| Little nine year old Tommie and his family moved to | | | | had to stop singing in the the bars of Chicago.He soon |
| Atlanta, Georgia from the small town of Villa Rica, | | | | determined to devote his music totally to the Lord. He |
| Georgia in 1908. Tommy was demoted a grade in | | | | began composing and singing gospel music using the |
| school and teased by the other children. He felt | | | | blues style of music.To his disappointment, many of the |
| alienated from his school and also the black Baptist | | | | main stream churches refused to allow him to return |
| church where his daddy was the pastor and mamma | | | | because his music sounded too much like the world's |
| was the pianist.He spent the afternoons and evenings | | | | music. So he returned to the Chicago bars to earn |
| watching the vaudeville performances where he saw | | | | enough money to survive.Tom married and was |
| such well known blues artists as Ma Rainey and | | | | expecting his first child within a year. He continued to |
| Bessie Smith. At age eleven he dropped out of school | | | | play both in churches and bars. It was while he was in |
| and took a job at the theater selling soda pop.He was | | | | St. Louis preparing for a concert in a church that he |
| determined to become famous like Ma Rainey so he | | | | received a telegram informing him that his wife had |
| learned to play the piano and teaching himself to read | | | | died during childbirth. He returned to Chicago in time to |
| music.At age seventeen Tom moved to Chicago and | | | | hold his newborn son but the child died within a few |
| became quite successful as a blues piano player and | | | | hours.It was at that moment that he took the vow to |
| singer in the backroom bars during the prohibition era. | | | | devote his music totally to the Lord seriously. It was |
| He took the professional name of Georgia Tom.Tom | | | | also during his grief that he composed these |
| struggled with his conscience over playing the "world's | | | | words:Precious Lord, take my hand, |
| music." His mother was always admonishing him that | | | | Lead me on, help me stand, |
| he should devote himself to composing and playing for | | | | I am tired, I am weak, I am worn. |
| the Lord. His struggle became so intense that he had a | | | | Thru the storm, thru the night, |
| nervous breakdown and had to take two years off | | | | Lead me on to the light, |
| and move back to Atlanta to recover.Sufficiently | | | | Take my hand, precious Lord, Lead me home.Thomas |
| rested and recovered, Georgia Tom returned to | | | | Dorsey went on to compose nearly 1000 songs, all |
| Chicago and began to play for Ma Rainey and her | | | | gospel with a blues style. He died in 1993 at the age of |
| jazz band. However, it was only a matter of time | | | | 96. He had earned the title of "The Father of Gospel |
| before he once again had a nervous breakdown and | | | | Blues. |