Producer Ken Nelson set up recording sessions in August 1958 to record enough tracks for two albums. The first was to become Country Love Ballads, the second the gospel music for Satan is Real. Over 20 songs were recorded in a seven-day span. The 3-minute title-track, with only two sung choruses, is largely taken up by a personal narrative monologue describing the dangers of Satan.
Cover
Designed by Ira Louvin, the cover features the brothers standing in a rock quarry, dressed in matching spotless white suits and black ties, in front of a plywood rendition of the Devil, as several hidden tires soaked in kerosene burn behind them as fire and brimstone.
Reception
While reviewers have generally commented on the distinctive album cover, they have also highly praised the song writing and performances. Mark Deming stated in his AllMusic review: "You don't need to share the Louvin Brothers' spiritual beliefs to be moved by the grace, beauty and lack of pretension of this music; Satan Is Real is music crafted by true believers sharing their faith, and its power goes beyond Christian doctrine into something at once deeply personal and truly universal, and the result is the Louvin Brothers' masterpiece." Don Yates of No Depression called the album a "bold statement of its title signified the uncompromising nature of the Louvins’ beliefs. Whereas much country gospel of the ’50s was filled with feel-good platitudes that reflected the general optimism of the time, the Louvins’ gospel songs mirrored their own fire-and-brimstone Christianity... the album is an essential document of a side of the Louvins’ music that was at least as important to them as their more famous secular recordings." Critic Scott Walden compared the Louvins' music to the Velvet Underground; "Their comprehension of the tortured throes of a drunkard's Satan-infested soul are no less profound than Lou Reed's own understanding of a heroin junkie wrestling with a world devoid of meaning beyond the piercing tip of the needle... The depth is there in Satan is Real. This album transcends the immediatekitsch appeal of its cover. There is a reason why songs from this album have been performed by the more commonly accepted genius of artists such as Gram Parsons, Johnny Cash, and Emmylou Harris."
Cultural legacy
"The Christian Life" was covered by The Byrds on their 1968 country rock album Sweetheart of the Rodeo. "Satan's Jeweled Crown" was covered by Emmylou Harris on her 1975 album Elite Hotel. The opening bars of the album's title track "Satan is Real" can be heard at the beginning of Hank Williams III's "Medley: Straight to Hell / Satan is Real", on his Straight to Hell album of 2006. It is also excerpted in Will Ferrell's 2009 one-man Broadway show You're Welcome America. A Final Night With George W Bush. The 2010 Christmas album, Santa Is Real, by social media siteRed State Update, parodies both this album's title and cover. In 2014, Martin Guitars released a commemorative guitar featuring the Satan Is Real album cover.
Reissues
In 1992, all of the tracks from Satan Is Real were included in the Close Harmony 8-CD box set issued by Bear Family Records.
Satan is Real was reissued on CD by Capitol in 1996.
In 2007, Satan Is Real was reissued by Raven records along with Tragic Songs of Life. Four bonus tracks were included.
