24. THE SOUL STIRRERS

The Soul Stirrers are an oddity in that the band became hugely successful after Sam Cooke, a Mississippi native, replaced Rebert Harris, making the group a crucial purveyor of gospel from Chicago rather than Texas. But the band’s roots go back to Trinity, about 90 miles north of Houston, where Harris nearly broke the sound of gospel by hacking away at a buttoned-up tradition with moans, hollers, runs, calls and responses, and all manner of uninvited vocal innovations that didn’t just update gospel, they may have invented soul music. Most Texas musical moment: “By and By.” Houston’s slurry, slowed-down tradition of music starts here.