Excerpt: Transcribed from a time-less song recorded in August 1927 by the Carter Family, the above lyrics (and their accompanying, memorably lilting melody) have moved millions of people worldwide.

Excerpt: The so-called 1927 Bristol sessions—the recording sessions conducted in Bristol, Tennessee/Virginia, during July-August 1927 by A&R (Artists & Repertoire) producer Ralph Peer and his employer, the Victor Talking Machine Company—garnered relatively little attention until the 1970s. At that point, a few scholars (notably, music historians Charles K. Wolfe, Bill C. Malone, Tony Russell, and Nolan Porterfield) and some serious music fans began to view this long-ago event in a small Appalachian city as one of the most important recording sessions of all time.

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"Gospel According To Bristol: The Life, Ministry, and Ministry of Ernest Phipps" is the first biographical and critical writing on the Kentucky Holiness preacher and Bristol Sessions recording artist. With information gathered from interviews with his surviving family members, court documents, and public records, this thesis paints the most complete picture of the life of Ernest Phipps (1900-1963) possible. Phipps is known for the company he keeps in the line-up of mountain musicians, including Jimmie Rodgers and the Carter Family, that came to Bristol, Tennessee to record for Ralph Peer in 1927, but Phipps's music is discussed here on its own merit as a forerunner of modern Southern Gospel music. This thesis also argues that a 1930 Vocalion record by the Kentucky Holiness Singers is the last record Ernest Phipps made.