Houston's gospel music scene: A month of celebration

Houston has, in many ways, been Gospel Music Central. So, it only makes sense that members of Houston’s gospel music scene speak on the importance of the genre. Credit: Arnold Turner/Getty Images.

Gospel music is a force of nature. It not only dominates Black church gatherings and radio airwaves in the U.S., gospel music’s lyrics and melodies can be heard around the world.

What’s just as amazing is that gospel music, once considered “unholy” and “secular” by the gospel lovers of past generations, is now the norm. Houstonians like the late Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee, community activist Carl Davis and KTSU General Manager Ernest Walker (along with U.S. Senator Blanche Lincoln, D-AR) were instrumental in getting September designated as Gospel Music Heritage Month.

To that end, the Defender chose to celebrate the genre by reaching out to Houston-area members of the gospel music community to gather their perspectives on its significance to the nation in general and to Black people in particular.

Nation

For award-winning gospel music artist Brian Courtney Wilson, gospel music impacts which communities’ stories America is willing to hear.

Brian Courtney Wilson, Grammy-nominated singer, songwriter. Credit: Briancourtneywilson.com.

“I think our country is in the middle of contending for the stories: Who gets to tell them, who gets to contextualize them, who gets to read meaning into them,” said Wilson. “For me, gospel music has always been a means to telling that story. It uses words and it goes beyond words. That’s why it’s important to me.

“And I think it’s important to the country that space is made for it to be heard, if we’re serious about all the stories.”

William Keith Eason, the minister of music at the Fort Bend Church, uttered similar sentiments.

“Gospel really means the good news. And right now, we need a lot of good news with the bad times we’re kind of in,” said Eason, one of the winners of the inaugural Defender Ministers of Music Extraordinaire Awards in 2018. “There’s nothing better than a gospel song or gospel music to help us pull us through what we’re dealing with; the inflation, the deaths, the assassinations and all the things that’s going on.”

Gospel legend V. Michael McKay offered a sermonic response to the question of what gospel music’s importance is to the U.S.

“First of all, gospel music is universal. It’s just the good news of Jesus Christ,” said McKay, a Gospel Music Hall of Famer. “We sing the word just like we speak the word, we preach the word, we live the word. So, it’s the word of God. It’s the good news of Jesus Christ in songs.”

Melanie Bivens, Fountain of Praise Worship Arts Ministry. Credit: Fountain of Praise.

Melanie Bivens, a powerful part of the music ministry at the Fountain of Praise, preached a word, as well, about gospel music’s national impact.

“For this country, we offer gospel music to God’s people, for the believers and the non-believers, that they can see the good news, they can hear the message that is displayed in gospel music, a message of hope, a message of security, a message of enlightenment for all the believers,” stated Bivens. “Those who are listening to the music may have a bad day, and they want to hear something that’s played on the radio; Richard Smallwood’s Total Praise or if I feel like I’m all alone by myself, Never Alone by Walter Hawkins.

“So, what it means for the country is just good news. It’s a message of hope. It’s a message of deliverance. It’s a message of assurance. It’s a message to let us know that we are not in this world by ourselves. And there is good news even out of a bad situation.”

Black people

Ernest Walker, KTSU general manager. Courtesy Ernest Walker.

Local gospel greats emphasized the genre’s history when reflecting on gospel music’s importance to Black people.

“When you think of the Black church, to me, that’s kind of part of where gospel music was birthed. But if you go back to slavery time, it was really back with the Negro spirituals,” said Walker. “But when you think of gospel music today and how important it is in the Black church, I think it’s very relevant. It’s a music that has helped us get through challenges in our lives, from what we were dealing with in the 1960s to what we’re dealing with today in 2025.”

Bivens, too, recalled Black people’s experience with enslavement when searching for words to express gospel music’s impact on Black people.

Thomas A. Dorsey is known as the ‘Father of Gospel Music.’ Credit: Wikipedia.

“Gospel music, for Black people specifically, goes back to slavery,” said Bivens. “It goes back to the spirituals, how our ancestors would sing songs like Swing Low, Sweet Chariot, “coming forth to carry me home.” Wade in the Water. It spoke of freedom and ‘We’re getting out of here. We’re going to get out of this thing alive. We are not going to stay here forever.’ From the spirituals to the blues to jazz, and now to gospel music, it gives us hope and assurance.”

Wilson dialed up the person known as the “Father of gospel music.”

“Thomas Dorsey was a blues musician who dealt with some tragedy, and it took him to church,” shared Wilson. “He was able to integrate what he was doing in the blues with what he was compelled to do in the church as he healed. And it was for an audience that was refused entry into white spaces, white neighborhoods, white access to agency. He was able to fuse the blues, the sacred and all of those stories and what people were contending with, to give us this legacy of gospel music.

“And not only that, monetize it so we could continue to do it.”

The late Sylvester Turner, V. Michael McKay, Yolanda Adams and the late Sheila Jackson Lee participated in the Defender’s inaugural Minister of Music Extraordinaire Awards in 2018. Credit: Aswad Walker.

McKay described gospel music as a historical mirror.

“You could tell something about a person’s history by listening to their music. And this is one type of music that you could listen to and you could tell who we are, where we are in life,” shared McKay. “Starting with spirituals, you could see and hear the oppression. Even in good gospel music today, you still hear and feel the heart of the person singing. It’s about the telling of the story. It’s a story being told, and you just happen to put it in the words of a song.”