Nowhere was music more essential than in church. The hymns people sang on Sunday mornings warned them of God’s eternal judgment, but also offered the promise of salvation—even to the sinners who had ...

“Amazing Grace” as it appears in Ginny Hawker’s family heirloom songbook, Lloyd’s Primitive Baptist Hymns. You can see stains in the margins, left by the tobacco-covered hands of her aunt Annie Maud ...

It's one of the most distinctive sounds in country and bluegrass music. You can hear it in the singing of Patty Loveless, Keith Whitley and Ricky Skaggs. The way these Appalachian-born singers bend ...