sweartotellthetruth

Swear to Tell the Truth for Tuesday, October 15th, 2013 (1:00-2:30 pm)

This week’s program begins with some blues, including several instrumentals. The second part of the show is devoted to gospel soloists, mostly between 1937 and around 1959.

The 1950s saw the proliferation of outstanding solo gospel singers on recordings and in live performances, singers like Mahalia Jackson, Brother Joe May, Bessie Griffin, Robert Anderson and others. Some of these performers usually recorded without vocal accompaniment; some often recorded with backing singers or choirs; and still others were members of vocal groups like the Caravans or the Roberta Martin Singers that featured the different members of the group as soloists. In fact, we are using the term simply for its convenience to identify gospel figures who have been recognized as solo performers rather more than they have as members of a particular group.

It’s probably because so many gospel acts have been quartets, groups or choirs that the distinction has been made but singers in all styles of gospel have begun their public careers singing solo in church or fronting a choir.

Records by solo gospel singers began not long after the first African-American quartets and groups were recorded, to the mid-1920s, but the emergence of Rosetta Tharpe and Mahalia Jackson in the years after World War II has the appearance of something new.

On the Show:

Downchild Blues Band – Earl Hooker –  Steve Strongman – Jimmy McCracklin – Gospel Soloists – Mahalia jackson – Georgia Peach – Brother joe May – Edna Gallmon Cooke – Alex Bradford

Listen to the program at FM 93.3 in Hamilton or on CFMU online at cfmu.mcmaster.ca. The program will be available to stream or as a podcast until November 12th.