HOW THEY GOT OVER – Review by Martha K Baker

This historic documentary describes the indelible link between gospel and rock ‘n’ roll. After gospel’s birth in churches, the Twenties brought the new-fangled radio and the freshly pressed record business to audiences beyond church congregations. The result: keen competition and bold innovations — not always acceptable to the evangelical churches, which thought gospel music was getting too damned secular. Plus, through the years, Clem notes, many gospel singers did not live the life they were singing about.

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WEEK IN WOMEN: Ledisi to play Mahalia Jackson in REMEMBER ME – Brandy McDonnell reports

Grammy-nominated R&B recording artist Ledisi will again portray legendary gospel singer Mahalia Jackson in the planned biopic Remember Me: The Mahalia Jackson Story. Ledisi previously played Jackson in the Oscar-winning 2014 fact-based film Selma, director Ava DuVernay‘s chronicle of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s iconic 1965 march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama.

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