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SHOUT! Black Gospel Music Moments - The Mighty Inspirations

While Nashville is still best known for country music, a number of first-rate gospel groups have come from Music City USA as well. The Mighty Inspirations emerged in the mid-1980s with four funky gospel LPs for producer Ted Jarrett’s tiny T-Jaye Record label and toured widely in the Midwest.

The group boasted five fine singers, including lead soloists Melvin Bufford and Larry Gatewood, wrote most of their own music, and featured an exceptional live band. One of my favorite cuts is Bufford’s soulful “Miracle Man” from the group’s smokin’ Be Careful album.

MUSIC: (2436) The Mighty Inspirations, Be Careful, LP, “Miracle Man,” Side 1, Track 1 (September 8, 2024)

2436 The Mighty Inspirations - Miracle Man.mp3

I’m Robert Darden … “Shout! Black Gospel Music Moments” is produced by KWBU and the Black Gospel Music Preservation Program at Baylor University Libraries.

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Robert F. Darden is the author of two dozen books, most recently: Nothing But Love in God’s Water, Volume II: Black Sacred Music from Sit-In to Resurrection City (Penn State University Press, 2016); Nothing But Love in God’s Water, Volume I: Black Sacred Music from the Civil War to the Civil Rights Movement(Penn State University Press, 2014); Jesus Laughed: The Redemptive Power of Humor(Abingdon Press, 2008), Reluctant Prophets and Clueless Disciples: Understanding the Bible by Telling Its Stories(Abingdon Press, 2006); and People Get Ready! A New History of Black Gospel Music(Continuum/Bloomsbury, 2004).