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SHOUT! Black Gospel Music Moments - God Can by The Mighty Sons of Glory

With ferocious songs like “God Can (Never Underestimate),” you’ll wonder by Tommie Ligons and the Mighty Sons of Glory weren’t bigger gospel music stars!

The Mighty Sons of Glory were founded in Viriginia in 1970 by Tommie Ligons, a cousin of the legendary gospel shouter Joe Ligons of the Mighty Clouds of Joy. You can hear his cousin’s raspy, powerful voice when Tommie sings. The rest of the Sons of Glory are related in various ways as well.

In the late 1989s and early ‘90s, they were recorded several funky gospel LPs in the style of the Winans or Commissioned for the AIR and Jewel labels. My favorite is from 1991 – God Says We Can. The album leads off with Tommie’s ferocious five-minute sung sermon “God Can (Never Underestimate),” backed by a killer band – and it’ll make you wonder why the Mighty Sons of Glory didn’t make a bigger impact in gospel music.

Mighty Sons of Glory - God Can

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).