FAQ

What is a Blues or a Gospel record ?

- The definition is hard to say, but according to the prevailing opinions among folk-musicologists and collectors. It’s “black” music performed in a style peculiar to black performances and not derivative or a copy of any white style, that is – black American secular and sacred song styles. Of course the dividing line is hard to draw and it all depends on the definition, If there is any ?

Why Blues & Gospel 1902 – 1943 ?

- The first gospel record - by the Dinwiddle Colored Quartet - was made in 1902.

- It ends late 1943, for several reasons. After the war, styles of performance changed rather radically and so did methods of recording and issuance. The advent of tape-recording, with multi-recording, splicing together of parts from diffent takes, made recording and issuance a far more subtle and complex affair. It thus seems reasonable to call a break sometime in the early forties.

Why are recordings after 1943 included here?

- If artists did make further records after this date they are included. An appropriate note “After 1943” is included. The second reason is, that many artists didn’t record at all before this date. Nevertheless, they performed during this period of time and were discovered or rediscovered later.

What is a “Race Label” recording?

- It‘s performers and popular singers who had records issued in a predominantly blues and gospel series, so-called “Race series”.

Race recording did not properly begin until about 1921. The year in which record sales in America first hit the one hundred million mark.

What is a field trip ?

- It’s a tour, mainly to the South, done by the travelling recording units of the major companies that involved blues- and gospelrecordings. Field trips were common in the nineteenth twenties and thirties. The equipment was a portable cylinder and disc recording apparature.

- The serious collection of black folk-songs recordings are now an extensive and especially important documentation, which can be found in Library Of Congress Archive ; Thanks to the field trips by John A Lomax and his son Alan did in the nineteen thirties. A cultural treasure of American Folk Music !

Is this site up to date ?

No, its only updated when Webmaster wanna do that. Last time was in March 2007. Ill tell you : It aint easy to update music performed and recorded last millennium.