© 2026 KWBU
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

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.

PREVIOUS EPISODES OF SHOUT!
SHOUT! Black Gospel Music Moments - 'You’ve Got to Live the Life' by The Echoes of Life
New York City’s Echoes of Life turn Thomas Dorsey’s beloved “You’ve Got to Live the Life” into a rough and raspy old school gospel shout.
SHOUT! Black Gospel Music Moments - 'You've Got to Move' by Abbysinnia Baptist Church Young People’s Choir
In 1959, the Abbysinnia Baptist Church Young People’s Choir recorded a cheerfully up tempo version of the old spiritual “You’ve Got to Move” for the famed Gotham Record label.
SHOUT! Black Gospel Music Moments - "Ol" John (Behold Thy Mother) by The Faithful Wonders
The Faithful Wonders’ funky “Ol’ John (Behold Thy Mother),” first released in 1968, has been re-released multiple times on various gospel and R&B anthologies in recent years.
SHOUT! Black Gospel Music Moments - 'Is There Anything Too Hard for God?' by The Kansas East Sunshine Band Children’s Choir’s
The Kansas East Sunshine Band Children’s Choir’s Young & Gifted Recorded Live! LP features a killer vocal by 9-year-old Crystal Morris on the funky “Is There Anything Too Hard for God?”
SHOUT! Black Gospel Music Moments - "Old Ship of Zion" by Zion Missionary Baptist Church Music Department
From the Zion Sings LP by the venerable Zion Missionary Baptist Church of East Chicago, Indiana, comes this moving and reverent version of the spiritual, “The Old Ship of Zion.”
SHOUT! Black Gospel Music Moments - "People Get Ready" by The Chamber Brothers
For my 500th episode of “Shout! Black Gospel Music Moments” I’m sharing the first gospel 45 I ever bought, “People Get Ready” by the Chambers Brothers.
SHOUT! Black Gospel Music Moments - “Oh, Mother Tonight” by The Gospel Twins
The rare 45 “Oh, Mother Tonight” by the otherwise unknown Gospel Twins is a uniquely primitive addition to Baylor’s Black Gospel Archives.
SHOUT! Black Gospel Music Moments - "Oh, Have You" by Evangelist Jessie Mae Renfro
Evangelist Jessie Mae Renfro was one of the last great traditional gospel voices, as her song “Oh, Have You” so beautifully displays.
SHOUT! Black Gospel Music Moments - “No Segregation in Heaven” by Jordan Jubilee
The Jordan Jubilee’s slow and brooding “No Segregation in Heaven” was a pretty grave statement to make in the early 1970s!
SHOUT! Black Gospel Music Moments - "Down by the Riverside" by The Rev. Cecil Harris and His Choir
Fort Worth’s Galatian Baptist Church tears into the old camp-meeting song, “Down by the Riverside.”

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).