One of the fun discoveries I made reading Mark Burford's Mahalia Jackson and the Black Gospel Field is learning about the music of Doris Akers. Burford pointed out that Akers was an influential songwriter, singer and arranger in gospel music whose life and work, as yet, has not received any serious academic attention.
I may or may not have heard or even sung some Akers songs way, way back in my Pentecostal days but if so it was so long ago that it's like I never heard of her before, which may be the most likely scenario. Although I've written a fair amount about contemporary classical guitar literature that's a bit more on the avant garde side I do have a place in my heart for gospel music, too. :)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UwKe65a-G0s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKAozuicyvUE
No comments:
Post a Comment