Traditional and Public Domain Gospel Music is music that was written before 1923 (public domain) or gospel music that is traditional. The emphasis of this collection is the early country/bluegrass type music usually called "Southern Gospel." About 20% of the early country records from the 1920s and 1930s were shaped note hymns, old standards, folk hymns, spirituals, or southern gospel. Southern Gospel music evolved from the old standards (Old Rugged Cross), camp meeting songs (Old-time Religion), revivalist hymns, African-American spirituals and shape note songs (Amazing Grace) of the 1800s.
The gospel writers of revival hymns and camp meeting songs from the Third Great Awakening (beginning around 1856) were many and their output copious. Significant names include Dwight L. Moody, Ira D. Sankey, and William Booth and Catherine Booth (founders of the Salvation Army). Fanny Crosby (1820-1915), Philip Bliss, Robert Lowry and Charles Gabriel (1856-1932) were some of the many writers of gospel songs- Gabriel is said to have written and/or composed between 7,000 and 8,000 songs. The emphasis in this collection is on the songs that have remained popular in southern gospel/bluegrass circles or were recorded in the 1920s by early country musicians or country gospel quartets. Since much of this music was shared by black and white musicians, music by black musicians like Rev. Gary Davis and many African-American spirituals are included. There is more emphasis on folk or traditional gospel than composed hymns.
The main sources are Meade's "Country Music Sources" book, Tony Russell's "Country Music Records: a Discography, 1921-1942" and early song collections. The Carter Family and others preserved gospel songs from both black and white source in their effort to make new records. Included here are many African-American spirituals and folk hymns, which can be important additions to the Country/Bluegrass genre. Recent spirtituals that have been turned into bluegrass versions include "Walk Over God's Heaven" by Alison Krauss and the Cox family from the CD: I Know Who Holds Tomorrow, who do a cover of Mahalia Jackson's great version. There's plenty of cross over from both blues based spirituals and church spirituals to bluegrass--and there's room for more!
Here's some info from Wiki: The date of Southern Gospel's establishment as a distinct genre is generally considered to be 1910, the year the first professional quartet was formed for the purpose of selling songbooks for the James D. Vaughan Music Publishing Company. Nonetheless the style of the music itself had existed for at least 35 years prior although the traditional wisdom that Southern Gospel music was "invented" in the 1870s by circuit preacher Everett Beverly is spurious. The existence of the genre prior to 1910 is evident in the work of Charles Davis Tillman (1861-1943), who popularized "The Old Time Religion" and "Life's Railway to Heaven" and published 22 songbooks.
Southern Gospel is sometimes called "quartet music" by fans because of the originally all-male, tenor-lead-baritone-bass quartet make-up. Early quartets were typically either a cappella or accompanied only by piano or guitar, and in some cases a piano and banjo. Over time, full bands were added and even later, pre-record accompaniments were introduced. A typical modern Southern Gospel group performs with pre-recorded tracks augmented by a piano player and possibly a few other musicians.
Some of the genre's roots can be found in the publishing work and "normal schools" of Aldine S. Kieffer and Ephraim Ruebush. Southern Gospel was promoted by traveling singing school teachers, quartets, and shape note music publishing companies such as the A. J. Showalter Company (1879) and the Stamps-Baxter Music and Printing Company. Over time, Southern Gospel came to be an eclectic musical form with groups singing black gospel-influenced songs, traditional hymns, a capella (jazz-style singing with no instruments) songs, country gospel, bluegrass, and "convention songs" (which were more difficult).
Convention songs typically have contrasting homophonic and contrapuntal sections. In the homophonic sections, the four parts sing the same words and rhythms. In the contrapuntal sections, each group member has a unique lyric and rhythm. These songs are called "convention songs" because various conventions were organized across the United States for the purpose of getting together regularly and singing songs in this style. Convention songs were employed by training centers like the Stamps-Baxter School Of Music as a way to teach quartet members how to concentrate on singing their own part. Examples of convention songs include "Heavenly Parade," "I'm Living In Canaan Now," "Give the World a Smile," and "Heaven's Jubilee."
In the first decades of the twentieth century, Southern Gospel drew much of its creative energy from the Holiness movement churches that arose throughout the south. Early gospel artists such as Smith's Sacred Singers, The Speer Family, The Stamps Quartet, The Blackwood Family, and The Lefevre Trio achieved wide popularity through their recordings and radio performances in the 1920s, 1930s, 1940s and 1950s. On October 20, 1927, The Stamps Quartet recorded its early hit "Give The World A Smile" for Victor, which become the Quartet's theme song. The Stamps Quartet was heard on the radio throughout Texas and the South.
