People Get Ready!: A New History of Gospel Music - Tapa dura

With a thorough discography, notes and references, this is an essential read for those faithful to American religion, rhythm, or both. Charleston.net (The Post and Courier), 1/30/05 a scholarly yet extremely readable book Morning Star, David Horsley, 2/19/05 offers a carefully researched chronology of the music that is so much a part of black American culture. The Onion, 3/3/05 an impassioned and mostly comprehensive overview from the former Gospel editor at Billboard. Observer (Music Monthly), 2/20/05 The book is a passionate chronology of the history of black gospel music. It takes the reader from the roots of gospel, starting in Africa to modern-day voices. Baylor University Newsletter, 2/25/05 Interview with the author Wittenburg Door, March/April 2005 "The book is a passionate chronolgy of the history of black gospel music. It takes the reader from the roots of gospel, starting in Africa to modern-day voices." -Baylor Alumni "Ambitious in scope, People Get Ready! Finds the source of black gospel in African cultures where music and spirituality infused all of life." Carl Hoover, Waco Tribune-Herald, Dec. 17, 2004 "Darden follows gospel's development through the stories of Thomas A Dorsey, Mahalia Jackson and Chicago's South Side 'Broneville, ' seething with musical creativity in the early decades of the 20th century. His passion keeps the words flowing through sections on styles and social movements, as well as personal narrativesw and musical analyses .With a thorough discography, notes and references, this is an essential read for those faithful to American religion, rhythm, or both." Charleston Post and Courier, 1/30/05 "From Dr. Watts to Yolanda Adams, Robert Darden has written a long overdue, solidly researched, and eminently readable overview of African-American religious music from the 17th through the early 21st century." Kip Lornell, author of Happy in the Service of the Lord: Afro-American Gospel Quartets in Memphis "In People Get Ready! A New History of Black Gospel Music, Robert Darden traces the evolution of America's Black music from the first spirituals that were created by the displaced African slaves to the Gospel music industry as it exists at the beginnning of the twenty-first century. He demonstrates how the songs, which expressed a codified secret language, survived because they were so essential to the race's continued existence." Rev. Bob Gersztyn, Blueswax.com, January 2005 "Robert Darden has a passion for black gospel music that will be evident to every reader of this volume. He is, however, much more than an enthusiastic fan; he is also a good writer and careful historian whose sharply etched portraits of gospel music personalities make People Get Ready! A valuable addition to the growing body of literature on black gospel music." W.K. McNeil, editor of The Encyclopedia of American Gospel Music "Robert Darden admits that his new book is not an exhaustive study of gospel music. 'What I really wanted to do, ' he writes, 'was somehow put it all in order, find the connections, and tell the stories of some of the most fascinating people on the planet.' An assistant professor of English at Baylor, Darden '76 makes good on that promise by tracing gospel music to its African roots, following its evolution from spirituals to minstrel songs to contemporary classics. Along the way, he tells of the singers and performers who defined a musical genre Harriet Tubman, who may have authored 'Go Down, Moses'; Mahalia Jackson and Clara Ward, who faced severe discrimination as African-American women; and the Staple Singers, who bridged the gap between gospel and soul. With thirty-six photographs and a comprehensive discography, Darden examines a music that is both sacred and secular, African American and ethnically diverse. He concludes that the great gospel artists 'create something new, something wonderful, something transcendent.'" Baylor Line: Magazine of the Alumni Association, Winter 2005 '...A remarkable study...Darden's study...is exemplary in its attempt to capture something of how theology and ecclesiology are'--, "Church Times "

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: the stories that helped to create the incomparable art form. 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 Clare Ward. Robert Darden 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.