Full Description
Heavily influenced by Bill Monroe, the "Father of Bluegrass" in the 1940s and '50s, gospel music in the South began to shift into bluegrass gospel, a style that combines both genres. In Bluegrass Gospel: The Music Ministry of Jerry and Tammy Sullivan, anthropologist and journalist Jack Edward Bernhardt explores the lives, music, and ministry of acclaimed father-daughter bluegrass gospel performers and recording artists Jerry (1933-2014) and Tammy Sullivan (1964-2017) of southwest Alabama.
Beginning in 1993, Bernhardt lived and traveled with the Sullivans as they took their music and testimony along bumpy back roads to backwoods sanctuaries from the Florida Panhandle to Mississippi, Louisiana's bayous, Texas, Arkansas, and beyond. The author's compelling narrative combines long-term fieldwork with extensive oral histories, archival research, photography, and tape recordings of the Sullivans' music and testimonies in secular and sacred contexts. Bernhardt describes in vivid detail the challenges of life on the road through unforeseen circumstances and the financial uncertainty of performing for pass-the-collection-basket "love offerings," while remaining committed to doing the work they felt called to do. In an afterword by Marty Stuart, Jerry's friend and cowriter of the 1995 Grammy-nominated "At the Feet of God," Stuart recounts his experiences playing mandolin with the Sullivan Family on the "Brush Arbor Trail" as a talented, wide-eyed twelve-year-old.
In the penultimate chapter, Bernhardt accompanies Tammy's widower, Jonathan Causey, and their son, Jon Gideon, to churches along the same gospel trail blazed by Jerry and Tammy. With their own music ministry, the Causeys continue the legacy of song and testimony the Sullivans pursued for thirty-five years.
Ultimately, Bernhardt reflects on how his relationship with the Sullivans led to friendship and mutual respect for cultural differences that endure through time. The result is an intimate portrayal of life, faith, and family-based music ministry in the South today as in the past.
Contents
Foreword. Celebrating Pentecostal Music by Bill C. Malone
Acknowledgments
Prologue
Chapter 1. Getting Acquainted
Chapter 2. The Sullivans of Washington County
Chapter 3. Serve the Lord with Gladness: Make a Joyful Noise
Chapter 4. Love and Loss and the High Lonesome Sound
Chapter 5. A Strength by Me: Jerry, Tammy, and New Beginnings
Chapter 6. Tammy Sullivan: Praise the Lord for This Life I'm Living
Chapter 7. Traveling the Gospel Highway from Potholes to Praise
Chapter 8. Brother Arthur and Brother Glenn: From Brush Arbor to Victory Grove Church
Chapter 9. Trials, Troubles, Tribulations, and Heavenly Rewards
Chapter 10. From Lester Flatt to Place of Hope and the Mother Church: Service and Celebration in the Name of the Lord
Chapter 11. Jonathan and Jon Gideon Causey: The Gospel Road Goes on Forever
Chapter 12. Reflections of Fieldwork and Discovery: The Changer and the Changed
Afterword. The Brush Arbor Trail by Marty Stuart
Notes
Bibliography
Recommended Listening
Index
