Higher Note Blog

John­ny Cash in 1977. The coun­try music star will be induct­ed into the GMA Gospel Music Hall of Fame in Jan­u­ary. The Asso­ci­at­ed Press file pho­to

John­ny Cash head­lines the 2011 GMA Gospel Music Hall of Fame class that will be induct­ed Jan. 24

Also to be induct­ed are DeGar­mo & Key, Gold­en Gate Quar­tet and Bill “Hoss” Allen. The cer­e­mo­ny is free and will take place at Trin­i­ty Music City Audi­to­ri­um in Hen­der­son, Tn.

Gospel music was an inte­gral part of Cash’s music. He ini­tial­ly went to audi­tion at Sun Records to record gospel music. Along with his illus­tri­ous coun­try music career, Cash record­ed many gospel albums, includ­ing “Cash: Ulti­mate Gospel,” “My Moth­er’s Hymn Book,” and “The Gospel Accord­ing to John­ny Cash.”

Duo Eddie DeGar­mo and Dana Key were one of the first Chris­t­ian music acts to be aired on MTV. Over 17 years they record­ed 15 albums and received sev­en Gram­my nom­i­na­tions and 17 Dove Award nom­i­na­tions for their blues-influ­enced rock.

The Gold­en Gate Quar­ter start­ed singing in the mid-1930s out of the group’s high school in Nor­folk, Va. The jazz group per­formed at Pres­i­dent Franklin Roo­sevelt’s inau­gu­ra­tion and they impressed Eleanor so much that she invit­ed the group back to the White House for numer­ous appear­ances.

Allen’s inter­est in gospel music began as a child. He was born in wealthy Catholic fam­i­ly, but it was an African-Amer­i­can “nan­ny” who raised him, tak­ing him to church on Sun­days where he was intro­duced to soul­ful gospel music. As a DJ at WLAC, whose sig­nal stretched from Mobile, Ala., to Michi­gan, Allen played such new­com­ers as James Brown and Jimi Hen­drix. In 1975, he start­ed “Ear­ly Morn­ing Gospel Time with Hoss­man” to show­case region­al black gospel acts. His pro­gram con­tin­ued until 1993, almost 10 years after the sta­tion turned into a talk-radio venue — except for Allen’s pro­gram.