Thomas A. Dorsey lived two musical lives, first as 'Georgia Tom,' a bawdy blues pianist, and then as the father of twentieth-century gospel music, a conversion sealed by grief after the death of his wife and infant son. His 1932 composition 'Take My Hand, Precious Lord' became one of the most recorded songs in American history, carrying the blues' emotional directness into the church. He died in 1993, having written some three thousand songs and effectively invented modern gospel songwriting.

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1932

Take My Hand, Precious LordThomas A. Dorsey