DON GONYEA, HOST:
Gospel has always been a big part of American music. Heard in houses of worship and in homes, at concerts and on the radio. Now it's being celebrated and honored at the new Museum of Christian and Gospel Music. From Nashville Public Radio, Jewly Hight has the story.
BOBBY JONES: Now, I believe everybody knows this song. You ready?
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: You bet.
JONES: (Singing) Oh, happy day.
UNIDENTIFIED GROUP #1: (Singing) Oh, happy day.
JEWLY HIGHT, BYLINE: Just blocks away from downtown Nashville's venerable churches and raucous tourist bars, Gospel legend Dr. Bobby Jones led a group of musicians, industry execs and politicians in song. They'd all gathered for the museum's ribbon-cutting ceremony.
JACKIE PATILLO: People automatically assume that there is a place that celebrates Christian gospel music somewhere in America, and there isn't.
HIGHT: That's Jackie Patillo, president of the Gospel Music Association. There are separate institutions devoted to Black gospel and white Southern gospel. But Patillo, the first woman of color to lead the Gospel Music Association, set out to build a more comprehensive home for Christian music.
PATILLO: The word gospel music really encompasses a message with lots of different sounds. So it's been awesome to see how we've gone from the hymns to choruses to rap music and the contemporary Christian music industry.
HIGHT: Steve Gilreath, the museum's executive director, helped weave those distinct lineages into one story.
STEVE GILREATH: We didn't want people to come in and say, where's the Southern gospel section? - and go right to one spot and then leave.
HIGHT: So he and his team grouped performers according to what they share in common. Gilreath says what's consolidated in the 11,000 square-foot museum, on the other hand, are markers of commercial success.
GILREATH: We have one little area we're trying to put all the gold records in. You don't see them everywhere you go that sold millions, millions, millions. It's just not about that with this industry.
HIGHT: But the first artifact visitors encounter is a trophy, the songwriter of the year honor given to Bill Gaither at the first Dove Awards ceremony in 1969.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED ANNOUNCER: The winner is Mr. Bill Gaither.
(APPLAUSE)
HIGHT: Gaither is known for composing Southern gospel standards that proclaim faith in a saving God and take sentimental comfort in it.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "BECAUSE HE LIVES")
BILL GAITHER: (Singing) Because He lives, I can face tomorrow.
HIGHT: The museum also highlights pivotal singers, composers and choir directors of gospel music. That culturally and musically distinct tradition influenced the feel of so much American music and soundtracked the Civil Rights Movement.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "I DON'T FEEL NOWAYS TIRED")
JAMES CLEVELAND: (Singing) I've come too far...
UNIDENTIFIED GROUP #2: Yes.
CLEVELAND: ...(Singing) From where I started from.
UNIDENTIFIED GROUP #2: Yes.
DEREK MINOR: Gospel music from the Negro spiritual till now has always been a semblance of hope.
HIGHT: Derek Minor should know. His mom had him singing those songs in the church choir until he insisted on rapping instead.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "GOD BLESS THE TRAP (FEAT TONY TILLMAN & THI'SL)")
MINOR: ...(Rapping) Droptop Mustang. Now you run around, Headless Horseman scene...
There was always an idea that God was coming back to liberate. The OG gospel artists, I don't think they were just trying to write great songs. They were trying to inspire people that were at their lowest.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "GOD BLESS THE TRAP (FEAT TONY TILLMAN & THI'SL)")
MINOR: (Rapping) They won't talk 'bout how we can't get jobs and all we got is dope.
HIGHT: Just across the hall, Minor's featured in an exhibit on Christian hip-hop.
MINOR: I remember when I wrote my album "The Trap," people were like, a Christian artist is writing an album about the trap? But I'm like, that is where we at. There's a liberation that needs to happen in that moment as well.
HIGHT: The museum dwells in a period in the '70s and '80s when Christian versions of all sorts of secular styles began to catch on. One of the largest artifacts is a rectangular hunk of vintage recording gear under glass in the rear gallery. It came as a surprise to Brown Bannister, the engineer and producer who used it to help flesh out the sound of contemporary Christian pop.
BROWN BANNISTER: When I saw this in here, my heart just stopped. This was the first five years of my career, was on this console. We did the B.J. Thomas thing.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "WITHOUT A DOUBT")
B J THOMAS: (Singing) Without a doubt, I finally found out. Without a doubt.
BANNISTER: I produced Amy Grant's first album.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "WALKING IN THE LIGHT")
AMY GRANT: (Singing) Me and Jesus did some heavy talkin' last night.
BANNISTER: We did The Imperials'.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "MORE EACH DAY")
THE IMPERIALS: (Singing) I had no love to call my own.
HIGHT: Bannister shaped seminal soft rocking albums for Amy Grant and other Christian singer/songwriters with a specific goal.
BANNISTER: To me, Christian music - it's not about the music. It's about the lyric. That's what differentiates.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "THY WORD")
GRANT: (Singing) Thy word is a lamp unto my feet...
BANNISTER: You're making sure that you're serving the artist and serving the lyrics of their song and trying not to get in the way of the message, you know, trying to enhance it.
HIGHT: If walking these halls summons meaningful memories of these songs, there's a place for that too, says Patillo, who led the charge to build the museum.
PATILLO: We're going to give people an opportunity and a little testimonial booth where they can share how a song has impacted their life 'cause this music is about changing us. It's about nourishing us, feeding our soul and our spirit.
HIGHT: What unites the array of music here, says Patillo, is that spiritual sense of purpose.
For NPR News, I'm Jewly Hight in Nashville.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "TESTIFY")
COMMISSIONED: (Singing) Oh, that's what He's done. That's what He's done. I believe I'm going to go ahead and testify about the goodness of the Lord. Come on. I'm going to testify about your mercy and your faith. Testify. Testify. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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