The Southern Sacred Steel Conference runs Thursday, March 17, to Sunday, March 20, at The ArtsCenter and the Center for the Study of the American South. Prices for individual events range from free to ...

In a small upstairs room of a Toledo church, Del Ray Grace is preserving a sacred piece of his Pentecostal upbringing. It isn’t an altar or a cross – it’s a steel guitar. Starting in the 1930s, the ...

“Our music and sacred steel music has always been about the congregation, and right now the congregation is starting to be the world.” These are the words of Chuck Campbell, master of the pedal steel ...

Alvin Lee is the leader of the sacred steel ensemble, The Lee Boys. He is a vocalist and guitarist for the band, although he can play a variety of instruments and was originally a bassist. Alvin grew ...

The Lee Boys are a world-famous family band of Perrine natives who all went to Miami Killian Senior High School. They play an updated, Miami-style version of Sacred Steel music strongly influenced by ...

Before 1999, when Arhoolie Records in El Cerrito began issuing recordings of "sacred steel" music, few outside the little-known House of God network of Pentecostal churches had heard the blistering, ...

The "Sacred Steel" tradition born in the House of God Church some 80 years ago employed the pedal steel and lap steel guitars as the centerpiece of their message. The steel guitars, long an eloquent ...

FOR AMERICAN MUSIC FANS, it's a find like a scientist's discovery of a new species. The steel guitar is central to country music. But no one outside Southern Pentecostal House of God churches had ...

Some say the purpose of church is to deliver the word of God. If so, what's the role of music in the service? "The music has always been a part of God's way of getting people's attention," says Bishop ...

West Perrine is rough. From the Circle Plaza Projects to Dada 5000’s fight compound, choppers, yard boys, and black flags rule. Every Sunday, on 168th street, the scream of amplified steel rings out ...

In 2000, I traveled to the annual National Assembly for the Keith Dominion of the House of God Church. In mid-June every year, this black-Pentecostal denomination holds its General Assembly in ...

TOLEDO, Ohio (WTVG) - Music is a big part of Toledo’s history. There have been a number of famous musicians from here, playing everything from jazz and rock to the blues and Christian music. And there ...