''A significant contribution to understanding Southern white gospel music and evangelical religious practice. Harrison treats seriously a music that has long been dismissed and neglected as simplistic and is thus vastly understudied.'' Jeff Todd Titon, author of Powerhouse for God: Speech, Chant, and Song in an Appalachian Baptist Church ''A compelling and eloquent first book-length critical analysis of the music and social context of modern Southern gospel. Truly one couldn't conjure up a scholar better equipped to write on this topic, which Harrison addresses with notable authority and ambition.'' David W. Stowe, author of No Sympathy for the Devil: Christian Pop Music and the Transformation of American Evangelicalism