August 25, 2018

Music is the sacred messenger of this message.

One of the early messages of my foray into humanity’s early background was Black culture at its origin. Succinctly, it was moved to the periphery of the human experience by a distortion of humanities true history and culture over the centuries.

The Black Sacred Music of the Black Church, Africa's musical gift to America and America's only original contribution to the world of music, is highlighted in Thank God!, an African-American DocuOpera. The legacy of our past sufferings and achievements has blessed us during this current period of celebration. We now know that the Black Church is Africa's musical gift to America and America's only original contribution to the world of music.

The music of the Black religious experience is the primary root of all music born in the United States. It is an understatement to note that there is little public awareness of the crucial role of Black sacred music in the development of the broad variety of American popular music. On the strength of this fact alone, its preservation and respect should be guaranteed. However, there is greater significance to the fact that the music of Black religious life serves as an indispensable support system for the establishment, growth and continuity of the Black Church, the institution of dominant influence in the life experience of Black Americans in the United States.

After 50 years of broadcasting, Tony Brown’s Journal has emerged as a new kind of weekly, vibrant messenger on the Internet at www.TonyBrownsJournal.com.  Morsel Brandon wrote on my Facebook page, “I look at Tony Brown every Friday on Soul of the South TV Network in Jackson Mississippi on the LOO at 6pm and 10pm.”

TBJ/SSN STATION LISTINGS 

(Listed by Market Size) Over the Air Cable/DSL
New York, New York WDVB-LD - 23.2 VERIZON FIOS - 477*
Chicago, Illinois WRJK-LP - 22*
Los Angeles, California FRONTIER - 269*
Houston, Texas KHLM-TV - 43.3
Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas FRONTIER - 269*
Orlando, Florida WZXZ-CA - 36.1
Tampa/St. Pete/Sarasota, Florida FRONTIER - 269*
Jackson, Mississippi WLOO-DT - 35.2 COMCAST - 220*
Nashville, Tennessee WJDE-LD - 31.4
Columbus, Ohio FRONTIER - 158*
Minneapolis, Minnesota FRONTIER - 158*
Seattle, Washington FRONTIER - 269*
Little Rock, Arkansas KKYK-CD - 30.3
Hartford, Connecticut FRONTIER - 158*
Charleston, South Carolina FRONTIER - 158*
Myrtle Beach, South Carolina FRONTIER - 158*
Dayton, Ohio WRCX-LP - 40.1 TIME WARNER - 22*
Rochester, New York FRONTIER - 158*
Beaumont, Texas KUMY-LD - 22.1
Portland, Oregon FRONTIER - 269*
Ft Wayne, Indiana FRONTIER - 269*
Peoria-Bloomington, Illinois FRONTIER - 269*
Palm Springs, California FRONTIER - 269*
Coming Soon Over the Air Cable/DSL
San Diego, California KSDY -50.3* ATT Uverse*
Louisville, Kentucky WBNA*

The Jackson, Mississippi area has somehow emerged as the new epicenter in the U. S. for TonyBrownsJournal.com since the transition of this premiere series from public and commercial television in the United States.

Black sacred music began, grew, developed, and expanded in the U. S. in the “invisible church” of this antebellum Black slave society. This disclaimer is crucial in order to understand that those of the slave community came by the influence of the Watts hymns while they were developing their own music.  The slaves’ use and development of the Spiritual form provided the New World Africans’ unique imprint on the meter music that cans to ascendance in the latter days of slavery.

The Spirituals are the heart music of all other American music. They are the taproot of the musical expression of the Black religious experience. Some specialists dicker about the accuracy of calling the music spawned in pre-Civil War says “Spirituals.”

Without The Black Church, Black America would not have had a prayer! There is no music more beautiful, more compelling, more American than Black Sacred Music. It is the soul of the Black Church and the Black Church is the foundation of the Black Community. 

Our Thank God 4-part series started out in our conscious minds as a documentary on the African oral tradition which manifested on these shores largely as America's indigenous music.