Get Free Shipping on orders over $79
Bluegrass Gospel : The Music Ministry of Jerry and Tammy Sullivan - Jack Edward Bernhardt

Bluegrass Gospel

The Music Ministry of Jerry and Tammy Sullivan

By: Jack Edward Bernhardt, Bill C. Malone, Marty Stuart

Hardcover | 13 October 2025

At a Glance

Hardcover


$256.75

or 4 interest-free payments of $64.19 with

 or 

Ships in 10 to 15 business days

Heavily influenced by Bill Monroe, the "Father of Bluegrass" in the 1940s and '50s, gospel music in the South began to shift into bluegrass gospel, a style that combines both genres. In Bluegrass Gospel: The Music Ministry of Jerry and Tammy Sullivan, anthropologist and journalist Jack Edward Bernhardt explores the lives, music, and ministry of acclaimed father-daughter bluegrass gospel performers and recording artists Jerry (1933-2014) and Tammy Sullivan (1964-2017) of southwest Alabama. Beginning in 1993, Bernhardt lived and traveled with the Sullivans as they took their music and testimony along bumpy back roads to backwoods sanctuaries from the Florida Panhandle to Mississippi, Louisiana's bayous, Texas, Arkansas, and beyond. The author's compelling narrative combines long-term fieldwork with extensive oral histories, archival research, photography, and tape recordings of the Sullivans' music and testimonies in secular and sacred contexts. Bernhardt describes in vivid detail the challenges of life on the road through unforeseen circumstances and the financial uncertainty of performing for pass-the-collection-basket "love offerings," while remaining committed to doing the work they felt called to do. In an afterword by Marty Stuart, Jerry's friend and cowriter of the 1995 Grammy-nominated "At the Feet of God," Stuart recounts his experiences playing mandolin with the Sullivan Family on the "Brush Arbor Trail" as a talented, wide-eyed twelve-year-old. In the penultimate chapter, Bernhardt accompanies Tammy's widower, Jonathan Causey, and their son, Jon Gideon, to churches along the same gospel trail blazed by Jerry and Tammy. With their own music ministry, the Causeys continue the legacy of song and testimony the Sullivans pursued for thirty-five years. Ultimately, Bernhardt reflects on how his relationship with the Sullivans led to friendship and mutual respect for cultural differences that endure through time. The result is an intimate portrayal of life, faith, and family-based music ministry in the South today as in the past.
Industry Reviews
Showing the coexistence of traditional values and modern musical practices-downhome millennial religion promoted in dynamic bluegrass style-Bernhardt has paid tribute to a way of life and musical culture that are unknown to most of us. What a pleasure to have been invited to welcome the publication of a work that adds a significant element to America's multidimensional religious musical heritage." - From the foreword by Bill C. Malone, author of Country Music USA "Highly recommended for fans of the Sullivan Family (in all configurations through the years); for believers who love pure, unadulterated, Holy Spirit-fueled and -inspired gospel music and the stories that go with it; and for readers with an academic curiosity about a fascinating, very real world that lies off the beaten path of main denominations and interstate highways." - Nancy Cardwell, executive director of the International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA) Foundation

More in Music Styles & Genres

This Year : 365 songs annotated - John Darnielle

RRP $69.99

$52.75

25%
OFF
Even the Good Girls Will Cry : My 90s Rock Memoir - Melissa Auf der Maur

RRP $36.99

$32.99

11%
OFF
In Love and Death : The Lost Notebook - Bert McCracken
Cat On The Road To Findout : The Official Autobiography - Yusuf
Night People : How to Be a DJ in '90s New York City - Mark Ronson
Just Kids - Patti Smith

Paperback

RRP $26.99

$21.75

19%
OFF
The Uncool - Cameron Crowe

Paperback

RRP $36.99

$29.75

20%
OFF
Total F*cking Godhead : The Biography of Chris Cornell - Corbin Reiff
Punk : The Last Word - Stephen Colegrave

RRP $69.99

$54.75

22%
OFF
Wicked : The Complete Screenplay - Insight Editions

RRP $49.99

$37.99

24%
OFF
The Real Book : Volume I Sixth Edition (C Instruments) - Hal Leonard Corp
You Only Live Once : The Little Guide to Drake - OH
Grime : Documenting the scene's rise and reign - Roony Keefe

RRP $59.99

$45.75

24%
OFF
Every Valley : The Story of Handel's Messiah - Charles King

RRP $29.99

$24.99

17%
OFF
Pop Songs For Kids : Sheet Music Book for Piano / Keyboard - Hal Leonard Publishing Corporation
Cher : The Memoir, Part One: The global number 1 bestseller - Cher
Adult Piano Adventures - Classics, Book 1 : Classics - Book 1