‘Never Turn Back’ and the Lasting Power of Music

A look inside a very special MoPOP exhibit

June 22, 2025 Gillian G. Gaar 0 Comments 2025, Big Mama Thornton, Billie Holiday, James Brown, Ma Rainey, Mamie Smith, MoPOP, Muddy Waters, Museum of Pop Culture, Never Turn Back, Never Turn Back: Echoes of African American Music, Seattle, Washington

A dude listens to music at the new MoPOP exhibit “Never Turn Back.” (Image: MoPOP)

“Swing Low Sweet Chariot.” “Crossroads Blues.” “‘Round Midnight.” “Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag.”

These classics of gospel, blues, jazz and soul have a common heritage that’s explored in the latest exhibit to open at Seattle’s Museum of Pop Culture (MoPOP): “Never Turn Back: Echoes of African American Music.”

As one of the introductory panels explains, this is an exhibit that poses a question: “If music is central to Black Americans’ stories of emotion, freedom, and pain throughout the African Diaspora, what are those echoes, and how do they reflect in the culture?”

The answer is told through this story of a journey, a tale of how music evolved and changed over the centuries in the United States. And it opens with a stark reminder of how the roots of that music came to be in this country in the first place.

“Never Turn Back” exhibit poster. (Image: MoPOP)

The exhibit’s opening room is entitled “Dark Waters,” with an entire wall with a picture of an endless sea. Around you are the sounds of a creaking ship, sea water slapping the sides. Sit on the bench provided and take it in. It’s a haunting representation of the slave trade. Elsewhere, you’ll find a map detailing the routes of the slave trade.

There are sweeter sounds to listen to soon enough. Each section of the exhibit (gospel, blues, jazz, soul) has its own listening station, where you can hear familiar classics and new favorites. “Steal Away to Jesus” by the Fisk Jubilee Singers (originally established in 1871 to raise funds for Fisk University) and “Take My Hand, Precious Lord” by Mahalia Jackson. You’ll recognize Big Mama Thornton’s “Ball and Chain,” most famously covered by Janis Joplin, who actually heard Thornton perform it live when both of them were living in San Francisco. But are you acquainted with “Crazy Blues” by Mamie Smith or “Black Eye Blues” by Ma Rainey? These are songs going on one hundred years old, still echoing through the ages.

VIDEO: Billie Holiday “Strange Fruit”

Gospel music offered solace, but it also offered hope, and even joy. Blues, and later soul, was the secular side of gospel, jazz springing from the musical stewpot that was New Orleans. “Never Turn Back” explores the connections between the genres, and how the music grew to be more than just entertainment; it was also activism. Billie Holiday’s “Strange Fruit” is an obvious song to spotlight, and the listening stations also include Nina Simone’s powerful “Mississippi Goddam” and Charles Mingus’ “Fables of Faubus,” an attack on segregationist Arkansas governor Orval Faubus, which was initially released only as an instrument, the record company being too nervous about the lyrics. And the soul era wasn’t just about looking sharp and cutting the right moves on the dance floor, as a listen to “(For God’s Sake) Give More Power to the People” by the Chi-Lites and Billy Paul’s “Am I Black Enough for You?” will tell you.

The music (and film clips shown in a separate theater space; you can never see too many Soul Train clips) brings the story to life. The artifacts (many of which come from MoPOP’s own archives) fill in the details. There are songbooks dating back to the “Negro Spirituals” era of the late 1800s and sheet music of tunes like “His Hands,” written by Stuart Hamblen and recorded by Mahalia Jackson. There’s a copy of Sister Rosetta Tharpe’s album The Lonesome Road (check out the chipper anti-alcohol tune, “God Don’t Like It”). And vibrant photos, such as Etta James, captured in mid-song, and the ever-stylish Gladys Bentley, with her penchant for male attire.

I always love seeing instruments, the tools of the musician’s trade, imagining what tales they could tell if they could speak. And “Never Turn Back” has some legendary pieces, such as one of Bo Diddley’s guitars, a red, boxy Gretsch, dated circa 1958-1962, meaning it could’ve been used on such tunes as “Crackin’ Up,” “Road Runner” or “You Can’t Judge a Book by the Cover,” either live or in the studio. And what a thrill to be able to see Miles Davis’ Martin Committee trumpet (from 1980) and John Coltrane’s Yamaha Nippon Gakki alto saxophone (from 1966). All these musicians were pioneers in their field, taking music in new directions, their instruments now giving silent testimony to their accomplishments.

VIDEO: James Brown performs “Please Please Please” on The T.A.M.I. Show

Bringing things up to date, there’s a “Remix” station about the legacy of hip-hop sampling. And it never hurts to have a little James Brown in your corner. At the exhibit’s entryway, you’ll find a shimmering cape once worn by the Godfather of Soul himself. At the end, there’s another of his outfits, one that you might have seen him wear while he strutted the stage on “Soul Train.”

Above all, “Never Turn Back” is about influence. How the music of African Americans seeped into the culture and touched — everything. “Strange Fruit” still cuts deep because it’s remains so relevant. Musicians like Miles Davis set a standard that no one has surpassed. Sister Rosetta Tharpe’s accomplishments finally won her a spot in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The blues rose from the backstreets of Chitlin’ Circuit to ultimately crack the mainstream, with Muddy Waters’ “Mannish Boy” eventually seen as the perfect music to use in a commercial about Levi’s jeans. It’s a history lesson, one you might not know that you needed. But once you dig in, you’ll discover what a rich, wonderful a history it is.

“Never Turn Back” will be on display into 2027.