I'm Glad About It: The Legacy of Gospel Music in Louisville 1958-1981
The composers of no less a standard than “Happy Birthday,” Mildred and Patty Hill, predicted that American popular music would have its roots in the songs of African Americans. At the heart of that would be the musical worship and testifying of the Black church.
The Hill sisters’ hometown of Louisville provides the setting for a localized exploration of that music and the stories behind it. I'm Glad About It: The Legacy of Gospel Music in Louisville 1958-1981 collects 83 recordings over four CDs with a 208-page book (also available as a 26-track double-LP). Though specialty radio shows and websites have plumbed soul gospel’s artistic and historical riches for decades, Glad About It demonstrates just how much talent in one genre can be concentrated in one city.
Louisville may not be top of mind for many as a locus of musical or ecclesiastical activity for those who aren't already Black gospel aficionados. But the city’s African American church folk were among the earliest to adopt the bluesy, jazzy, innovations made by Thomas Dorset to the music accompanying their congregational spiritual lives. Later, Louisville would become one of the first locations for a chapter of James Cleveland's Gospel Music Workshop of America, an organization founded to share repertoire and promote growth of the music (the 2005 convention of which was held in Milwaukee).
Perhaps, too, the city’s lesser prominence compared to musical epicenters sch as Chicago, Detroit and Los Angeles nurtured a try harder attitude among its sanctified music makers that led to there being really no clunkers throughout I'm Glad About It.
No unified Louisville gospel sound necessarily emerges from the set. There are, however, still enough idiosyncrasies throughout to distinguish the city as a place where musical missionaries and encouragers sought to blaze their own trails, or at least a scenic path, in a genre coming into its own.
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Louisville churches were among the first locations where the tricky logistics of recording mass choirs were beginning to be mastered. The city was home to a group of youngsters whose impressive harmonizing—and Afros!—were analogous to the Jackson Five's national ascent. One older male quartet make out like a comedic doo-wop group by inserting a skit into a song. And the musical conversation between sacred and secular African American musical expression exists in concentrated form in a collection such as this.
I’m Glad About It’s accompany book relates the history of the music via essays and recollections from those who made it, distributed it (through local labels) and were otherwise involved. It adds to what is already a substantial undertaking of historical preservation.
Apart from providing a massive dose of fine music from another city, I'm Glad About It holds significance for Milwaukee's gospel community. Potential significance, anyway. The principals of the non-profit Louisville Story Program historical association responsible for compiling this collection have crafted a kind of template. It’s their desire that gospel music lovers and history-minded individuals elsewhere produce similar works documenting the musical Black church culture of their cities before more of those gospel elders are no longer among the living.
Milwaukee's soul gospel history is at least deserving as that of Louisville to be the subject of an anthology so extensive and well-appointed. Would that those who can make it happen do so soon, In the meanwhile, I'm Glad About It provides musical inspiration for the spirit until it propels greater excavation of America’s musical and faith heritage.
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