Sunday Gospel Set . 46 | Gospel and Soul

---

Join us every Sunday to give praise with the Sunday Gospel Set on Radio Roofscape. This week we're listening for the intersection of gospel and soul music. Our featured video is Heaven by BeBe & CeCe Winans. Here's the current set list ...

Sounds of Blackness - I Believe
Fisk Jubilee Singers - When I Was Sinkin' Down
Kirk Franklin - Looking for You
Thomas Dorsey - Precious Lord
John Lennon - God
Otis Redding - Change is Gonna Come
Louis Armstrong - Swing Low, Sweet Chariot
Swan Silvertones - Sinner Man (Newport, 1959)
Albert E. Brumley - Turn Your Radio On
Clara Ward - What the World Needs Now
Dixie Hummingbirds - Loves Me Like a Rock
Marvin Gaye - Come Live with Me Angel
BeBe & CeCe Winans - Heaven
Aretha Franklin - I Say a Little Prayer
Disciples of Christ (DOC) - Deeper
Doc Watson - Down in the Valley to Pray
Anita Baker - Body and Soul
LeeN & Klarity - See Clear
Art Ensemble of Chicago - Old Time Religion

Sunday Gospel Set . 45 | Secret code of the spirituals

---

Join us every Sunday to give praise with the Sunday Gospel Set on Radio Roofscape. This week we're listening for the secret codes that the slaves hid inside the spirituals they sang. Our featured video is Yolanda Rhodes singing Wade in the Water. Here's the current set list ...

Yolanda Rhodes - Wade in the Water
Beyonce - Swing Low, Sweet Chariot
The Ishmel Sisters - Follow the Drinking Gourd
Sacred Harp 87 - Oh Canaan, Sweet Canaan
Dr. Bernice Johnson Reagon - Steal Away to Jesus
Fisk University Jubilee Quartet - I Couldn't Hear Nobody Pray

On the eve of his escape to freedom in the company of a few fellow captives, the mood on Frederick Douglass' plantation was jubilant. That happiness and determination were coded into song to keep their spirits up and steel them for the trials ahead.

We were, at times, remarkably buoyant, singing hymns and making joyous exclamations, almost as triumphant in their tone as if we reached a land of freedom and safety. A keen observer might have detected in our repeated singing of

O Canaan, sweet Canaan,
I am bound for the land of Canaan,

something more than a hope of reaching heaven. We meant to reach the north - and the north was our Canaan.

I thought I heard them say,
There were lions in the way,
I don't expect to Star
Much longer here.
Run to Jesus - shun the danger
I don't expect to stay
Much longer here.

was a favorite air, and had a double meaning. In the lips of some, it meant the expectation of a speedy summons to a world of spirits; but, in the lips of our company, it simply meant, a speedy pilgrimage toward a free state, and deliverance from all the evils and dangers of slavery.

My Bondage and My Freedom. Frederick Douglass, 1855.

Sunday Gospel Set . 42 | John Wilson

---

Join us every Sunday to give praise with the Sunday Gospel Set on Radio Roofscape. We usually feature a music video from the set here, but today it's our pleasure to feature a show by an African American artist - John Wilson: Prints & Drawings, an exhibition of works on paper 1943 - 2004. The show runs until the end of April at Martha Richardson Fine Art, 38 Newbury Street, Boston. GO!

And here's the set list for March 28, 2010 ...

Yolanda Adams - Open My Heart
Kurt Carr & The Kurt Carr Singers - For Every Mountain
Shirley Caesar - The Praying Slave Lady
Fred Hammond & Radical for Christ - I Wanna Know Your Ways
The Clark Sisters - It's Gonna Be Alright
Disciples of Christ (D.O.C.) - Deeper
Cece Winans - On That Day (featuring Lauryn Hill)
Kirk Franklin - September

Image ... Native Son. John Wilson, 1945. Courtesy of Martha Richardson Fine Art, 38 Newbury Street, Boston.