Precious Lord | Grande Prairie Singers

Performed by the Grande Prairie Singers on April 9, 2024.
Thomas Dorsey (1900-1993) was a successful blues musician and a pioneer in Black music publishing, who is recognized as the father of gospel music with his blending of blues, ragtime, and church songs. Dorsey wrote more than 2,000 blues songs and another 1,000 songs for his new genre.
One of five children of a Baptist minister, Dorsey began playing professionally at the age of 12, and recalled that it was while attending Chicago Music College that he coined the phrase, “gospel songs” after hearing a group sing one Sunday morning.
Take My Hand, Precious Lord, his greatest hit, was written in 1931 after a devastating personal tragedy as his first wife died in childbirth and the infant died one day later. The following year the Pilgrim Baptist Church in Chicago hired Dorsey as its choir director. The song gained international attention when it was sung at the funeral of Dr. Martin Luther King, who said it was one of his favorite songs.