Ragland, WV
This black-and-white photograph from Coal Hollow by Ken and Melanie Light fascinated me: the substation has an almost sacred, chapel-like presence.Location
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Eleanor Dickinson’s Revival! (Collage)
Collage of drawings, photographs, and tapes of Southern revival meetings with recordings of creek baptism, snake handling, foot washing, casting out devils, speaking in tongues, and dancing in ecstasy created by artist Eleanor Dickinson. Pentecostal Videotape and Audiotape Collection (NMAH.AC.0199, ref22) Chapters The Gadarene Demoniac (0:02) Preacher Rev. Roger Powell opens mid-sermon, expounding on the…
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Rev. Roger Powell
Rev. Roger Powell pastor of the Church of God of the Mountain Assembly in Lake City, Tennessee, taught himself to read from the King James version of the Bible. He was a friends with Harrison Mayes and helped him with his truck, distributing the signs. He also connected Eleanor Dickinson with Harrison Mayes. It was…
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Eleanor Dickinson’s Revival! Videotapes
Eleanor Creekmore Dickinson’s *Revival!* project is best known for its large drawings and black-velvet pastels of Pentecostal and Holiness worship. But from the late 1960s she also built a substantial body of video and audio recordings documenting the same world in motion and sound.
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Interview with Brother Harrison Mayes, 1977
This is a documentary recording by Eleanor Dickinson of Brother Henry Harrison Mayes, the folk-art sign-maker and lay preacher from Middlesboro, Kentucky, near the Cumberland Gap. The recordings are part of Eleanor Dickinson’s Pentecostal Videotape and Audiotape Collection and were made public through the Smithsonian Online Virtual Archives. Chapters Opening Introduction Eleanor Dickinson Brother Harrison…
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Newsweek Articles about Henry Harrison Mayes “The Jesus Artists” and “God’s Ad Man”
Thanks to Shawn of Lexingtunes.com who discovered the Newsweek articles about Mayes and also Eleanor Dickinson’s Revival! exhibition. The Jesus Artists The Jesus Artists Both the sights and the sounds of an exhibition called “Revival!” seem out of place at the Corcoran Gallery in Washington, D.C., or at any museum, no matter how informal or…
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The Gospel Plough XV
This weekend is Pfingsten or Pentecost, time for a new Country Gospel Podcast Mix. I don’t know enough about this holy day, but I know that “BE YE FILLED” has to do with it, “how the”be being filled with the Holy Ghost”. The music comes partially from my own record transfers, trades with other collectors,…
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Dwayne and Melba Miller
An eBay seller told me about a gospel duo from Arkansas with an albumcover as unique as the Louvin Brothers’ Satan Is Real – complete with the cartoonish depiction of the devil and the pile of burning garbage that hell is supposed to be. I was intrigued, searched the internet, and didn’t find much besides…
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Get Away Jordan
The first time I heard “Get Away Jordan” was on an obscure gospel album from West Virginia. I knew it was a White gospel group, but it sounded like a Black group. After some research, it became clear that it is indeed a traditional African American spiritual gospel song. However, I discovered another interesting connection…
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Singing on the Mountain (1965)
White gospel music, like rock, is a group experience, involving the individual members of the audience in deeply personal yet collective way So did Rock’n’Roll come out of the church?
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The Gospel Plough XIV
Somewhere in the (server) clouds of the internet hides a podcast called The Gospel Plough (this one). It came from my desire to make mixtapes, which might be the wrong term here, but every middle-aged man made them in the eighties and nineties, and many middle-aged women received them. Not with this kind of music,…
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Al Thomas’ flying saucer
Jesus appeared to Al Thomas in 1973 and commanded him to build a flying saucer with which to distribute food, medicine, and the Bible. Here is his story: About Al Thomas Thomas is leaning back in a swivel chair on the concrete apron of his two-bay garage in Russellville. “The lust is nothing but money….
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Triangulating the Location of the Lighted Cross in Middlesboro, KY
Since the beginning of my research, I was trying to locate the Lighted Cross on the map and thanks to new Google Street View material and new angles and close-ups, I was able to locate the cross. In the short documentary ‘The Heartland Show’, they start with a close-up of the Lighted Cross. The cross…
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Short Documentary about Henry Harrison Mayes
WBIR Channel 10’s ‘The Heartland Series‘ hosted by Bill Landry aired from 1984 to 2009. We hope you enjoy these captivating windows into East Tennessee history. This short documentary shows the lighted cross close up and several prominent markers around Middlesboro. There is still hope that footage of Henry Harrison Mayes will surface. I know…
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True Adventure: Serpent Cult, early 50s
I came across a True Adventure episode from the 50s called “Serpent Cult” featuring at least one familiar face: Oscar Hutton (sometimes Oskar with a k). I dug through my archive and turned up some photos and a newspaper article. A Courier-Journal piece describes “the Rev. Oscar Hutton of St. Charles, Va., a native Kentuckian…
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A Night of Music (Photo Collection)
An interesting collection of photos of musicians playing at a church service. The room looks like it might be a temporary space, but it’s hard to say for sure. Photos found on eBay – more people posing with instruments on this Vintage Musicians tumblr.
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The Ritchie and Shepherd Gospel Singers
As with many notable gospel recordings from the so-called “hillbilly” rural country-gospel field, whose origins lie in Appalachia, the early work of the Ritchie and Shepherd Gospel Singers was first introduced on the internet by the YouTube channel Fixed Elsewhere. This channel uploaded tracks from their debut album, A Man of Sorrow. The Ritchie and…
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Harrison Mayes Roadside Marker Updates
Every now and then, I receive an email from people who found the Mayes Marker Map (or MMM, as we call it here :)) helpful, and want to contribute new locations, sightings, or send in photos to document a marker’s current state. I can’t express how grateful I am for this, because it helps document…
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Ella Hanshaw’s Black Book
A beautiful release of Ella Hanshaw’s home recordings from her big and her little black book. This release features original gospel songs and secular country tunes that appear to span several decades. In addition to a few semi-professional recordings with her gospel group, the Hallelujah Hill Quartet, most tracks are simple tape recordings “made in…
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Preaching by the Roadside
Five different versions of the same song, by Joe And Blanche Lewis, The Smith Trio, The Ritchie And Shepherd Gospel Singers, The Looper Trio, The McCreary Gospel Singers and a field recording of an Unknown Singer from Berea, KY. 1.Preaching by the roadside, under a tree;Folks come along and make a mock of me.They say…
