Brett Sutton collection, 1974-1975.

Creator: Sutton, Brett.
Collection number: 20041
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Abstract: Folklorist and librarian Brett Sutton was born in 1948 and raised in Champaign-Urbana, Ill. He enrolled in the Curriculum of Folklore at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, earning a Masters degree in 1976. His thesis project, “The Gospel Hymn, Shaped Notes, and the Black Tradition,” focused on African American spiritual folk singing in North Carolina. Reel-to-reel tapes with cover sheets, tape indices, and content notes for each recording that were gathered for Sutton’s thesis research. These tapes were recorded in several locations, including the World’s Greatest Church of Our Lord Jesus Christ of the Apostolic Faith in Durham, N.C., an African American congregational church. Recordings consist of Sunday morning services; a benefit to honor the choir’s sixth anniversary; shape-note gospel hymns; spirituals; and interviews with Gurtha Dunston, leader of the vocal choir at Gethsemane Baptist Church in Franklin County, N.C. Other tapes contain music and preaching recorded from WSCR radio broadcasts in Durham.

Repository: Southern Folklife Collection

Collection Highlights: These tapes were recorded in several locations, including the World’s Greatest Church of Our Lord Jesus Christ of the Apostolic Faith in Durham, N.C., an African American congregational church. Recordings consist of Sunday morning services; a benefit to honor the choir’s sixth anniversary; shape-note gospel hymns; spirituals; and interviews with Gurtha Dunston, leader of the vocal choir at Gethsemane Baptist Church in Franklin County, N.C. Other tapes contain music and preaching recorded from WSCR?radio broadcasts in Durham. This material was gathered for folklorist and librarian Sutton’s Masters in Folklore thesis, The Gospel Hymn, Shaped Notes and the Black Tradition, which includes a compilation tape from these recordings along with the written text.