Others such as Homer Rodeheaver and the Cathedral Quartet became well-known through their association with popular evangelists such as Billy Sunday and Rex Humbard.
Representative Artists
Some of the best known Southern Gospel male quartets from various decades include the Blackwood Brothers, the Calvarymen, the Cathedral Quartet, Legacy Five, The Stamps Quartet, the Statesmen Quartet, the Imperials, Sunshine Boys Quartet, the Blue Ridge Quartet, Gold City, Ernie Haase & Signature Sound, the Kingsmen Quartet, the Triumphant Quartet, The Kingdom Heirs, the Gaither Vocal Band, Mercy's Mark, Brian Free and Assurance, the Florida Boys, the The Inspirations, and the Oak Ridge Boys.
Although the genre is known for its all male quartets, trios and duos have been a vital element of Southern Gospel for most of the genre's history. In decades past to more modern groups like Jeff and Sheri Easter, The Lewis Family, The Easter Brothers, the McKamey's, the Perry Sisters, Greater Vision, the Crabb Family, the Isaacs, the Hoppers, and the Ruppes. Pioneer groups like the Speer Family, the Lesters, the Klaudt Indian Family, the Chuck Wagon Gang, The Happy Goodman Family, The Cook Family Singers the LeFevres, and Rambos paved the way for modern mixed quartets and family-based lineups.
The Lesters from St. Louis, Missouri, are an example of family heritage in the southern gospel field. The current Lesters are in their eighth decade of ministry, tracing family roots to the original Lesters founded by Harvey "Pop" Lester and his wife Opal in 1925. Pop Lester's son, Herschel Lester, continued the family ministry, followed by Herschel's son and daughter as well as current group members Brian Herschel Lester (lead) and Ginger Lester Pitchers (alto). The current group is completed by Brian Herschel Lester's son, Jonathan (baritone), and Ginger Pitchers' daughter, Jenny Pitchers Revelle (soprano), representing the fourth generation.
Other famous family groups from various decades include the Hinsons, the Perrys, the Jordanaires, the Boones, the Hoppers, the Talleys, the Martins, and the Bill Gaither Trio.
Unlike most forms of popular music where soloists (and/or soloists with background vocalists) generally outnumber vocally balanced groups, vocal groups thrive in Southern Gospel. But the genre also has a growing number of popular soloists. Many of these gained their initial popularity with a group before launching out on their own as soloists. Some of the most popular of these include Jimmie Davis (1899-2000), Squire Parsons, Ivan Parker, and Mark Bishop. Southern Gospel was an early influence on Patsy Cline, Tennessee Ernie Ford, and Elvis Presley.
James D. Vaughan Publishing And School of Music: Founder of Southern Gospel Music
In 1902 James D. Vaughan moved his family to Lawrenceburg, Tn. from Giles County Co., Tn. where he was a teacher. And short while later he opened his publishing house on the Public Square in Lawrenceburg to furnish a complete gospel music service.
The Vaughan Music Company published his first song book ”Gospel Chimes”, in 1900. Business grew steadily and in 1909 he sold 30,000 songbooks. James D. came up with an idea in May 1910 to promote the books, and the first professional all-male Southern Gospel Quartet in America hit the road. The first year on the road the Quartet doubled sales of songbooks to 60,000. The next year they sold 75,000 and in 1912 they sold 85,000. In 1911, Vaughan started the famed “Vaughan School of Music.” Each year students came from across the United States to study rudiments, harmony, sight-singing, class directing, and participate in private lessons for piano and voice.
In 1912 Mr. Vaughan also published the monthly Newsletter called “The Vaughan’s Family Vistor”, to announce new books and singing schools. One of Lawrence County newspapers went out of business and Mr. Vaughan took it over and began weekly publications of “The Lawrence News” on October 1, 1919. He pioneered in mass media, opening Tennessee’s first radio station, “WOAN”, (“Watch Our Annual Normal”) in 1922, for the purpose of spreading his music. The station operated for two years with 150-watt transmitters used during the session of the Vaughan School of Music received by thirty-five states and Canada. On January 1, 1925 WOAN was stepped-up to 500 watts. WOAN divided time with Nashville’s WSM with it on the same dial reading. Later WSM received full time on the dial when WOAN was discontinued.
