A Man on a Mission:
Author: Stan Guthrie
October 08, 2022
Review of Doug Yeo’s book, Homer Rodeheaver and the Rise of the Gospel Music Industry
Chances are you’ve never heard of Homer Rodeheaver (I hadn’t), but if you care about the development of gospel music over the last century, you’ll want a copy of Homer Rodeheaver and the Rise of the Gospel Music Industry. Authors Kevin Mungons and NCC member Douglas Yeo made me, a complete novice to the subject, care about Rodeheaver, a founding father of the gospel music industry, and his impact on religious life and culture in the United States.
In telling Rodeheaver’s story, they traverse the narrow ridge of accurate research and judicious conclusions, avoiding the precipices of hagiography on the right and inordinate skepticism on the left. Along the way they introduce us to the many lives Rodeheaver touched or was touched by: W.E.B. DuBois, Martin Luther King Sr., Billy Graham, Billy Sunday, and Cliff Barrows, just to name a few.
Rodeheaver’s life is a quintessentially American story. The man was part celebrity, song leader, entrepreneur, and heartthrob. He was also a man on a mission: fighting a rearguard action to exalt the primacy of congregational singing in a culture being drawn inexorably to a more professional, performance-based approach to Christian music.
In Homer Rodeheaver and the Rise of the Gospel Music Industry, Mungons and Yeo have rescued a former icon of American religious life from undeserved historical obscurity, placing Homer Rodeheaver in the complex context of his times. And although they don’t dwell on it, they show his continuing relevance to the “worship wars” currently roiling Protestant evangelical churches. If you care about the Christian music industry and an era largely lost to history, you’ll want to read this book.
Note:
Doug Yeo’s Book Receives Award
Doug Yeo’s book, Homer Rodeheaver and the Rise of the Gospel Music Industry (co-authored with Kevin
Mungons and published by University of Illinois Press), has been named the 2022 winner in the Best
History - Best Historical Research in Recorded Blues, Gospel, Soul, Hip Hop or R&B category by the
Association of Recorded Sound Collectors (ARSC). This award, which is granted by a peer-reviewed ARSC
panel, will be presented at the ARSC Conference in Pittsburgh in May 2023. Doug is Trombone Professor,
Wheaton College, and Clinical Associate Professor of Trombone, University of Illinois at Urbana-
Champaign (2022-2023) Stan Guthrie’s brief review of Homer Rodeheaver and the Rise of the Gospel
Music Industry is available on the NCC Blog. Congratulations, Doug!
Stan Guthrie is Minister of Communications for New Covenant Church of Naperville.
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