A Professor at Penn State University, he is best known as the author of a book tracing the 90 year career of the African-American Dixie Hummingbirds gospel group and their influence on both sacred and secular music.
The Wooley Thumpers opened for Janis Joplin and Big Brother and the Holding Company at a 1968 Penn State performance.
With the group and as a single, Zolten performed at diverse venues such as the Jawbone Coffeehouse, the Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts, and Lewisburg Penitentiary.
The Dixie Hummingbirds: Celebrating the Rise of Soul Gospel Music by Jerry Zolten (Oxford University Press) Recipient of the Kjell Meling Award for Distinction in the Arts and Humanities, 2010.
[2] Recipient of a 2018 PRNDI Award as co-producer, writer, and narrator of the public radio program Time To Lay It Down: The Soundtrack of the Vietnam War.