In 1921 he started the first Southern based Record Company, “Vaughan Phonograph Records.” The first song recorded was “I Couldn’t Hear Nobody Pray,” and on the other side was “Look For Me,” written by V.O. Stamps, who worked for Vaughan until he started the successful Stamps Music Company.
Another aspect of James D. Vaughan’s music business was the promotion of the Vaughan Singing Convention or The National Gospel Singing Conventionthat had its beginning during the 1936 session of the Alabama State Singing Convention. Which still meets once a year in different states.
During the years, Mr. Vaughan wrote the words or music to many beautiful gospel songs; some remembered best:
“Lead Me Shepherd”; “He Will Carry Us Safety Home”; “Will The Circle Be Unbrokern”; “God Shall Wipe All Tears Away”; “I Will Meet My Preciuos Mother” ; “ Gathering Buds”; “ I Feel Like Traveling On”; “ The Best Of All” ; “ Some Day I’ll Have A Home”; “ If I Could Hear My Mother Pray Again,” “The Old Country Church,” “ I Know ‘Tis So”; “ I’m Glad To Say I’m On My Way”; “ God Holds The Future In His Hands” ; “ Do You Know Him,” “The Same Old Story” and “I Dreamed I Searched Heaven For You.”
After Mr. Vaughan’s death in 1941 his son, Kieffer, took over his father’s business and the company lived on through Vaughan’s books in the same seven-shape note system.
Other noticed songwriters and composers with the Vaughan Publishing Company and School were:
Adger M. Pace with songs; “Just A Closer Walk With The”; “I Can Tell You The Time” ;“He’s The Best Friend I Ever Had”; “Peace, Sweet Peace,: and “We’ll Understand It Better By and By.”
G.T. Speers: “I Want To Be Ready To Meet Him”; “The Old Gospel Ship” ;“When I Kneel To Pray” and “Heaven Jubilee.”
Virgil O Stamps: “It’s Well With My Soul” ; “Look For Me” and “Dreaming Alone In The Twilight”
G.Kieffer Vaughan: “When We Look On His Face”; “And When The Eventide Comes.”
James D. Walbert: “Look Away To Jesus”; “I’ll See And Know My King” and “Only a Step.”
B.W. Walbert: “He Broke The Chains”; “Oh What A Blessing He Is To Me” and “Hallelujah, He Is Mine.”
J.W. Vaughan: “In The Morning Bright And Fair”; “If I Could Hear My Mother Pray Again”and “When The Evening Shadows Fall.”
Charles W. Vaughan: “I’ve Had A Talk With Jesus” ;“Do You Know Him” and “When I Get To Heaven.”
From “Who’s Who” “Amont Southern Singers and Composers” by Ottis J. Knippers :
Dwight M. Brock; L.O. Brock; Roy L. Collins; The Denson Trio; Cecil C. and Ottis J. Knippers; Alphus LeFevre; Otis L. McCoy; J. Raymond Parker; James Rowe; James P. Waits.
With such Quartets as: The Brock, Denson, Hood, Jennings, Speer and Vaughan Quartets traveling and singing Southern Gospel Music. These are only a few of the great singers,writers and composers that were associated with the Vaughan Organization.
Members of Vaughan’s Normal School Class of 1922:
J.E. Beckett, H.G. Shirey, Mack Hooks, F.X. Trigg, L.O. Prater, T.H. Stephens, W.A. Wheeler, C.A. Glover, Martin S. Smith, Van Jones, E.R. Duffer, W.L. Wooten, Johnie Bailey, W.J. Bracker, Jack Edwards, Lonnie Sims, D.T. Bishop, J.E. Martin, D.S. Howell, George Sullivan, Eugene Dawson, Justus Brewer, Harvey Duffer, Veron Leonard, J. E. Palsner, Basil Glover, Earl Coffey, J.M. Coffey, Carl Lavderdale, S.J. Pinston, T.L Crenshaw, C.L. Hitt , Arthur J. Pruitt, C.F .Williams, Ben Watson, Rev. S.A. Gaby, D.A. Parris, Tom Cole, Charlie N. Clark, Oron Hood, Fred Cathey, J.F. McCathy, Russell Howell, Bessie Sweet, Louvillie Lynn, Lucile Loval, Mrs. W.W. Combs, