Background
Mr. Darden was born in Salina, Kansas, United States, on March 29, 1954. He is a son of R. F., Jr. (an air force officer) and Jo Ann (Owens) Darden.
(The first of two volumes chronicling the history and role...)
The first of two volumes chronicling the history and role of music in the African American experience, Nothing but Love in God’s Water explores how songs and singers helped African Americans challenge and overcome slavery, subjugation, and suppression. From the spirituals of southern fields and the ringing chords of black gospel to the protest songs that changed the landscape of labor and the cadences sung before dogs and water cannons in Birmingham, sacred song has stood center stage in the African American drama. Myriad interviews, one-of-a-kind sources, and rare or lost recordings are used to examine this enormously persuasive facet of the movement. Nothing but Love in God’s Water explains the historical significance of song and helps us understand how music enabled the civil rights movement to challenge the most powerful nation on the planet.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0271050845/?tag=2022091-20
(Volume 1 of Nothing but Love in God’s Water traced the mu...)
Volume 1 of Nothing but Love in God’s Water traced the music of protest spirituals from the Civil War to the American labor movement of the 1930s and 1940s, and on through the Montgomery bus boycott. This second volume continues the journey, chronicling the role this music played in energizing and sustaining those most heavily involved in the civil rights movement. Robert Darden, former gospel music editor for Billboard magazine and the founder of the Black Gospel Music Restoration Project at Baylor University, brings this vivid, vital story to life. He explains why black sacred music helped foster community within the civil rights movement and attract new adherents; shows how Martin Luther King Jr. and other leaders used music to underscore and support their message; and reveals how the songs themselves traveled and changed as the fight for freedom for African Americans continued. Darden makes an unassailable case for the importance of black sacred music not only to the civil rights era but also to present-day struggles in and beyond the United States. Taking us from the Deep South to Chicago and on to the nation’s capital, Darden’s grittily detailed, lively telling is peppered throughout with the words of those who were there, famous and forgotten alike: activists such as Rep. John Lewis, the Reverend Ralph Abernathy, and Willie Bolden, as well as musical virtuosos such as Harry Belafonte, Duke Ellington, and The Mighty Wonders. Expertly assembled from published and unpublished writing, oral histories, and rare recordings, this is the history of the soundtrack that fueled the long march toward freedom and equality for the black community in the United States and that continues to inspire and uplift people all over the world.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0271075767/?tag=2022091-20
(People Get Ready!: A New History of Gospel Music is a pas...)
People Get Ready!: A New History of Gospel Music is a passionate, celebratory, and carefully researched chronology of one of America's greatest treasures. From Africa through the spirituals, from minstrel music through jubilee, and from traditional to contemporary gospel, People Get Ready! shows the links between styles, social patterns, and artists. The emphasis is on the stories behind the songs and musicians. From the nameless slaves of Colonial America to Donnie McClurkin, Yolanda Adams, and Kirk Franklin, People Get Ready! provides, for the first time, an accessible overview of this musical genre. In addition to the more familiar stories of Thomas A. Dorsey and Mahalia Jackson, the book offers intriguing new insights into the often forgotten era between the Civil War and the rise of jubilee-that most intriguing blend of minstrel music, barbershop harmonies, and the spiritual. Also chronicled are the connections between some of gospel's precursors (Blind Willie Johnson, Arizona Dranes, and Sister Rosetta Tharpe) and modern gospel stars, including Andrae Crouch and Clara Ward. People Get Ready! knits together a number of narratives, and combines history, musicology and spirituality into a coherent whole, stitched together by the stories of dozens of famous and forgotten musical geniuses. FROM THE INTRODUCTION "Among the richest of the lavish gifts Africa has given to the world is rhythm. The beat. The sound of wood on wood, hand on hand. That indefinable pulse that sets blood to racing and toes to tapping. It is rhythm that drives the great American musical exports, the spiritual (and, by extension, gospel), the blues, jazz and rock 'n' roll. But first you must have the spirituals-religion with rhythm. In this book, I will show the evolution of a musical style that only occasionally slows down its evolution long enough to be classified before it evolves yet again. In historical terms, spirituals emerged from African rhythm, work-songs, and field hollers in a remarkably short time-years, perhaps days-after the first African slaves landed on American shores. From the spirituals sprang not just their spiritual heir jubilee, but jazz and blues. And gospel music in its modern understanding morphed from the spirituals, the blues, jubilee and-of course-African rhythm. What today's gospel music is and what it is becoming is part of the continuing evolution of African American music. Religion with rhythm."
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0826417523/?tag=2022091-20
(An American icon celebrates 50 years because Colonel Sand...)
An American icon celebrates 50 years because Colonel Sanders and Pete Harman put people first and integrated an urgency for excellence and paid attention to every detail of their restaurant business. These business secrets and practices are written in an easy to read story that is engaging and a delight to anyone interested in growing a business. Colonel Sanders chose Pete Harman to go forward with his "secret recipe" and Pete did, eventually acquiring more than 300 franchises. The story chronicles the early days and the tough times when KFC was owned by corporations that didn't understand the food business. There were lawsuits and hard feelings until spin-off, Tricon Global Restaurant Corporation, emerged with a leader, David Novak. After settling all of the lawsuits between the franchisees and Pepsico, David said to Pete, "Now teach me the restaurant business." Pete did. Today Tricon is regarded as a highly successful international business and KFC maintains a restaurant stronghold on every continent in the world. An American icon celebrates 50 years because Colonel Sanders and Pete Harman put people first and integrated an urgency for excellence and paid attention to every detail of their restaurant business. These business secrets and practices are written in an easy to read story that is engaging and a delight to anyone interested in growing a business. Colonel Sanders chose Pete Harman to go forward with his "secret recipe" and Pete did, eventually acquiring more than 300 franchises. The story chronicles the early days and the tough times when KFC was owned by corporations that didn't understand the food business. There were lawsuits and hard feelings until spin-off, Tricon Global Restaurant Corporation, emerged with a leader, David Novak. After settling all of the lawsuits between the franchisees and Pepsico, David said to Pete, "Now teach me the restaurant business." Pete did. Today Tricon is regarded as a highly successful international business and KFC maintains a restaurant stronghold on every continent in the world.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1930819331/?tag=2022091-20
(It was once said that all a person has to do to realize G...)
