George Whitefield: the open-air preacher of the Great Awakening
George Whitefield, an English preacher, crossed the Atlantic many times in the eighteenth century and preached to vast outdoor crowds in Britain and the American colonies.…
Category
America
Gospel music releases and Christian news from the United States.
Sacred Harp singing: the shape-note tradition that fills American halls with raw harmony
Sacred Harp singing takes its name from a shape-note hymnbook first published in Georgia in 1844. Singers sit in a hollow square facing each other and…
Charles Albert Tindley: the janitor-turned-pastor whose hymns shaped gospel music
Charles Albert Tindley, born in Maryland in 1851, taught himself to read, worked as a church janitor and became pastor of the same Philadelphia congregation. His…
Richard Allen and the African Methodist Episcopal Church: the walkout that built a denomination
Richard Allen was born into slavery, bought his freedom and became a Methodist preacher in Philadelphia. After Black worshippers were mistreated at St. George's Church, he…
The Soul Stirrers: the gospel quartet that made Sam Cooke a star
The Soul Stirrers, formed in Texas in the 1920s, became one of the most influential gospel quartets in America. Under R.H. Harris and then Sam Cooke,…
Billy Graham’s 1957 New York crusade: sixteen weeks at Madison Square Garden
In 1957, Billy Graham held a crusade in New York that ran for sixteen weeks, filling Madison Square Garden night after night and drawing a huge…
Aretha Franklin’s Amazing Grace: the 1972 church recording that became her best-selling album
In January 1972, Aretha Franklin returned to her gospel roots for two nights of recording at a Los Angeles church with James Cleveland and a choir.…
The Azusa Street Revival: how a Los Angeles mission led by William Seymour sparked global Pentecostalism
In 1906, a small congregation led by William J. Seymour, a Black preacher and son of former slaves, began meeting at 312 Azusa Street in Los…
Moody and Sankey: the preacher and the singer who filled halls on two continents
Dwight L. Moody, a former shoe salesman, and Ira D. Sankey, a singer from Pennsylvania, led huge evangelistic campaigns in America and Britain in the 1870s.…
Walter Hawkins and Love Alive: the Oakland live albums that defined 1970s gospel
Walter Hawkins, brother of Edwin Hawkins, founded the Love Center Church in Oakland and recorded the Love Alive series with its choir from 1975. Songs such…