Close Harmony: A History of Southern Gospel.

By James R. Goff Jr. (Chapel Hill and London: University of North Carolina Press, c. 2002. Pp. [xvi], 394. Paper, $24.95, ISBN 0-8078-5346-1; cloth, $45.00, ISBN 0-8078-2681-2.)

In one way, southern gospel represents the favored music of a subset of a subculture in one U.S. region--the white working- and lower-middle-class, largely Pentecostal and Baptist, segment of southern evangelicalism. Even among people who find it unnecessary to add the word music to the expression southern gospel, it might be tempting to gainsay its importance in the broader scheme of U.S. and southern history.

James R. Goff Jr. demonstrates otherwise in Close Harmony. To him, southern gospel is the soundtrack, first, of a series of loosely connected but vibrant faith communities in a region world-famous for religious fervor. Second, it reflects, prompts, and enables the economic advances of what once were called southern "plain folk." Third, it bolsters, inspires, and gives voice to many of the conservative political impulses of people who have become in many ways the determining factor in the South's, and often the nation's, electoral battles. The book's title, therefore, is something of a pun, touching on one of the central features of the music as well as on the deep interactions of southern gospel with the socioeconomic and political identity of the people who support and appreciate it.

Goff writes from the perspective of a fan, some might say a devotee, of southern gospel. Personal reminiscences before each chapter depict him in the role of enthusiast, sometimes hero-worshiper. In one vignette, he describes a gospel concert at which "The crowd is enraptured, as I am. The nostalgia is strong, the lyrics taking us back to a seemingly more peaceful time, or less complicated, at any rate" (p. 222).

His closeness to the subject, however, more often serves Goff well, as he traces the origins of the gospel music tradition to the singing schools and conventions that once flourished in the South; its rise alongside the region's permeation by radio and the growing dominance of the national secular musical culture; and its professionalization--one might say, industrialization--through the development of publishing houses, record distribution arrangements, and publications that made the music available to myriad performers and a growing audience. Goff's affinity for the genre gives the reader a sense of its powerful appeal.

Goff also gives important insights into one of the most intriguing aspects of southern gospel music, its existence as both a spiritual and an entrepreneurial phenomenon. Without any sense of irony, he often uses the words ministry and industry almost concurrently to describe gospel music. While some observers viewed corporate sponsorship and the use of often outlandish marketing gimmicks as a corruption of an attempt to spread a religious message, gospel music performers and executives determined that they would have no message to spread if they failed to find an audience. Goff describes the links between gospel music and many of the same business entities that helped support the rise of hillbilly music and blues: flour companies, patent medicine concerns, and the like in the booming, if uniquely southern, business climate of twentieth-century popular culture. More than simply being an enjoyable way to make a living, however, gospel music flourished, according to Goff, because it "spoke to the faith of those who both embraced its message and welcomed its joyous presentation" (p. 287).

One of the strengths of the book is its superb endnotes, many of which provide what amounts to a primer on the musicology of southern gospel. Goff, thus, deals effectively on both the most minute and the most wide-ranging levels of this important subject, one that speaks to the identity and longings of many of the people of the South.

DAVID STRICKLIN

Lyon College