The Gospel Train: Home

The Gospel Train is an exciting musicological/historical program of American spiritual and religious songs spanning from the Civil War to the Civil Rights era.

Presenters Tom Lindsay and Michael Eck draw from a variety of sources within the African-American and Anglo-Saxon traditions, including slave songs, lining hymns and the music of guitar evangelists, sanctified singers, bluegrass bands and gospel quartets.

The duo offers an all-acoustic, family-friendly music program with flourishes of guitar, mandolin, dobro, autoharp and banjo. Audiences are encouraged to participate by singing along on select numbers. Mr. Lindsay and Mr. Eck will also illuminate the performance with information regarding song themes, song sources and historical context.

Mr. Lindsay and Mr. Eck are not ministers. They are musicians and longtime collaborators fascinated by the myriad sounds and styles of American sacred music recorded in the early 20th century. The purpose of the program is simply to inform and entertain.

Thanks to what folklorist Alan Lomax called “the deep river of song,” no two performances are exactly alike.