The Father of Gospel Blues: Auto Recovery

Nine-year-old Tommie and his family moved to Atlanta, Georgia from the small town of Villa Rica, Georgia in 1908. Tommy was demoted in school and made fun of by the other kids. He felt alienated from his school and also from the black Baptist church where his dad was the pastor and his mom was the pianist.

He spent afternoons and evenings watching vaudeville performances where he saw such well-known blues artists as Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith. At eleven she dropped out of school and took a job at the theater selling soft drinks.

Determined to become famous as Ma Rainey, he learned to play the piano and taught himself to read music.

At seventeen, Tom moved to Chicago and became quite successful as a pianist and blues singer in backroom bars during the prohibition era. She took the professional name of Georgia Tom.

Tom wrestled with his conscience about playing “world music”. His mother was always warning him that he should dedicate himself to composing and playing for the Lord. His fighting became so intense that he had a nervous breakdown and he had to take two years off and return to Atlanta to recuperate.

Sufficiently rested and recovered, Georgia Tom returned to Chicago and began playing for Ma Rainey and her jazz band. However, it was only a matter of time before she suffered a nervous breakdown again and she had to stop singing in Chicago bars.

He soon decided to dedicate his music totally to the Lord. He began to compose and sing gospel music using the blues style of music.

To his disappointment, many of the major churches refused to allow him to return because his music sounded too much like the music of the world. So he went back to the bars in Chicago to earn enough money to survive.

Tom got married and was expecting his first child within a year. He continued to play both in churches and in bars. While in St. Louis preparing for a church concert, he received a telegram informing him that his wife had died in childbirth. He returned to Chicago in time to hold his newborn son, but the child died within hours.

It was at this time that he took seriously the vow to dedicate his music totally to the Lord. It was also during his grief that he composed these words:

Precious Lord, take my hand,

Guide me, help me stand up,

I am tired, I am weak, I am worn out.

Through the storm, through the night,

Take me to the light

Take my hand, precious Lord, lead me home.

Thomas Dorsey wrote nearly 1,000 songs, all gospel with a bluesy flair. He died in 1993 at the age of 96. He had earned the title of “The Father of Gospel Blues.”