Southern Gospel
Often called southern gospel or country gospel to distinguish it from black gospel, white gospel music has followed a different trajectory during the past fifty years. Some of its roots are found in the publishing work and "normal schools" of Aldine S. Kieffer and Ephraim Ruebush. It was promoted by traveling singing school teachers, southern gospel quartets, and shape note music publishing companies such as the A. J. Showalter Company (1879), the James D. Vaughan Publishing Company and the Stamps-Baxter Music and Printing Company.
Southern gospel also drew much of its creative energy from the Holiness churches that arose throughout the south in the first decades of the twentieth century and that created new music, in addition to the traditional hymns of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, to accompany their new forms of worship.
Some early country gospel artists, such as The Carter Family, achieved wide popularity through their recordings and radio performances in the 1920s and 1930s. Others, such as Homer Rodeheaver, George Beverly Shea or Cliff Barrows, became well-known through their association with traveling evangelists such as Billy Sunday or Billy Graham.
Among the best known southern gospel performers are The Blackwood Brothers, the Jordanaires and the Oak Ridge Boys. As in the case of black gospel, the churchgoing audience for white gospel music has not always forgiven its stars, such as the Oak Ridge Boys, who have crossed over to pop music.
The style of music now known as Southern Gospel music has been around since the 1950's. This style is still sung by some groups and is well liked primarily by older Christians. Younger Christians tend to favor a more contemporary style of music.
The Gospel Music Association is a major group of gospel artists who maintain a hall of fame covering all aspects of gospel music.
Southern Gospel Quartets and Groups
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