| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 108.2

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| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 108.2 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Canada and the United States

James R. Goff, Jr. Close Harmony: A History of Southern Gospel. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. 2002. Pp. xiv, 394. Cloth $45.00, paper $24.95.

Gospel music in general, and southern music in particular, are "forgotten" fields of historical research. Few traditional history scholars or even music historians venture into this labyrinth—and a labyrinth it is. The world of gospel music is a mixture of religion and popular culture, Christianity and the music business, "old time religion" and "down home values" in an internet, cell phone, fast-paced world. Southern gospel is a music that is lively, adventuresome, and filled with fun on one hand, while also dead serious about its beliefs and resistant to change in a wide variety of areas on the other. 1

James R. Goff, Jr. tells the story of Southern gospel, and he tells it well. The scholarship in this book is rock solid. The notes are extensive and document key sources, both primary and secondary, for anyone wishing to study this field further. Goff has also done his "journalism," interviewing key people in the southern gospel industry. The combination of academic research and good journalistic footwork rounds out the book and makes it relevant to a wide readership. . . .

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