Music journalist and biographer Steve Turner moves beyond gospel's stereotypic robed choirs to offer a history of music that has given voice to African-Americans—and shaped musical forms such as blues and rock 'n' roll—in An Illustrated History of Gospel: Gospel Music From Early Spirituals to Contemporary Urban (978-0-745-95339-7, $29.95, Lion Books/Kregel Publications).

Illustrated throughout with photographs and memorabilia, the 208-page hardcover volume tells the story of gospel in a period when social and economic changes were taking place in America. Surveying the development of gospel over a century and a half, from slave plantations in the 19th century to segregation in the 20th century to the public arenas of the 21st, Turner seeks to provide "a good and easily readable introduction" to the genre.

Roughly chronological, the guide examines major leaps forward in gospel's progress. "My premise has been that it's only really possible to understand gospel music if you have knowledge of all the social, technological, artistic and spiritual ingredients that have been added over the years," Turner writes in the book's introduction.

Dedicated chapters also tell the story of gospel's great songwriters, and the rise of record companies and radio stations. Additionally Turner has included transcripts of some of the interviews he conducted while researching a BBC TV documentary on the rise of gospel music and from later projects such as when he went with singer Jessy Dixon on a tour of Israel with Paul Simon. The interviews feature such gospel greats as Ray Charles, Clarence Fountain of the Blind Boys of Alabama, Thomas A. Dorsey and Sallie Martin.

Turner's previous books include Trouble Man: The Life and Death of Marvin Gaye, The Man Called Cash and Amazing Grace. His articles have appeared in Rolling Stone, Mojo, Q, The Times and others.

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