Customer Reviews

Uncloudy Days: The Gospel Music Encyclopedia (Book)

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Some reviewers have noted (correctly so) significant Gospel artists missing from this encyclopedia. Others have also noted (again correctly) factual inaccuracies (though they are FAR outweighed by dead-on, correct facts and information). This book is the first credible attempt to bring to Gospel that which most every other genre has boasted for decades: a serious compendium of a MASSIVE amount of information. Carpenter, the author, has publicly and repeatedly affirmed that he is assiduously taking careful notes regarding EVERY discrepancy brought to his attention, and that all will be addressed, corrected, and included in this amazing book's second edition. Give the man (and his book) its due. This is a laudable, and HIGHLY readable attempt at bringing a vast genre of music, and the people who made and make it, into one volume. It reads like a great book, not a series of disjointed blurbs. I suggest Gospel fans stop complaining, sit back and enjoy the read, and simply contact the author, c/o his publisher I'm sure, with any corrections. This is a great start, and it only promises to get better.

Uncloudy Days is hit and miss. While I applaud Bil Carpenter's efforts to compile such a volume -- hey, he even included information from my on-line article about the Helen Robinson Youth Chorus and borrowed liberally from my gospel website, though without attribution -- the book left a bit to be desired.

My concerns are twofold. First, there are signficant factual inaccuracies. For example, Father of Gospel Music Thomas A. Dorsey's date of death is listed as 1999 instead of the real date, 1993) and incomplete information (Hulah Gene Dunklin Hurley is listed in "G" and there is no mention at all of her most important work as a vocalist with Detroit's Rev. Charles Craig and the Voices of Tabernacle).

There are also questionable inclusions. Lola Falana and Lauryn Hill are two names I would not normally think of, but they are listed; meanwhile, where are the Argo Singers? The Patterson Singers? Rev. Cobb and the First Church of Deliverance? The latter brought the Hammond Organ into prominence as a gospel music instrument in 1939, launched the careers of several gospel artists, and provided initial funding for the famed publishing house of Martin and Morris. All are unfortunately missing.

You get my point. Uncloudy Day has some very important information: I was particularly pleased to see entries on Chicago's darling Bertha Melson and South Africa's amazing Rebecca Malope. I just wish there had been a more concerted effort to double-check facts and rethink important inclusions before publication. There is enough inaccurate and incomplete information on gospel music out there. No need to add to the confusion.

"A work that contains information on all branches of knowledge or treats comprehensively a particular branch of knowledge usually in articles arranged alphabetically often by subject". That is the definition for encyclopedia established in Webster Dictionary. Uncloudy Day is not just an encyclopedia of Gospel Music, but the greatest treasure of information contained in one book. You will read narratives that chronicles the lives behind the music. You will read about very renowned household names, to some not so well recognized, but all have helped to make gospel music what it is today. I am sure you will be encouraged when you read the stories behind the celebrated performers in this book. Also included is a Glossary of Terms, Gospel Trivia, Charts and a great deal more. As a Gospel Radio Announcer I highly recommend this book. If I had to put it in one word it would be "Astounding". Bil Carpenter has produced a MASTERPIECE.



Musically Yours,

Harrisburg's Prince of Gospel Music

Pastor Stephen M. Linen
Joyful Praise - WWII 720
&
Melodies & More Internet Radio

I believe the book can best be summed up as 'hit and miss'. I'm a tradional gospel music fan who favors quartet singing. I felt that most of the writeups on this style of music fell in the 'miss' category. A lot of the traditional singer's history was very basic and didn't seem to give justice to the struggles, trials, and tribulations many of these groups have endured to deliver God's music. However, I think that as far as contempory gospel music, the author did well. The writeups seemed to be longer and more concise. For example, the Canton Spirituals began signing 44 years before Lil iRocc was born and I'm sure most gospel fans have heard of them and their music. However, it seems that there was more than twice as much to say about Lil iRoc than the Canton Spirituals. I'm not hating on Lil Iroc; I just think that the Canton Spirituals may have a more rich and extensive gospel music history. Also, a group I was interested in learning something about is the Dixie Hummingbirds. However, the 70+ year old group did not make it into the book.
On another note, throughout the book the author gave what seemed to be his opinion on what many of the groups best albums were. I don't know if these opinions came from his own personal taste in music or from actual record sales. Either way, I felt that it was unneccesary and often only represented the casual or commercial listeners taste. Fans of any artist music know that many times they feel that the artist's best work or show of talent isn't what is played most or becomes most popular. My personal opinion is that the book would be better off if the author just dealt with the facts and left the rest out.
All in all, I fell this is a good basic reference book that has room for improvement. However, this is coming from someone whose interest is in traditional gospel and not contemporary. Fan's of contemporary music may have a quite different opinion.

I bought this book as a Christmas gift for my husband who has been a faithful Gospel music fan for years and he knows ALL of the old singers and groups. He has not been able to put the book down. Everyday since Christmas he has been reading and sharing the stories with me. I have to admit that I had to pick up the book a few times and read for myself because he had peaked my interest. It was definitely one of the best gifts that I bought him this year. The only one disappointment for me was that I expected more pictures. Otherwise, I am very pleased.

Writing an encyclopedia of Gospel music (or really of any other kind) has to be an almost impossible task. Where would even start to find out who did Gospel songs? And just how do you define Gospel anyway? Some Gospel is awfully close to Country & Western. And what about a predominately C&W singer who does a Gospel song once in a while.

