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Ranky Tanky – “You Gotta Move” (Track of the Day)

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Ranky Tanky
Ranky Tanky perform at Capilano University on Saturday, March 30 at 8 p.m. as part of the Cap Global Roots Series.

Charleston, South Carolina’s Ranky Tanky perform at The BlueShore at CapU (Birch Building) on Saturday, March 30, 8 p.m., as part of the Cap Global Roots Series. Tickets: $38/$35: tickets.capilanou.ca/TheatreManager/1/online?performance=1795.

The band’s music, based in the Gullah culture of the Lowcountry region of Georgia, South Carolina and the Sea Islands, mixes traditional gospel, blues and folk tunes with a jazz sensibility.

Ranky Tanky recorded “You Gotta Move,” for their eponymous debut album released in September, 2017.

The traditional spiritual was first recorded by the Two Gospel Keys as an upbeat “You’ve Got to Move” in 1948. Elder Charles D. Beck followed with another version in 1949, Sister Rosetta Tharpe in 1950, and the Original Five Blind Boys of Alabama in 1953. The Reverend Gary Davis added a new verse to the song in 1962: “You may run, can't be caught, You may hide, can't be found, Brother, when God gets ready, you got to move.” 

Mississippi Delta bluesman Fred McDowell recorded a slow, Hill country blues version in 1965, showcasing his slide guitar. Probably through Ry Cooder the Rolling Stones picked up on that recording and did their own take (for the Sticky Fingers album) at the Muscle Shoals Sound Studios in Alabama in December 1969, just days before they headed out to the West Coast for their free concert at the Altamont Speedway on Dec. 6. 

Ranky Tanky keep their version of “You Gotta Move” slow and soulful, building on the interplay between vocals, trumpet, electric guitar and the rhythm section to add their own contribution to the universal mix.