The Mission of Rainbow Records

Abstract

When Homer Rodeheaver established Rainbow Records in 1920, he created the first gospel music label and shaped how evangelicals would use recorded music. This chapter presents newly unearthed information about the scope and impact of his efforts, as well as his early connections to the Vaughan and Gennett labels. Rodeheaver generally ignored the emerging boundaries of black, white, and southern gospel—in 1923 he sang spirituals with the Wiseman sextet, one of the first interracial gospel sessions. He also established an early vanity label, Rodeheaver Special, producing custom-recorded sermons and musical performances, and creating controversy by pressing records for a member of the Ku Klux Klan. Whatever incongruities he may have tolerated, he described his record label as a mission, not a business.