Great God A'Mighty! The Dixie Hummingbirds: Celebrating the Rise of Soul Gospel Music
- Author: Zolten, Jerry
Zolten fluently unfolds this story, with its sundry subplots and themes. His descriptions of music are evocative, and he neither minimizes nor exaggerates the gospel world's fierce moral and...
Great God A'Mighty! The Dixie Hummingbirds: Celebrating the Rise of Soul Gospel Music
- Author: Zolten, Jerry
Purchase product
Zolten fluently unfolds this story, with its sundry subplots and themes. His descriptions of music are evocative, and he neither minimizes nor exaggerates the gospel world's fierce moral and...
About
The venerable Dixie Hummingbirds stand at the top of the black gospel music pantheon as artists who not only significantly shaped that genre but, in the process, also profoundly influenced emerging American pop music genres from Rhythm & Blues and Doo-Wop to Rock 'n' Roll, Soul, and Hip-Hop. Great God A'Mighty! The Dixie Hummingbirds shows how, in a career spanning more than nine decades, they pointed the way from pure a cappella harmony to guitar-driven soul to pop-stardom crossover, collaborating with artists like Stevie Wonder and Paul Simon along the way. Drawing on interviews with founding and quintessential members as well as many of the pop luminaries influenced by the Hummingbirds, author Jerry Zolten tells their story from rising up and out of the segregated South in the twenties and thirties to success on Philadelphia radio and the New York City stage in the forties to grueling tours in the fifties and over the long haul a brilliant recording career that carried well over into the 21st century. The story of the Dixie Hummingbirds is a tale of determined young men who navigated the troubled waters of racial division and the cutthroat business of music on the strength of raw talent, vision, character, and perseverance, and made an indelible name for themselves in American cultural history. This heavily edited 2nd edition features brand new photographs, expanded historical context, and a full new chapter on the Hummigbirds' trajectory up to the 21st century.
Contents
- Foreword by Dom Flemons
- Introduction
- 1. A Wheel in a Wheel, 'Way Up in the Middle of the Air (1916-1928)
- 2. I Just Got On My Travelin' Shoes (1929-1938)
- 3. Ain't Gonna Study War No More (1939-1942)
- 4. Twelve Gates to the City (1943-1944)
- 5. Move On Up a Little Higher (1945-1949)
- 6. My Record Will Be There (1950-1951)
- 7. Let's Go Out to the Programs (1952-1959)
- 8. Loves Me Like a Rock (1960-1976)
- 9. Who Are We? (1977 and Into a New Century)
- 10. Afterword: I'll Keep On Living After I Die (2003 and Beyond)
- Discography
- Bibliography
- Index
Awards and reviews
Zolten fluently unfolds this story, with its sundry subplots and themes. His descriptions of music are evocative, and he neither minimizes nor exaggerates the gospel world's fierce moral and showbiz competitiveness. He shows how, like all the top-flight gospel quartets, the Birds drilled on staging and presentation as well as music.... He makes a case that The Dixie Hummingbirds were exemplars and conveyors of cultural and musical change
In this excellent history, Zolten carefully and lovingly details the almost 75-year history of the Hummingbirds, from their start in the Depression to their induction into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame in 2000. This is a fine exploration of an important style and era in the history of American popular music and culture
The 'Birds' story is also the story of black entertainment slowly entering the American pop-cultural mainstream.... Welcome this book with its generous discography to the pop-music shelves
This intriguing, fast-moving history is highly recommended for anyone interested in music, social history, gospel, or the American experience