Bil Carpenter has put together this encyclopedia. He lists about 650 singers. Are they the 650 he should have listed. Of course not. Everyone is going to have ideas for other people he should have listed, and would take out some that he did list. Of course if he had doubled the size of the book to 800 pages and put in 1,300 artists, he'd have covered them all - NOT.

So here you have 650 (or so) of the Gospel singers that Bil Carpenter has selected, and with each one you get a mini-biography of their lives and careers. There are pictures in the book, perhaps a hundred or more. But they are small and most pages are just text. A lot of text. I find it hard to imagine how one person could put together so much information. It's an amazing book.

Uncloudy Days is a wonderful treasure. This encyclopedia provides the reader with everything they'd want to know, and then some. This encyclopedia does an outstanding job of taking readers on a journey that allows them to experience the lives, loves, and accomplishments of some of gospel's greatest musicians. Unlike many encyclopedias, it's hard to put this one down. Uncloudy Days is a wonderful addition to any collection.

Word's can't express how thrilled i am with this book....I never thought I'd see all this information on mt favorite gospel artists in a book before. All kinds of stuff I've always wondered about, like what gospel artist won what Grammy award, etc. is in this book. I highly recommend it for anyone with even a slight interest in gospel music.It's got everything I'd want to know about gospel music.

REAL gospel fans will know that there are quite a few books out there that offer accurate, dependable, and in-depth reviews of different figures in the history of the formation of the gospel music industry. Writers like Horace Boyer, Viv Broughton, and a host of other great (participant-)historians have brought to light quite a bit. No one, however, has ever been quite as all-encompassing as Bil Carpenter. Unlike others, he digs for the unknown names of early and contemporary gospel. He develops stories of backsliders and come-backers with the same quality that he devotes to the hardcore gospel singers.

There are times that I find that repeats information that I have already read elsewhere--sometimes with the information being not the full truth. Case in point: Carpenter claims, as does Boyer and a host of others, that Mattie Moss Clark gave Elbert Clark six children, which is not entirely accurate.

Altogether, I also found the style very unadorned--very "un-gospel", if you will. While others write of gospel history and gospel singers either with passion and fervency or with complex attempts to explicate the nuances of sacred Afro-European musical exegesis, Carpenter's work is very spare. It reads quite like a New York Times affair, which is great, but different. In sum, this book is a pound cake, a good pound cake with no icing or extra flavoring.

For church historians, though there is a little here and there about actual black church history (which would have made sense, had the focus of this book not been so penetratingly narrow), Carpenter's writing is very light on the church and heavy on the industry. Lots of unknown artists of virtually no commercial importance are mentioned, analyzed, and wept over, while some of the fathers, mothers, and pioneering promoters of gospel music--preachers like C.A. Tindley and C.H. Price, e.g.--are conspicuously without their own articles.

Of course, Carpenter more than makes up for it in his gorgeous revelations of some of the older saints and gospel singers who either brought gospel into a region or preserved it by singing it and living a life that supported their message. More importantly, Carpenter, by merely publishing this book, has given African Americans in general more proof that their history and doings in this country are important, meaningful, preservable, and meritable for study. African Americans and their soul-inspired music has definitely come a long way. Carpenter's book makes the soul look back in wonder. In happy contradiction, however, I am already looking forward to the next edition of Uncloudy Days.

Words are inadequate to describe my overwhelming, crushing disappointment in this book--and my astonishment at the audacity of Backbeat Books in publishing a "Gospel Music Encyclopedia" that so utterly fails to meet the expectations raised by those words. The Dixie Hummingbirds are probably the most world-famous vocal group in the entire history of gospel, with many hundreds of recordings from 1939 well into the rock era. They are ENTIRELY ABSENT from this book. Yes, really, I'm not joking; my jaw dropped open when I discovered it. The Swan Silvertones are another of the most beloved groups in gospel history, with their "Oh Mary Don't You Weep" one of the candidates for greatest gospel record ever; they're nowhere to be found here. Incredible but true. The Rev. Gary Davis is an all-time gospel legend having originated many well-loved classic songs; the authors apparently never heard of him. The recordings of Washington Phillips have been influential on generations of gospel artists; he, too, is missing in action. I suppose we should consider ourselves fortunate that Mahalia Jackson made the cut.

The more accurate subtitle of this book should be "The Encyclopedia of Gospel Performers from 1970 to Today, plus a Small Number of Gospel Performers Before 1970." Recorded gospel music goes back more than 100 years, but the authors are apparently either ignorant of this rich history, or simply don't care about it. Did anyone actually edit this book who knew the first thing about gospel music history? I feel badly for the great Mavis Staples, who wrote an introduction for this book that totally ignores many of the artists who were crucial inspirations for her career. I'm sure she's deeply embarrassed at having her name associated with this abomination, this travesty.

Yes, there is some useful information here on modern-era gospel performers and a very small number of earlier greats. But for those of us who had been waiting for years for a true gospel music encyclopedia and ordered this book believing this was it, "Uncloudy Days" is a cruel deception and a horrendous disappointment. Buyer beware. I only hope that before too long someone else will publish a true, historically accurate gospel music encyclopedia. Because this, most emphatically, is NOT it.

Steve Sullivan