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The Holy Blues, a contradiction. Blues that preach the word of God, the Gospel.
The Gospel blues and the blues itself derived from the same sources, it was the singers that chose different paths. To understand this, blues must be viewed as a musical form and not lyrical expression. While Robert Johnson sang "Me and the Devil", gospel blues singer Blind Willie Johnson sang "John the Revelator". Both musically the same yet lyrically different.
Gospel blues sold more than any other race blues recordings of the era. Many African Americans were highly spiritual and when they could afford a record it would more likely be a record about Jesus than the Devil.
After Mamie Smith and then Blind Lemon Jefferson broke the gates wide open for blues artists, the church saw a way to "spread the Lord's good word". Most gospel blues singers were preachers. Where as most general blues singers were EX-preachers. Son House fell into this latter catagory. House would often attack the church's hypocrisy as in these lyrics from his "Preachin' the Blues":
House obviously believed that most blacks became preachers to escape field work and that "getting a religion" was actually a career oppurtunity rather than a leap of faith.
The gospel blues, while still classified musically as blues, still had its own trademark sound. It would either sound like a choir, a straight sermon with musical accompaniment, or a stir-fire growling sermon such as the songs of Blind Willie Johnson.
 Reverend J.M. Gates was the most popular of the early gospel artists. Between 1926-1941 he recorded close to two-hundred titles. Gates had a wailing chant to his singing like a gospel choir. His best song critically was "These Hard Times" his message about depression. |
 Arizona Dranes, a born-blind painist was 21 when she first recorded. Her most famous piece was an instrumental called simply "Cruxificion". Dranes inspired none other than 50's rocker Jerry Lee Lewis. |
 Most gospel blues artists, in addition to being preachers, were blind. Of these traveling blind evangelists, the most known to modern audiences is Reverend Blind Gary Davis. Davis usually played second guitar to Blind Boy Fuller but when he went to record his own songs, he sang the gospel. He had a falling out with his producer in the 1930s and didn't record again until the 1950s. |
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| Washington Phillips |
Phillips also protested against the different dominions and sects in "I am Born to Preach the Gospel":
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| Thomas Dorsey, father of gospel |
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| The only known photograph of Blind Willie Johnson |
Between October 1918 and February 1919, an epidemic took the lives of an estimated 21,642,274 people and then disappeared as quickly as it came. Johnson sung his sermon on this years later.
Johnson ends this song with this apocalyptic verse
Johnson's songs were also political. Johnson viewed the U.S. as a modern version of the sinful Babylon. A Babylon that God would eventually punish.
Johnson was born near Marlin, Texas around 1900. He was blinded at age 7. Johnson's widow Angeline told researchers that he was blinded by his stepmother who threw lye in his face after an argument with Willie's father. Another source says that Johnson went blind from staring at an eclipse. But Johnson himself claimed that he went blind from wearing a discarded pair of glasses.
When Johnson was as teen his father made him a cigar box guitar. After he eventually acquired a six-string guitar his dad would take him to play on street corners. He became popular all through his teenage years playing clubs and church functions. His love was for gospel music, yet he saw the blues ability to get people to listen. So like so many he combined them to create a powerful sermon of music.
In June of 1927 he married Angeline after meeting her on a street corner where he was playing. By December of '27 he made his first recordings for Columbia. He recorded his last session in 1930 and died in the 1950s. His early records were hits but by the Depression his record sales dropped drasticly. The nation didn't want the rugged truth, but instead the gentle tunes of Tom Dorsey. Nevertheless Johnson's growls still ring true while Dorsey's music remains dated.
Gospel blues actually remained closer to its roots, the hollers and spirituals, than the blues itself. It was the complete antithesis of the blues in many ways. It was the voice of a highly religous people during a time when religion was in high fashion so to speak. But even after the dust settled the voices can still be heard. The faith was in the voices. A sound that to this day one can not deny. The true believers of the era weren't the preachers, but the vagabond travelers who were spilling their guts out on the road to strangers and delivering the message of God to the people.
--Preachin' the blues (Son House, 1930)
"The Enlightenment" is ©2002 by Terence Nuzum. Webpage design and all graphics herein (except where otherwise noted) are creations of Nolan B. Canova. Contents of Nolan's Pop Culture Review is ©2002 by Nolan B. Canova.
