The Sacrilegeous Etta James

It goes without saying that gospel music is a fundamental building block of soul. Some of soul’s most iconic artists – Sam Cooke, Aretha Franklin and Al Green – sang gospel, were raised in it, or left secular music to go back to it. Simply put, it was part of the fiber of their being. And the importance of the church in African-American life has been historically paramount – especially during the years of Jim Crow and segregation.Etta James was trained in gospel, an...

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