Bozie sturdivant biography of michaels

American gospel song

For the 2019 song by Bethel Music and Molly Skaggs, see Ain't No Grave (Bethel Music song).

For the 2010 posthumous album by Johnny Cash, see American VI: Ain't No Grave.

"Ain't No Grave" (also known as "Gonna Hold This Body Down") is a traditional American gospel song attributed to Claude Ely (1922–1978) of Virginia.

History

Claude Ely, a songwriter and preacher from Virginia, describes composing the song while sick with tuberculosis in 1934 when he was twelve years old. His family prayed for his health, and in response he spontaneously performed this song.

An African-American gospel song, "C'aint no grave," has been traced back to a 1933 Chuch of God in Christ hymnal by blogger Debi Simons ^[1]. That version was recorded by Bozie Sturdivant in July 1942 (and released in 1943 as "Ain't No Grave Can Hold My Body Down") in a slower, gospel style and in 1946-7 by Sister Rosetta Tharpe with barrelhouse piano, ^[2] Th