Customer Reviews

Close Harmony: A History of Southern Gospel

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In this important work, Goff traces the history of Southern Gospel music, the religious music of the Southern plain folk. Building on folk church singing forms, Southern Gospel began in earnest with the quartets sent out to publize songbooks issued by companies such as Stamps and Vaughn. Out of these quartets came such revolutionary groups as the Blackwood Brothers and the Statesmen. Goff continues the history up to the current era, looking at the development of the field and its popularity. Southern Gospel has largely been ignored by scholars so this book fills a deep gap in the literature. As an overview, some performers undoubtedly were left out, but that is a minor quibble. Some topics, such as the interrelationship of Southern gospel and Country music, need further discussion. A new area of research has been opened and with Goff as a guide, let us hope it quickly develops.

Any fan of Southern gospel music would do well to choose Close Harmony as a guide: author James Goff provides a rich history of the genre's evolution from its originals in 19th century shape-note singing to its emergence as a distinct style in a changing music industry. White and black gospel music trends are explored in the course of this title's solid coverage.

This is an excellent book. I can not praise it enough. Only the writer knows how many hours of research went into the making of this book. It is not only a book that tells the story of southern gospel music, it is written in such a way that it is the history book of southern gospel shape note music. I doubt that there will ever be another book that will preserve gospel heratage as much as "Close Harmony".

I purchased this book for research purposes for my thesis. It has been exactly what I needed on a lot of accounts. Definitely a must have if you're a Southern Gospel person.

Reading Henry Slaughter's autobiography, In Search of the Pearl of Great Price: The Unforgettable Autobiography of Henry Slaughter, made me want to get to know more about Southern Gospel music.

Close Harmony gives the grit and greatness that made this music so close to the heart of all Americans.

If you want to know more about Southern Gospel music, James Goff's book is the perfect place to start!

I didn't know a lot about Southern Gospel Music, except for what I'd seen on TV, until a friend told me about Henry Slaughter's autobiography, IN SEARCH OF THE PEARL OF GREAT PRICE. After reading that wonderful book, it was only natural to do a search on Amazon.com about some of the other people who were part of Mr. Slaughter's story...Bill Gaither's IT'S MORE THAN THE MUSIC was one of those. So was THE CATHEDRALS by Mr. Payne and Mr. Younce.

Then I decided to order CLOSE HARMONY.

I'm glad I ordered it. It filled in so many of the details that I had never heard, and it is literally filled with stories that about the people, music, and artists who have impacted people all over the world with their music.

If you love Gospel music, as I do, then you'll love James Goff's CLOSE HARMONY!

One assumes that Goff intended this travesty of a book to provide a history of white gospel singing. But, while constantly referring to white and black gospel as distinctive forms, he never establishes exactly what the differences are. He instead pelts readers with a flurry of boring mini-biographies and social-conservative propaganda. The reader gets a strong sense that Goff disapproves of atheists, homosexuality and abortion, but if the book was supposed to give a definitive account of a musical tradition, it fails.