The bless-my-soul website is focused on black gospel releases from the post war years until 1970. This doesn’t mean that you won’t find anything from an earlier or a later date. Sometimes I’ve chosen to complete a label discography ignoring the fact that the last releases came out in the 1970’s. Releases that came out in the 1980’s and later are not covered.

So, exceptions can be found but that doesn’t change the fact that most information given is referring to what I consider the most essential years in the history of black gospel music.

 

Some details about the way the information is presented

  • Regardless the amount of issues, each label (or artist) discography is captured on one page. A label page lists the 78’s and 45’s first (one table for both), then the EP’s and the LP’s (if there are any) – both in a table on their own.
  • All these tables have a header that can be used to sort the data. So you can for instance easily display all data sorted on artist name (just click on the column name in the header).
  • Apart from the column artist name, I have entered a column artist as shown. In this column the artist name is shown as it appears on the release (but only when it’s known to be different from the artist name). The artist name in the column artist name is the artist’s general name (or what I consider it to be) and is used throughout all discographies. The advantage is that it’s easier to find all records by an artist or group that used various names or name variations.
  • On the label and artist pages, general remarks precede the tables; the information given is sometimes necessary and sometimes rather random. There’s no intention to be complete and from time to time little tidbits of information will be added if I find something worth mentioning.
  • Blue text indicates a link to a picture page, another discography, etc.

 

Searching the database

You can search the database from the home, news, about, contact and links pages. The search field is not available for the label, artist and gallery pages, as all space is dedicated to the information given on these pages. Check for the search field shown at the right (in the side bar). When entering your search criteria, be as specific as you want. Using quotes (“…”) is advised to narrow down the results, but be aware of how the information is entered in the tables.

I have made several choices regarding on how I wanted to present the data, and maybe some corrections are needed to give easier access, but you’ll find out how it works and how your searches will work well for you. A little experimenting will be helpful, it’s not that complicated.

 

Some final remarks

  • I had to omit the ‘&’ as it was interpreted as a tab by the table plugin that I’ve used. Two or three points in a row doesn’t work either so these have been omitted as well.
  • In all cases of a song in two parts, I’ve entered ‘Pt. 1’ and ‘Pt. 2’, regardless the way it is shown on the release.
  • Many scans were supplied by friends and acquaintances. Their names appear between brackets under the scans.

 

Thanks

Many thanks to everyone who helped and sent in details or scans. I appreciate all of it. Special thanks go to Tom Kelly, Robert Laughton, Big Joe Louis, Per Notini and Patrick Staten.