I discovered the Alabama Astronaut podcast, which explores the music of the serpent handlers. There they mention the Coots family, and that Jamie Coots’ (1971-2014) grandfather, Tommy Coots, who founded the Full Gospel Tabernacle in Jesus Name Church in Middlesborro, KY, was a singer and songwriter.
And in episode 8, of the podcast, they posted an album cover on their accompanying website, and it was an album by the Coots Duet.
Record cover of The Coots DuetThomas Coots as preacher at WMIK radio station
I was always wondering if there were any private press, stock photo cover, seventies bluegrass gospel records out there that were recorded by serpent handling folks, and there appears to be!
Here is the transcript of the podcast, with the part about the records by Tommy Coots and his wife:
00:38:34 Abe Partridge
Yeah, so Jim Stanton recorded the coots duet it was Tom Coots and Lou every song on there is original songs Tom Coots, with exception of that one Louvin Brothers song that they recorded “The Devil is real”.
That was the last thing they recorded to my knowledge, but now prior to thatI know two EP’s that exist. Two 45 RPM, 7 inch records with two songs per side. One had a white label, one had a gold label.
That’s the way Greg Coots referred to the mess. Well, the Coots family took a flood and I think this was back in somewhere in early 2000. I remember when I lived in Middlesborough in 2006 we took a flood too and I had about four foot of standing water in my basement.It could have been that very same flood.
00:39:19 Newscast
A state of emergency continues for the state of Kentucky as rising floodwaters caused even more evacuation.Certain areas have gotten more than six inches of rain in two days, time, leading to more and more damage to local businesses and homes.
00:39:33 Abe Partridge
When they had that flood, their basement flooded and a bunch of the tapes and the records from Tom Coots were destroyed, which is really sickening because, you know, Greg said they used to have reel to Reel tapes of him preaching and singing on the radio, and so at the present the Coots family, they only have just one copy of the Devil is real.
That’s all they had, and the other two EPS that they recorded they could never find.
Well, whenever I found out about the existence of those EP’s I had found that there was a seller who had obtained the White label, 45 and it was actually put out on a label called Pennant.
What the guy did do before he sold it, was he digitized it and put it on YouTube well.
I went and found it on YouTube and downloaded it and then I burned copies and made CD’s of it for Cody and Greg and Andrew as well and I let them, you know, gave them all a a picture of what the scan the labels look like on that 45 and that was the first time Greg you know has had that music since he lost it in the flood and he was real thankful for that.
That was the surprise that I had for him.We’re still in search of the Gold label 45. I still haven’t found it. To my knowledge, there were 500 copies pressed of the LP and both the 45.
So that means that there’s only 1500 of these in existence. 500 of the LP, 500 of each of the 45.
I’ve only held in my hand one and that was that LP, but we’re still in search of the Gold label 45 because we don’t even have any idea what songs are on it.
I tried to get Greg or Cody to tell me what songs weren’t neither one of them remember and maybe.
This podcast will help us unearth, that Gold label as well, so it couldn’t be Tom Coops or Thomas Coop or Thomas Coop and his wife Lou or the Coots Duet we’re not sure how they would be listed, but there’s a Gold label EP that exists out there and if you find it I will.
Snake handlers: God-fearers? or, fanatics?; [a religious documentary]
Abe Partridge of the Alabama Astronaut podcast collaborated with Tommy Coots’ grandson Cody and his wife Cassy Coots on an album that includes a version of “Jesus Made the World” and other songs from their family. The entire album is highly recommended.
While digging around, I found Pastor Jamie Coots’ old Youtube channel and videos of him making music. So, here is another version of “Jesus made the world.”
