Wasn T That A Mighty Day

Wasn’t That a Mighty Day: African American Blues and Gospel Songs on Disaster takes a comprehensive look at sacred and secular disaster songs, shining a spotlight on their historical and cultural importance. Featuring newly transcribed lyrics, the book offers sustained attention to how both Black and white communities responded to many of the tragic events that occurred before the mid-1950s. Through detailed textual analysis, Luigi Monge explores songs on natural disasters (hurricanes, floods, tornadoes, and earthquakes); accidental disasters (sinkings, fires, train wrecks, explosions, and air disasters); and infestations, epidemics, and diseases (the boll weevil, the jake leg, and influenza). Analyzed songs cover some of the most well-known disasters of the time period from the sinking of the Titanic and the 1930 drought to the Hindenburg accident, and more. Thirty previously unreleased African American disaster songs appear in this volume for the first time, revealing their pertinence to the relevant disasters. By comparing the song lyrics to critical moments in history, Monge is able to explore how deeply and directly these catastrophes affected Black communities; how African Americans in general, and blues and gospel singers in particular, faced and reacted to disaster; whether these collective tragedies prompted different reactions among white people and, if so, why; and more broadly, how the role of memory in recounting and commenting on historical and cultural facts shaped African American society from 1879 to 1955.

The Encyclopedia of Great Popular Song Recordings, Volumes 1 and 2 covers the full range of popular music recordings with virtually unprecedented breadth and depth. In this 2-volume encyclopedia, Sullivan explores approximately 1,000 song recordings from 1889 to the present, telling the stories behind the songs, recordings, performers, and songwriters. From the Victorian parlor ballad and ragtime hit at the end of the 19th century to today’s rock classics, the Encyclopedia progresses through a parade popular music styles, from jazz to blues to country Western, as well as the important but too often neglected genres of ethnic and world music, gospel, and traditional folk. This book is the ideal research tool for lovers of popular music in all its glorious variety.

A collection of more than two dozen Christmas songs.

Probably the most compre-hensive collection of songs-1000 folk songs, work songs, old favorites, and new classics. Thirty-nine sections, each containing as many songs as can be found in some songbooks. For schools, camps, and churches. Melody line format.