It's one of the most distinctive sounds in country and bluegrass music. You can hear it in the singing of Patty Loveless, Keith Whitley and Ricky Skaggs. The way these Appalachian-born singers bend ...

DALLAS — A funny thing happened last summer at Lake Pointe Church in Rockwall, Texas. A shipment of hymn books arrived, and not by mistake. Lake Pointe is a megachurch with contemporary-style worship.

“Amazing Grace” as it appears in Ginny Hawker’s family heirloom songbook, Lloyd’s Primitive Baptist Hymns. You can see stains in the margins, left by the tobacco-covered hands of her aunt Annie Maud ...