Voices of Black Folk

Terri Brinegar has presented her research on African American voices at numerous conferences, including the American Musicological Society, the Society for Ethnomusicology, and the Association for Recorded Sound Collections. She is author of Voice and Stage Essentials for the Aspiring Female R&B Singer: A Guide to Technique, Performance, and Musicianship. And, she has performed for over twenty years in classic R&B and blues bands and has three professionally produced CDs of blues and jazz original compositions.

A detailed account of African American vocal techniques draws on a remarkable range of sources, and clarifies the way that Nix used and adapted cultural practices developed in slavery and afterwards to address contemporary issues via the new technology of the phonograph.... Voices of Black Folk adheres to high scholarly standards and presents many important insights.--Chris Smith "Blues and Rhythm" Reverend A. W. Nix was seminal to the recording and selling of sermons as well as the culture of religious broadcasting. However, little was known about the man and his influences. Thankfully, Terri Brinegar has changed all of that. Her biographical study makes a very important contribution to the study of phonograph religion, religious broadcasting, and Black cultural production.--Lerone A. Martin, Martin Luther King, Jr. Centennial Chair and director of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute, Stanford University Supported by thorough academic research but written for a general readership, Terri Brinegar's Voices of Black Folk offers a fascinating and honest portrayal of a church leader seeking to reconcile the traditions of the past with racial uplift goals of the present.--Robert M. Marovich "ARSC Journal" Terri M. Brinegar's Voices of Black Folk: The Sermons of the Reverend. A. W. Nix is a marvel. It's that rare comprehensive biography that is both readable and illuminating. Through her exacting research and meticulous lyrical and compositional analysis, she brilliantly introduces the most influential figure in Black music and ministry you've probably never heard of. A. W. Nix's sermons thrilled generations of African Americans during the Great Depression and heavily influenced everybody from Thomas Dorsey to Mahalia Jackson to the Reverend C. L. Franklin to Wilson Pickett. Along the way, Brinegar clears up several long-held mysteries involving Nix, transcribes some of the most influential sermons of the past century and creates a fully realized, well-rounded portrait of one of the great voices of his day. Voices of Black Folk immediately enters the too-small canon of indispensable scholarly books--not only on Black sacred music and preaching, but soul music, R&B, jazz, and rap as well.--Robert F. Darden, author of Nothing but Love in God's Water, Volumes 1 and 2, and People Get Ready! A New History of Black Gospel Music