James B. Davis, 90, a singer and songwriter who at age 12 founded the Dixie Hummingbirds, an electrifying gospel group credited with inspiring such entertainers as James Brown, Jackie Wilson and the ...

The Dixie Hummingbirds, along with the Swan Silvertones and the Soul Stirrers, were the foremost popularizers of the a cappella style of gospel music that brought the spiritual music of traditional ...

Oxford Univ., 370 pp., $30 You don't have to know the music of the Dixie Hummingbirds to be familiar with their sound. As Jerry Zolten makes clear in this affectionate biography, the gospel group's ...

Gospel is a thoroughly American musical form and one that The Dixie Hummingbirds has celebrated for nearly a century. In the ensemble's latest incarnation, five talented vocalists draw on the original ...