Dr. Bobby Jones has spent a significant portion of his life in gospel music. As a singer, radio and television host, educator, author, Grammy Award winner, and filmmaker, Jones has enjoyed an illustrious career in gospel music. Born in Tennessee, …
Listen to hundreds of gospel songs archived for the Great 78 Project by George Blood
According to their website, the Great 78 Project “is a community project for the preservation, research and discovery of 78rpm records.” IFrom about 1898 to the 1950s, an estimated 3 million sides (~3 minute recordings) have been made on 78rpm …
Where’s the line between gospel, rock and soul? A panel of experts explore at screening of How I Got Over
The Gospel Roots of Rock and Soul project held the Philadelphia premiere of a wonderful new documentary on Sunday, February 25th, 2018 at the Prince Theatre, with a screening of a marvelous documentary How They Got Over: Gospel Quartets and …
Listen to David Byrne’s gospel music playlist
The Gospel Roots of Rock and Soul project is showcasing both the uniqueness of gospel music and its influence on early rock and R&B. If there’s any musician who recognizes the relationship between different styles of music and the influence …
Baylor University’s Black Gospel Music Restoration Project
In 2005, Robert Darden, gospel historian and professor of journalism, new media and public relations at Baylor University, and author of several books including People Get Ready! A New History of Black Gospel Music, wrote an editorial for the New …
Listen: Jesus Rocked The Jukebox
Jesus Rocked The Rock Jukebox is an excellent, uplifting new collection of gospel music that showcases the songs and groups that laid the foundation for Soul, R&B, and Rock. The collection includes songs by The Blind Boys of Alabama, The …
Mavis Staples and The Staples Singers discuss their gospel crossover
Gospel pioneers The Staple Singers were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1999. Over their long, acclaimed history, they have become known as much for their secular music as they have been for their gospel. Truth …
Watch Rhiannon Giddens perform “Freedom Highway”
The title song to The Staple Singers’ 1965 album Freedom Highway was written by Roebuck “Pops” Staples, the patriarch and leader of the first family of gospel that included Pops and his daughters Cleotha, Purvis, Yvonne and Mavis. Pops learned …
Watch R&B singer Anthony Hamilton discuss his creative process and his gospel influences
Like so many R&B artists, from Sam Cooke and Aretha Franklin, to Al Green and Marvin Gaye, superstar singer and songwriter Anthony Hamilton’s career began in the choir of Charlotte, North Carolina’s New Shiloh Baptist Church. Filmed for NPR Music, …
The McCrary Sisters: Gospel’s go-to backup singers
The McCrary Sisters are a gospel music quartet from Nashville, Tennessee. Formed in 2010 by sisters Beverly Ann McCrary, Deborah Dianne McCrary, Regina Avonette McCrary, and Alfreda Antionette McCrary, their father – Reverend Samuel H. “Sam” McCrary – was a …