It was once said that all a person has to do to realize God has a very good sense of humor is to look at a platypus. The same sentiment applies to the Bible. The Bible often seems like foreign territory, not only for students encountering it in introductory classes, but also for those who have spent many years in church. To many people, it is an intimidating collection of rules, lists, and theological arguments. But in reality, most of the Bible is made up of fascinating stories. Sometimes they're funny, sometimes they're weird, sometimes they're inspiring, but they're never dull. This college-level introduction invites students into biblical studies through creative, humorous retellings (and a few cartoons here and there) of the basic biblical narratives. The best way to get into the Bible, says Robert F. Darden, is to get to know its stories. In this new approach to introducing the Bible to students, Darden covers the major biblical stories and characters, retelling them in such a way as to bring out their original humor and pathos, and inviting the student to encounter them more fully by moving into the text itself. Click here to listen to Terri Gross's interview with Robert Darden on NPR's Fresh Air about the Black Gospel Music Restoration Project. Darden runs the project at Baylor University where he is a journalism professor. The purpose of the project is to identify, acquire, preserve, record, and catalogue the most at-risk music from the black gospel music tradition, primarily between 1945 and 1970.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0687493951/?tag=2022091-20
(“Agony and hilarity,” said Norman MacLean, “are both nece...)
“Agony and hilarity,” said Norman MacLean, “are both necessary for salvation.” We Christians seem to know a lot about the agony part, but what about hilarity? Why do we have to remind ourselves so often that the Bible is full of funny and ridiculous stories and situations? Why do so few of the pictures we’ve drawn of Jesus show him laughing? Because we’ve forgotten the redemptive power of humor, that’s why. In Jesus Laughed, Robert Darden–senior editor of The Wittenburg Door, the world’s oldest, largest, and pretty much only religious satire magazine–draws on his years of experience deflating religious pomposity and making the faithful laugh to show why humor is so central to the faith, and how to make it a big part of your daily walk with God. Click here to listen to Terri Gross's interview with Robert Darden on NPR's Fresh Air about the Black Gospel Music Restoration Project. Darden runs the project at Baylor University where he is a journalism professor. The purpose of the project is to identify, acquire, preserve, record, and catalogue the most at-risk music from the black gospel music tradition, primarily between 1945 and 1970. Robert Darden is Associate Professor of Journalism at Baylor University in Waco, Texas. He served for 12 years as Gospel Music Editor for Billboard magazine, and since 1988 has been Senior Editor of The Wittenburg Door, the world’s oldest, largest, and “pretty much only” religious satire magazine. He is the author of more than 25 books, including the definitive People Get Ready! A New History of Black Gospel Music, which has been featured on National Public Radio, and Reluctant Prophets and Clueless Disciples, also published by Abingdon Press.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0687644542/?tag=2022091-20
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0006QTMMA/?tag=2022091-20
Mr. Darden was born in Salina, Kansas, United States, on March 29, 1954. He is a son of R. F., Jr. (an air force officer) and Jo Ann (Owens) Darden.
Robert Darden was a student of Baylor University and in 1976 he received Bachelor of Science degree from it. In 1978 he graduated from University of North Texas, Master of Science. From 1986 till 1987 Mr. Darden attended University of Bristol.
From 1978 to 1986 Robert Darden worked at Waco Tribune-Herald, Waco, TX, as arts and entertainment editor. He was an editor for Door, Waco, since 1987. In 1988 he was appointed lecturer Baylor University. He was known to work as a writer.
Mr. Darden was a contributor to periodicals, including Bookstore Journal, Christian Life, Family Living, We Are the Weird, Westward, and Religious Broadcasting. Gospel music editor, Billboard, between 1982 and 1995. He also was a music critic for Boy’s Life/Exploring since 1985. From 1987 till 1993 he held the post of an associate editor, Rejoice!.
Robert Darden is a prominent and fruitful writer. With more than 30 years of journalism experience, Mr. Darden has been interviewed and featured on NPR's "All Things Considered," "Tapestry" (Canadian Broadcasting Corp.), C-SPAN and "Fresh Air."
Hee's also a founder of the Black Gospel Music Restoration Project at Baylor University, now the world's largest initiative to identify, acquire, digitize, catalogue, and make accessible the fast-vanishing vinyl of gospel music's golden age.
(The first of two volumes chronicling the history and role...)
(Volume 1 of Nothing but Love in God’s Water traced the mu...)
(An American icon celebrates 50 years because Colonel Sand...)
(People Get Ready!: A New History of Gospel Music is a pas...)
(It was once said that all a person has to do to realize G...)
(“Agony and hilarity,” said Norman MacLean, “are both nece...)
Robert Darden described his political views as "Wildly apathetic".
Mr. Darden married Mary Landon on August 8, 1988. They have three children: Daniel Barkley, Rachel Barkley, Robert Van.
