp in all the excitement), and it's one more reason you don't have to believe what they believe to love the music they made. Music's place in our society is always changing, but it's still the most viscerally powerful medium of expression we've ever devised, and beyond its message, this is music that reaches into those remote places that spark emotional-- and physical-- responses.

Enjoy – tracklist below.

01 - Pastor T.L. Barrett & The Youth For Christ Choir - Like A Ship

02 - Ada Richards - I'm Drunk And Real High (In The Spirit Of God)

03 - Gospel Comforters - Yes God Is Real

04 - Golden Echoes - Packing A Grip

05 - Lucy 'Sister Soul' Rodgers - Pray A Little Longer

06 - Gospel Soul Revivals - If Jesus Came Today

07 - Brother Samuel Cheatham - Troubles Of The World

08 - Victory Travelers - I Know I've Been Changed