Big Road Blues

Will The Coffin Be Your Santa Claus? (MP3)

As we creep closer to Christmas we turn our attention to a pair of uplifting Christmas sermons advertised in the December 17th, 1927 edition of the Chicago Defender: Rev. J.M. Gates’ “Will The Coffin Be Your Santa Claus?” and Rev. A.W. Nix’s “Death May Be Your Christmas Present.” The idea of Christmas themed blues and gospel numbers stretches back to the very dawn of the recorded genres. “Hooray for Christmas” exclaims Bessie Smith to kick off her soon to be classic “At The Christmas Ball”, which inaugurated the Christmas blues tradition when it was recorded in November 1925 for Columbia. A year later, circa December 1926, the gospel Christmas tradition was launched when the Elkins-Payne Jubilee Singers recorded “Silent Night, Holy Night” for Paramount Records. After these recordings it was off to the races with numerous Christmas blues numbers recorded by singers of all stripes, a pace that continued as blues evolved into R&B and then rock and roll. For some reason there’s far fewer gospel Christmas songs although there were plenty of Christmas sermons in the 1920′s and 1930′s when recorded sermons rivaled blues in popularity among black audiences. Going hand in hand with Christmas is quite a number of New Year’s songs, a good vehicle for juxtaposing the problems of the past year with the glimmer of hope that that the upcoming year will bring better fortune. In fact the other side of Rev. Nix’s selection is “Mind Your Own Business (A New year’s Sermon).” Whether these artists sung these numbers as part of their regular repertoire is unclear but it’s almost certainly the case that many of these songs were recorded at the prompting of the record companies. Like any business they were always looking for a new angle or gimmick to sell records and advertised these boldly, often with full-page ads, in black newspapers like the Chicago Defender. Just about every November and December the Chicago Defender had advertisements either for specific blues and gospel Christmas records or more general ads from record companies wishing buyers holiday greetings. For example Paramount placed large sized ads wishing Christmas greetings which featured pictures of the label’s stars like Blind Lemon Jefferson, Ma Rainey, Papa Charlie Jackson and Blind Blake among others. In Paramount’s 1928 late fall Dealers’ Supplement the label advertised scores of “CHRISTMAS, SPIRITUAL AND SERMON RECORDS THAT ARE DEPENDABLE SALES PRODUCERS” and warned that they “SHOULD BE IN YOUR STOCKS NOW.” As for Rev. Gates he was advertised in the Chicago Defender twenty-seven times between 1926 and 1930 while Rev. A.W. Nix was advertised on ten different occasions between 1927 and 1928.

The popularity of recorded sermons is explained in the book Recording The Blues: “The great gospel boom had been in late 1926; Rev. J.C. Burnett’s first record on Columbia – “Downfall Of Nebuchadnezzar” and “I’ve Even Heard Of Thee”, exactly the same titles as on his earlier Meritt release – sold 80,000 copies soon after its release in November 1926; this was four times as many as the normal sale of a Bessie Smith record, and Bessie was still outselling just about every other blues singer. …In 1927 one third of the 500 releases were gospel items; the figure dropped to about a quarter in 1928 and remained at this level for the next two years.”

Recorded sermons were among the most popular and best selling of the “race records” in the 1920’s and 1930’s. These records provided a fascinating look into the views and concerns of black America at a time when very few outlets existed for black expression. Rev. J.M. Gates was the most popular and prolific of them all, waxing some two hundred titles between 1926 and 1941, which accounted for a staggering quarter of all sermons recorded during this period. His sermons appeared on a variety of labels (Victor, Bluebird, Okeh, Gennett), though Gates often re-recorded his most popular sermons such as “Death’s Black Train Is Coming,” “Oh Death Where Is Thy Sting,” “Goin’ to Die with the Staff in My Hands” for multiple labels. Born in 1885, Gates ministered at Atlanta’s Calvary Church. A testament to his popularity was the fact that he was given the biggest African-American funeral Atlanta had seen until Martin Luther King’s. Gates was first recorded by a Columbia field unit that went to Atlanta in 1926. Four sermons were recorded including “Death’s Black Train Is Coming” and when the record was released it was an instant success. These were the first sermons recorded with singing. The advance pressing order for the record was 3,675 copies and when the remaining two sides from Gates’ Atlanta session were issued the advance order was 34,025. According to Recording The Blues: “As soon as he saw how well Gates’ first disc was selling, Polk Brockman – the Atlanta talent scout who had engineered the first OKeh field trip three year earlier – visited the preacher at his home and signed an exclusive contract with him (Columbia had neglected to do so). …Brockman took Gates and some members of his congregation up to New York about the beginning of September and had him record for no less than five different record companies – OKeh, Victor, BBC’s Vocalion, Pathe and Banner. Gates recorded forty-two sides within the space of two or three weeks… In a nine month period – from September 1926 to June 1927 – sixty records of sermons were put pout by the various companies, and no less than forty of them were by Rev. J.M. Gates!”

it’s not surprising that Gates cut more Christmas sermons than anyone including: “You May Be Alive Or You May Be Dead, Christmas Day” (1927), “Where Will you Be Christmas Day” (1927), “Did You Spend Christmas Day In Jail?” (1929), “Will Hell Be Your Santa Claus” (1939) and “Gettin’ Ready For Christmas Day” (1941) which was his last recorded sermon.

Death May Be Your Christmas Present (MP3)

Rev. A.W. Nix was one of the great singing preachers whose fiery, earthshaking sermons are enough to send any sinner running for salvation. Nix made his mark with his first coupling, the incredibly intense “Black Diamond Express to Hell Pts. I & II” in 1927. This was one of the best known and popular sermons with Parts 3 and 4 issued in 1929 and parts 5 and 6 in 1930. He cut fifty sermons for Vocalion through 1931, railing against sinners in sermons with provocative titles like “Goin’ To Hell And Who Cares”, “The Fat Life Will Bring You Down”, “Jack The Ripper” and “Hot Shot Mamas And Teasing Browns.” He had a special affinity for the holidays as evidenced in recordings like “Death Might Be Your Christmas Gift”, “That Little Thing May Kill You Yet (Christmas Sermon)”, “Begin A New Life On Christmas Day – Part 1 & 2″ and “How Will You Spend Christmas?”