I’ve been prepping for this coming Sunday evening, which sees another Sanctified event. We did the first one of these ‘blues services’ back in the summer and this one shares the concept and a lot of the musicians and singers but a whole new bunch of material. This time, our particular focus is celebrating the women of gospel blues, like Mavis Staples, Mahalia Jackson and Sister Rosetta Tharpe.

They aren’t household names in most households and rarely get a mention in most churches but they were women of faith who gave us songs of both lament and joy (indeed, Mavis Staples is still going strong, so it isn’t all past tense).

As well as the double bass chair, I’m also putting together the slides to support this one, which are now almost complete. If you are in Oxford on Sunday evening and have even a passing interest in gospel blues, come and join us at Collinwood Road URC in Risinghurst (the one you see as you head out of town on the A40 towards the M40) at 6:30pm.