1. Today on the show, we remember the father of African American spiritual hymnody: H.T. Burleigh.
  2. Today on the show, we remember composer Felix Mendelssohn, the man behind Bach’s 19th-century resurgence.
  3. Today on the show, we remember the conversion of the first singing Country and Western Cowboy.
  4. On this Day Handel Begins Composing Messiah, and 5 Things We Can Learn From It
  5. Waits wants to pen the songs with beautiful melodies and lyrics dark as sin. Whatever his church background, he sings “the big print giveth, and the small print taketh away."