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SHOUT! Black Gospel Music Moments - Bill Moss

Bill Moss & the Celestials keep it funky with “I Ain’t Gonna Sing Rock and Roll.”

The Clark dynasty in gospel music goes all of the way back to the matriarch, Mattie Moss Clark, whose inventive choral arrangements with the Southwest Michigan Choir revitalize choir-singing in the Black Church. It continued through her daughters, featuring gospel’s most creative keyboardist, Twinkie, and little sister Karen Clark-Sheard – who is a star all her own.

But Mattie’s brother Bill Moss was a pretty talented gospel singer, songwriter and keyboardist himself. Bill and his wife Essie recorded several first-rate gospel LPs before his passing in 2007. Essie was one of gospel’s greatest performers, a sanctified powerhouse who was just as likely to leap off a stage or preach a sermon as she was sing an old gospel song. Bill and Essie’s hits included "Turn It Over to Jesus", "Everything is Going to be Alright" and "The Way We Use to Have Church” and many more.

One of my favorite Bill Moss & the Celestials LPs is titled I Ain’t Gonna Sing Rock and Roll – here’s the title track – and, well, you be the judge if he keeps his promise or not, ‘cause it sounds awfully funky to me!

2220 Bill Moss and the Celestials - I Ain't Gonna Sing Rock and Roll.mp3

MUSIC: Bill Moss & the Celestials, “I Ain’t Gonna Sing Rock and Roll” from the LP, I Ain’t Gonna Sing Rock and Roll, Track 4, Side 2

I’m Robert Darden … “Shout! Black Gospel Music Moments” is produced by KWBU, the Black Gospel Music Restoration Project at Baylor University Libraries and is funded by generous support from the Prichard Foundation.