I Remember Gospel
And I Keep On Singing
by
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Tears ran down my face as I felt the anointing that Mahalia had from the very first song that she sang. This was Gospel! To this day it is rare that I can sit through a song recorded or videoed featuring her without totally breaking down to tears. Her effect on me remains the same as that first experience with her. Mahalia sang song after song, stopping after each one, stepping over to the piano, never saying a word to the audience, letting us bask in the moment. “Didn't It Rain,” “Walk All Over God's Heaven," “It Is No Secret What God Can Do," and on and on. Then she began “Move On Up A Little Higher”, her million seller. The only thing you could hear from the audience was their feet tapping on the faster songs or the sound of weeping on some of the deeper ones. At the end of each song, the applause would thunder. Many times, she would then go back into a portion of that song again, giving even more to the number than before. She, at one point, visibly became overpowered. The anointing was palpable to me. She ran off stage. I didn't ask why. The music continued, but I knew what was happening. She was crying, but not due to sadness. She was experiencing the same thing I saw and had experienced in my own room at home or in my own home church. She was in deep praise, as I have heard and personally experienced hundreds of times since. She had begun to shout. In those days that would have been too emotional, even scary, to a white audience. She knew this and held herself so as not to distract from them being able to experience the full measure of her message.
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About the Book
"Gene, you are going to go places you never dreamt of seeing and you will minister to people you never could imagine you would reach. Don't be afraid. I will be your seal of approval and, as long as you yield to My will, I will be with you. ”
This was the word given to an unlikely recipient, a self conscious young boy who was awaiting such a word to bring direction to his future. That prophetic message would begin a journey which has spanned over forty years and taken him from storefront churches and concert halls in the sixties, as part of one of America's first integrated Gospel groups, to ministry opportunities (to this day) both in the United States and abroad.
Within the pages of this book, Gene, chronicles that journey in a frank, intimate and inspiring manner. He shares as an encouragement to his readers, the way God took a willing ordinary vessel and used it in unimaginable ways.
About the Author
Gene Viale was introduced to the Traditional Black Gospel Audience in 1964, by the Rev. James Cleveland, as one of his legendary James Cleveland Singers. Traveling throughout the United States at a time when in the south Jim Crow was a live and well. He is considered Black Gospel music's first attempt to integrate. His ministry/career continues, to this day almost fifty years later.