The Lifeboat Is Coming (1973) Evangelist Willie Mae Ford Smith

track A4 on I Believe I'll Run On LP (Nashboro 7124)
A lot could be said about Willie Mae Ford Smith, but it's all been said more eloquently by author Tony Heilbut who concludes the sleeve notes for this album with: "So at 67, Willie Mae Ford Smith records her first album. It is a central historical document, the only recording of a singer who though unheralded, helped transform America's conception of song, arguably the most influential female singer alive. Much more than that, it is the living testimony of a great artist, still powerful, settled, determined to run on some more." Indeed, she ran on another 20 years after this recording, passing at the age of 90 in 1994, recording another album on Nashboro in 1975 and one for Savoy in 1983.