Location: nashville

Sacred Steel Archive: Ted Beard Interview

In about 1933-34, Church of the Living God Chief Overseer Bishop Mattie Lu Jewell brought Ted Beard’s father, Maurice Beard, Sr., from Beaver Dam, Kentucky to play for worship services in Detroit, Michigan. Elder Ted Beard, Bishop Ron Hall, Calvin Cooke and Sonny Treadway grew up together in Detroit.

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Sacred Steel Archive: Robert Randolph Interview

When I first photographed Robert Randolph at the House of God headquarters church in Nashville, he was a budding steel guitarist from New Jersey whose extended family included a number of ministers and professional musicians.

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Sacred Steel Archive: Chuck Campbell Interview

A resident of Rochester, New York when we met in 1996, Chuck Campbell was one of the first steel guitarists from outside Florida I documented.  As a pioneering pedal-steel guitarist in the House of God who possesses a solid knowledge of music theory, he led the way in incorporating the pedal-steel guitar into the House of God musical tradition, which the non-pedal or “lap” steel guitar had dominated for decades.

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Blind James Campbell Interview

Born in Nashville in 1906, Blind James Campbell was a blues singer and guitarist who was blinded in a work accident. He and his Nashville street band were active from the ‘30s to the ‘60s, and they recorded and released a record on Arhoolie in 1963 (Blind James Campbell and His Nashville Street Band).

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