About the Author

Jerry Zolten is an Assistant Professor of Communication Arts and Sciences and American Studies at Penn State University Altoona. The co-author of Speaking to an Audience, he has written profiles of blues artists for Living Blues magazine and penned the liner notes to two of The Dixie Hummingbirds latest compilation CDs. A part-time record producer and promoter, he lives in Warriors Mark, Pennsylvania.

Reviews

"Zolten fluently unfolds this story, with its sundry subplots and themes. His descriptions of music are evocative, and he neither minimizes nor exaggerates the gospel world's fierce moral and showbiz competitiveness. He shows how, like all the top-flight gospel quartets, the Birds drilled on staging and presentation as well as music.... He makes a case that The Dixie Hummingbirds were exemplars and conveyors of cultural and musical change."--New York Times
Book Review
"This intriguing, fast-moving history is highly recommended for anyone interested in music, social history, gospel, or the American experience."--Library Journal
"In this excellent history, Zolten carefully and lovingly details the almost 75-year history of the Hummingbirds, from their start in the Depression to their induction into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame in 2000. This is a fine exploration of an important style and era in the history of American popular music and culture."--Publishers Weekly
"A fabulously entertaining story of the Birds--and it's all here: the 1928 organization, 1938 addition of Ira Tucker, name changes in the early 1940s, Café Society in 1942, collaboration with Angelic Gospel Singers in 1950, Go Out of the Program in 1953, the Apollo Theatre in 1956, Newport Festivals in 1966 and 1972, Loves Me Like a Rock in 1973, and full-fledged concerts into the 1990s. This is an extraordinary and welcomed addition to African American
gospel music history."--Horace Clarence Boyer, author of The Golden Age of Gospel
"Zolten fluently unfolds this story, with its sundry subplots and themes. His descriptions of music are evocative, and he neither minimizes nor exaggerates the gospel world's fierce moral and showbiz competitiveness. He shows how, like all the top-flight gospel quartets, the Birds drilled on staging and presentation as well as music.... He makes a case that The Dixie Hummingbirds were exemplars and conveyors of cultural and musical change."--New York Times
Book Review
"This intriguing, fast-moving history is highly recommended for anyone interested in music, social history, gospel, or the American experience."--Library Journal
"In this excellent history, Zolten carefully and lovingly details the almost 75-year history of the Hummingbirds, from their start in the Depression to their induction into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame in 2000. This is a fine exploration of an important style and era in the history of American popular music and culture."--Publishers Weekly
"The 'Birds' story is also the story of black entertainment slowly entering the American pop-cultural mainstream.... Welcome this book with its generous discography to the pop-music shelves."--Booklist
"A fabulously entertaining story of the Birds--and it's all here: the 1928 organization, 1938 addition of Ira Tucker, name changes in the early 1940s, Café Society in 1942, collaboration with Angelic Gospel Singers in 1950, Go Out of the Program in 1953, the Apollo Theatre in 1956, Newport Festivals in 1966 and 1972, Loves Me Like a Rock in 1973, and full-fledged concerts into the 1990s. This is an extraordinary and welcomed addition to African American
gospel music history."--Horace Clarence Boyer, author of The Golden Age of Gospel