Hosted by Grammy award-winning gospel singer Cece Winans and produced by WXPN, Gospel Roots of Rock and Soul to celebrate Black History Month. This limited-run series is the culmination of a 15-month project that included field research in Memphis, Nashville, and Chicago, building a content-rich website, live events in Philadelphia with gospel legends The Fairfield Four, The Dixie Hummingbirds, the Fisk Jubilee Singers and numerous interviews with musicians, historians and scholars. Each hour of Gospel Roots of Rock and Soul will illustrate the influence of gospel on secular music, celebrating the roots of black gospel and its impact on major artists.
This hour tells the stories of Elvis Presley’s gospel music influences and how he brought gospel to White audiences, the role of gospel music in the civil rights movement with Mahalia Jackson and Mavis Staples, and the bridging of pop and gospel music with Aretha Franklin and Marvin Gaye.