Shout! Black Gospel Music Moments

KWBU

Author and Baylor University professor Robert Darden tells stories - and plays recordings - from the Baylor University Libraries' Black Gospel Music Restoration Project in an on-going weekly series of two-minute segments. Shout! Black Gospel Music Moments explores the distinctly African-American sound of the "Golden Age of Gospel" (1945-1975). The series celebrates this fertile musical period in American history, presenting cultural snapshots that reveal the depth of a people, their community, and the influence they have had on the rest of American music.

  • 2 minutes
    SHOUT! Black Gospel Music Moments - 'You’ve Got to Live the Life' by The Echoes of Life
    New York City’s Echoes of Life turn Thomas Dorsey’s beloved “You’ve Got to Live the Life” into a rough and raspy old school gospel shout.
    19 April 2026, 1:40 pm
  • 2 minutes
    SHOUT! Black Gospel Music Moments - 'You've Got to Move' by Abbysinnia Baptist Church Young People’s Choir
    In 1959, the Abbysinnia Baptist Church Young People’s Choir recorded a cheerfully up tempo version of the old spiritual “You’ve Got to Move” for the famed Gotham Record label.
    12 April 2026, 1:40 pm
  • 2 minutes
    SHOUT! Black Gospel Music Moments - "Ol" John (Behold Thy Mother) by The Faithful Wonders
    The Faithful Wonders’ funky “Ol’ John (Behold Thy Mother),” first released in 1968, has been re-released multiple times on various gospel and R&B anthologies in recent years.
    6 April 2026, 10:03 am
  • 3 minutes
    SHOUT! Black Gospel Music Moments - 'Is There Anything Too Hard for God?' by The Kansas East Sunshine Band Children’s Choir’s
    The Kansas East Sunshine Band Children’s Choir’s Young & Gifted Recorded Live! LP features a killer vocal by 9-year-old Crystal Morris on the funky “Is There Anything Too Hard for God?”
    29 March 2026, 1:50 pm
  • 3 minutes
    SHOUT! Black Gospel Music Moments - "Old Ship of Zion" by Zion Missionary Baptist Church Music Department
    From the Zion Sings LP by the venerable Zion Missionary Baptist Church of East Chicago, Indiana, comes this moving and reverent version of the spiritual, “The Old Ship of Zion.”
    22 March 2026, 1:50 pm
  • 3 minutes 1 second
    SHOUT! Black Gospel Music Moments - "People Get Ready" by The Chamber Brothers
    For my 500th episode of “Shout! Black Gospel Music Moments” I’m sharing the first gospel 45 I ever bought, “People Get Ready” by the Chambers Brothers.
    15 March 2026, 1:40 pm
  • 3 minutes
    SHOUT! Black Gospel Music Moments - “Oh, Mother Tonight” by The Gospel Twins
    The rare 45 “Oh, Mother Tonight” by the otherwise unknown Gospel Twins is a uniquely primitive addition to Baylor’s Black Gospel Archives.
    8 March 2026, 1:40 pm
  • 3 minutes
    SHOUT! Black Gospel Music Moments - "Oh, Have You" by Evangelist Jessie Mae Renfro
    Evangelist Jessie Mae Renfro was one of the last great traditional gospel voices, as her song “Oh, Have You” so beautifully displays.
    1 March 2026, 2:40 pm
  • 3 minutes
    SHOUT! Black Gospel Music Moments - “No Segregation in Heaven” by Jordan Jubilee
    The Jordan Jubilee’s slow and brooding “No Segregation in Heaven” was a pretty grave statement to make in the early 1970s!
    22 February 2026, 2:40 pm
  • 3 minutes
    SHOUT! Black Gospel Music Moments - "Down by the Riverside" by The Rev. Cecil Harris and His Choir
    Fort Worth’s Galatian Baptist Church tears into the old camp-meeting song, “Down by the Riverside.”
    15 February 2026, 2:40 pm
  • 3 minutes
    SHOUT! Black Gospel Music Moments - "Pray on My Child" by Rev. Milton Brunson and the Thompson Community Singers
    That’s the powerful voice of Maggie Bell on the Rev. Milton Brunson and the Thompson Community Choir’s version of “Pray on My Child.”
    8 February 2026, 2:40 pm
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