People Get Ready!: A New History of Gospel Music is a
passionate, celebratory, and carefully researched
chronology of one of America’s greatest treasures. From
Africa through the spirituals, from minstrel music through
jubilee, and from traditional to contemporary gospel,
People Get Ready! shows the links between styles, social
patterns, and artists. The emphasis is on the stories
behind the songs and musicians. From the nameless slaves of
Colonial America to Donnie McClurkin, Yolanda Adams, and
Kirk Franklin, People Get Ready! provides, for the first
time, an accessible overview of this musical genre. In
addition to the more familiar stories of Thomas A. Dorsey
and Mahalia Jackson, the book offers intriguing new
insights into the often forgotten era between the Civil War
and the rise of jubilee—that most intriguing blend of
minstrel music, barbershop harmonies, and the spiritual.
Also chronicled are the connections between some of
gospel’s precursors (Blind Willie Johnson, Arizona Dranes,
and Sister Rosetta Tharpe) and modern gospel stars,
including Andrae Crouch and Clara Ward. People Get Ready!
knits together a number of narratives, and combines
history, musicology and spirituality into a coherent whole,
stitched together by the stories of dozens of famous and
forgotten musical geniuses.
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