This Book Review originally appeared in Post & Courier, January 30, 2005

PEOPLE GET READY! A NEW HISTORY OF BLACK GOSPEL MUSIC.  By Robert Darden.  Continuum.  324 pages.  $24.95.

“To truly understand American music,” Robert Darden begins, “you must first attempt to understand the spirituals and gospel music.”  Darden, who served as gospel music editor of Billboard magazine for ten years, opens “People Get Ready!” with a discussion of rhythm – the driving force behind spirituals and gospel as well as blues, jazz, and rock and roll.  He then slides into exposition on the irrepressible role of music in African and African-American religious practice.  The centrality of music in the lives of those who endured slavery not only survived, he points out, but also thrived, becoming more resonant and meaningful in the face of oppression.

“We have only the vaguest inklings of what most spirituals actually meant,” Darden adds.  The use of the songs as a secret language to pass not only inspiration but also encrypted messages along the Underground Railroad kept the nuances closed to post-bellum musicologists.  From the Praise Houses of the American South through the Reconstruction years of Jubilee and Minstrelsy, Darden charts the diverse branching of the form.  The Texas gospel blues of Blind Willie Johnson is used as an example of the musical evangelists, or “jack-legged preachers,” who influenced countless future generations both by their street performances and by their use as early recording artists in the “race records” distributed by the major labels of the day.  The Great Migration, following the collapse of Reconstruction, cast guitar phrasings and lyrics from places such as New Orleans and the Mississippi Delta into streets and storefront churches across the nation.  The great day of American music broke out into the world.

Darden follows Gospel’s development through the stories of Thomas A. Dorsey, Mahalia Jackson, and the South Side of Chicago, “Bronzeville,” seething with musical creativity in the early decades of the twentieth century.  His passion keeps the words flowing through sections on styles and social movements as well as personal narratives and musical analysis.  “People Get Ready!” wraps up with a brisk run through the defining voices of contemporary Gospel, including Donnie McClurkin, Yolanda Adams, and Kirk Franklin.  With a thorough discography, notes, and references, this is an essential read for those faithful to American religion, rhythm, or both.

Reviewer Jason A. Zwiker is a freelance writer in Charleston.

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