Reviewed by Tony Cummings

We've come a long way in terms of the study of black gospel's origins since the publication of Tony Heilbut's seminal 'The Gospel Sound' in 1971. Now seemingly any number of American universities are prepared to fund earnest research of that pivotal time in American church history when the African Americans found their own cultural and spiritual voice. The subtitle to 'The Rise Of Gospel Blues' is 'The Music Of Thomas Andrew Dorsey In The Urban Church' and it's this extraordinary musical figure (whose obituary you can sadly read on page 9) whom Professor Harris argues is the most important one in 20th century black church music. Dorsey's metamorphosis from a medicine show blues singer offering salacious double entendre songs in Atlanta's red light district into a writer of a 'new' form of religious music is told with skill and calls on considerable fresh research. Particularly strong is Professor Harris' detailed chapters showing how Dorsey was influenced by the shaped-note hymnody of Southern white folk religion. Despite its ponderously academic tone The Gospel Blues' is recommended to all those looking to understand more of Dorsey and his music. But sadly this work too fails in any way to follow up the revolutionary premise hinted at in those quotes from blues singers in Viv Broughton's book 'Gospel' - the suggestion that much of the blues, jazz and ragtime started not in the brothels and clubs of a decadent city life but in the Holy Spirit improvisational liberty found in the deep South 'holiness' churches which sprang up in the latter end of the 19th century. Rather than echoing the received, but I believe inaccurate, wisdom that blues, jazz and ragtime came out of immorality and worldliness, I think the time is long overdue to see whether serious researchers can substantiate the claims of those elderly blues men - that the devil's music was the Lord's music first.

The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those held by Cross Rhythms. Any expressed views were accurate at the time of publishing but may or may not reflect the views of the individuals concerned at a later date.

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