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SHOUT! Black Gospel Music Moments - The Bible Way Church of God

The Bible Way Church of God Choir’s “What Do You Say About Jesus?” features the church’s longtime pastor, Little Abraham Swanson.

Best known as the original home of James Brown and the Famous Flames, King Records in Cincinnati also had a handful of gospel artists, including The Bible Way Church of God. Bible Way had been founded in 1946 by Pastor Abraham Isaac Jacob Swanson – better known as “Little Abraham.” In 1960, the church released a live album featuring different songs by the choir and a couple of short sermons.

As a result – and thanks to King’s producers and engineers -- Let the Church Roll On sounds exceptionally good for a live album. Little Abraham introduces several of the songs, including this choice cut, a rollicking double time vamp called “What Do You Say About Jesus?” that involves not just the 75-voice choir but the entire congregation.

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

The Bible Way Church of God Choir - “What Do You Say About Jesus?” (from 'Let the Church Roll On', LP Side 2, Track 4)

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.”
SHOUT! Black Gospel Music Moments - "Pray on My Child" by Rev. Milton Brunson and the Thompson Community Singers
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.”
SHOUT! Black Gospel Music Moments - "No Hiding Place" by The Doves
The otherwise unknown Evening Doves deliver a spirited, rollicking version of the traditional gospel song “No Hiding Place."
SHOUT! Black Gospel Music Moments - "No Friend Like the Lord" by The Silver Bells
The unknown Silver Bells of Macon, Georgia’s “No Friend Like the Lord” is a masterclass in a cappella doo-wop styled gospel singing.
SHOUT! Black Gospel Music Moments - "No Cross, No Crown" by Brooklyn All Stars
The Brooklyn All Stars were New York’s best-known gospel group, singing hits like the slow and stately “No Cross, No Crown.”

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).