SPECIAL PROGAMMING NOTE: SHOUT! host Bob Darden recently partnered with composer and scholar Dr. Stephen Newby for a one-hour radio special commemorating the 10th anniversary of the passing of gospel legend Andraé Crouch. Ten Transformative Songs of Andraé Crouch explores the life, ministry, and musical legacy of one of gospel’s most influential voices. The program builds on themes from their newly released book, Soon and Very Soon: The Transformative Music and Ministry of Andraé Crouch. You can link to the program by clicking here.
Author and Baylor University professor Robert Darden tells stories -- and plays recordings -- from the Baylor University Libraries' Black Gospel Music Restoration Project in an on-going weekly series of two-minute segments. SHOUT! Black Gospel Music Moments explores the distinctly African-American sound of the "Golden Age of Gospel" (1945-1975). The series celebrates this fertile musical period in American history, presenting cultural snapshots that reveal the depth of a people, their community, and the influence they have had on the rest of American music.
SHOUT! Black Gospel Music Moments has also been selected by the panelists at Feedspot.com as one of the Top 10 Black Gospel Podcasts on the web, and one of the Top 40 Black Christian Podcasts from MillionPodcasts.com.
Way to go, Bob Darden and team!
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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. -
The rare 45 “Oh, Mother Tonight” by the otherwise unknown Gospel Twins is a uniquely primitive addition to Baylor’s Black Gospel Archives.
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Evangelist Jessie Mae Renfro was one of the last great traditional gospel voices, as her song “Oh, Have You” so beautifully displays.
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The Jordan Jubilee’s slow and brooding “No Segregation in Heaven” was a pretty grave statement to make in the early 1970s!
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Fort Worth’s Galatian Baptist Church tears into the old camp-meeting song, “Down by the Riverside.”
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That’s the powerful voice of Maggie Bell on the Rev. Milton Brunson and the Thompson Community Choir’s version of “Pray on My Child.”
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The otherwise unknown Evening Doves deliver a spirited, rollicking version of the traditional gospel song “No Hiding Place."
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The unknown Silver Bells of Macon, Georgia’s “No Friend Like the Lord” is a masterclass in a cappella doo-wop styled gospel singing.
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The Brooklyn All Stars were New York’s best-known gospel group, singing hits like the slow and stately “No Cross, No Crown.”
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The Caravans ruled the Gospel Highway in the 1950s and ‘60s with songs like the upbeat “No Coward Soldiers.”
