People Get Ready! - by Robert Darden (Paperback)

About the Book

From Africa through the spirituals, from minstrel music through jubilee, and from traditional to contemporary gospel, "People Get Ready!" provides, for the first time, an accessible overview of this musical genre.

Book Synopsis

People Get Ready!: A New History of Gospel Music is a passionate, celebratory, and carefully researched chronology of one of America's greatest treasures. From Africa through the spirituals, from minstrel music through jubilee, and from traditional to contemporary gospel, People Get Ready! shows the links between styles, social patterns, and artists. The emphasis is on the stories behind the songs and musicians. From the nameless slaves of Colonial America to Donnie McClurkin, Yolanda Adams, and Kirk Franklin, People Get Ready! provides, for the first time, an accessible overview of this musical genre. In addition to the more familiar stories of Thomas A. Dorsey and Mahalia Jackson, the book offers intriguing new insights into the often forgotten era between the Civil War and the rise of jubilee-that most intriguing blend of minstrel music, barbershop harmonies, and the spiritual. Also chronicled are the connections between some of gospel's precursors (Blind Willie Johnson, Arizona Dranes, and Sister Rosetta Tharpe) and modern gospel stars, including Andrae Crouch and Clara Ward. People Get Ready! knits together a number of narratives, and combines history, musicology and spirituality into a coherent whole, stitched together by the stories of dozens of famous and forgotten musical geniuses.

FROM THE INTRODUCTION
"Among the richest of the lavish gifts Africa has given to the world is rhythm. The beat. The sound of wood on wood, hand on hand. That indefinable pulse that sets blood to racing and toes to tapping. It is rhythm that drives the great American musical exports, the spiritual (and, by extension, gospel), the blues, jazz and rock 'n' roll. But first you must have the spirituals-religion with rhythm.
In this book, I will show the evolution of a musical style that only occasionally slows down its evolution long enough to be classified before it evolves yet again. In historical terms, spirituals emerged from African rhythm, work-songs, and field hollers in a remarkably short time-years, perhaps days-after the first African slaves landed on American shores. From the spirituals sprang not just their spiritual heir jubilee, but jazz and blues. And gospel music in its modern understanding morphed from the spirituals, the blues, jubilee and-of course-African rhythm.
What today's gospel music is and what it is becoming is part of the continuing evolution of African American music. Religion with rhythm."

Review Quotes

'Reminds us that when slaves first arrived from Africa the only thing they could bring with them was their tradition of singing.' Methodist Recorder

a meticulously researched but living, breathing story Darden s book is especially valuable in detailing how much effort, debate and study have gone into finding gospel s origins and into recording authentic examples that have long fascinated researchers. Indeed, his 25-page, A to Z discography stretched in time and scope from Afro-American Spirituals, Work Song, and Ballads, early samples from the Library of Congress, to Vickie Winans by Vickie Winans. AOL Black Voices. May 2005

This meticulously researched book traces the way in which Negro spirituals evolved into contemporary African-American gospel songs Ultimately, this is the story of the intense and often painful experiences of black Americans and the inspirational music which they have poured out in response. The Tablet, May 2005

About the Author

Robert Darden is Assistant Professor of English at Baylor University, and Senior Editor of The Door Magazine. He was gospel music editor for Billboard magazine for 10 years and has written about religious music for most of his adult life. He lives in Waco.