Southern Gospel

Southern gospel is the white evangelical quartet tradition of the American South, built on close four-part male harmony singing over piano accompaniment. Professional quartets such as the *Blackwood Brothers* and the *Statesmen Quartet* toured a circuit of churches, auditoriums and all-night sings from the 1930s, performing hymns, convention songs and new material published by firms such as #Stamps-Baxter#. The style is defined by a high tenor, a deep bass singer, block harmonies and call-and-response exchanges, and it later fed directly into rock and roll through admirers such as Elvis Presley.