The Pilgrim Jubilees. By Alan Young. (Jackson: Mississippi University Press, 2001. Pp. xi+287, list of Pilgrim Jubilee recordings, notes, index, insert containing black/white photographs, ISBN 1-57806-416-3 pbk.)

The Pilgrim Jubilees is an African American group that has been performing gospel music in the quartet style since the 1950s. The author of this book, Alan Young, is a journalist from Auckland, New Zealand and this is his second book about African American gospel music. The information gathered for this work is based on audio and videotaped recordings and long-distance calls with members of the group. Alan Young, at the beginning of this book, says that he wanted “to let the Pilgrim Jubilees tell their story in their own words, as free as possible from editorial interpretation and qualification” (18). He wanted to write about the Pilgrim Jubilees because “Their story is the story of gospel quartet singing” (9). The Pilgrim Jubilees was the brainchild of Clay and Cleave Graham of Mississippi and although there have been a number of members over the years, Young devotes chapters to pivotal group members: Cleave Graham and Clay Graham, the forces behind the group; Major Roberson, Bobby McDougle, Ben Chandler, Michael Atkins, Eddie Graham and Fred Rice. These chapters describe how the members first met and bonded, and how they feel, in their own words, about the group’s contribution to music. The book is divided into twenty-three short chapters which figure as excerpts in the fifty-three year history of the group. Along the way, the reader gets a lesson in recording history and African American quartet singing. But this book is equally accessible to the novice, the gospel fan or the Pilgrim Jubilee fan. Young’s respect and admiration for the group, evident in the overwhelming background detail he provides, are patently obvious. His book presents issues such as the influence of the minstrel tradition on universal quartets, the difficulty that an African American group faced in recording their music, and the general problems of the recording industry. He also discusses the difficulty of walking the narrow line between preaching a holy message through song and entertainment for economic recompense. These issues are a major theme of this book. Young’s explication of the musical side of quartet singing sheds light for the novice as well. He defines quartet music and its various components such as the twin-lead system, antiphonal call-and-response style, the walk-on or spoken introduction, the drive and sermonettes. Such explanatory detail adds a richness to an account which does not simply assume that the reader is an expert in the field. It also illustrates the way in which a formulaic structure is interwoven with creativity in gospel music. The formulas serve as markers of recognition for the fan and the creativity is what sets each gospel group apart. The best chapter in this book is the second-last and this is where the ethnography of the group comes together. Young asks the group members, “What does being a gospel singer — or musician — mean to you?” (221). He elicits some of the most enlightening and revealing aspects of the entire book. The men talk about working and singing for God and their desire to “lead [people] to Christ” (216). They also talk about the temptations they have faced and the obstacles they have overcome. Cleave remarks, “I’m not perfect but the one I sing about is” (214). Young’s response to this remark is particularly insightful and reflects the words of the group member’s themselves: this is Cleave’s “abiding Christian faith, his desire to spread a message in song about that faith, and his recognition of human frailty, including his own” (214). According to the members themselves, it was just this faith and the desire to share it that kept them going …