The Rise of Gospel Blues

A well researched account of gospel blues that encompasses the broader cultural and religious histories of the African-American experience between the late 1890s and the 1930s. Harris skilfully contextualizes sacred and secular music styles within African-American religious history and significant social developments of the period. In the late 1930s gospel blues, a blend of sacred texts and blues tunes, were first heard in the Protestant black churches of the American Midwest and Northeast. The music especially appealed to the recent black migrants from the Deep South. Michael Harris's book is the story of the development of gospel, one of the major popular music styles of the past half century, as seen through the career of its founding figure, Rev. Thomas A. Dorsey. The discussion of Dorsey is focused on Afro-American religion and culture and on the influence that gospel music had on blacks in general.