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R E C O R D · C O N N E X I O N this is all about black gospel music! Welcome to www.RecordConnexion.nl. My intention with this website is to offer as much information as possible about black gospel music, with a strong focus on the postwar years until 1970. http://www.recordconnexion.nl/start.html Black gospel has always been a very influential and interesting genre with many highly professional performers and a huge output on record. The music and the charisma of many black gospel artists have been a source of inspiration for many performers in the fields of blues, rock & roll and soul music. Black gospel was and is the music of the black churches throughout the land. Many of the original blues and soul singers had their musical education started in the church, but the gospel music never went far away from the church. Although there are some exceptions, black gospel never was embraced by a big general audience. And most collectors that digged in the musical past of America, especially the europeans, neglected this musical genre. This means for instance that one day, a serious collector who wrote books on the subject, had to admit that he had never heard of the Swan Silvertones... Right or wrong, understandable or not, there are some problems involved in here. My main problem, after I got extremely interested in this genre, is that it's very hard to find information. There's an endless stream of books on virtually every musical style, but black gospel music seems to be amongst the least documentated. No price guide on records lists gospel records (except for a few, mainly because the artist went secular later on) and there are only a couple of discographies. On the internet you can find a few things but it's less than I first expected and very much scattered too. Of course there are CD companies that re-release black gospel music. The value of the music and the information on the booklets, is of major importance. Needless to say, only a few of these titles make it to your local record shop and the CDs are pressed in small quantities. For me this all led to the wish to collect information and at the same time, to make it available to others that are interested. I am in contact with a few collectors and I'd like to expand that to others too. I would like to see a growing group of people with a common interest in black gospel music, willing to exchange information, maybe trade or sell music, etc. While thinking about this, the making of a website seemed the best thing to start with. So here it is; I hope you will like it and I hope this website will grow into a huge source of information on black gospel music, to help keeping his relevant musical genre alive & well, and accessible too. Credits are given at the end of each discography & picture page. I also want to thank the people that sent me corrections and additions. More than special thanks go out to Tom Kelly, for sharing his knowledge and all the scans he sent. Picture pages with no credits feature label scans from records that are in my own collection, although there are a few exceptions where the source is unknown (I sometimes save pictures that I find on the internet to a local folder). If you have any additional information or corrections, if you made a label discography or investigated an artist or if you're willing and capable to do so, please let me know about it! Scans are also very welcome (if possible, use a resolution of at least 150dpi). See the Contact page to get in touch with me. Have fun going through the pages!Thanks for your interest & keep the good things going, Robert traditional gospel old time gospel spiritual music gospel music religous music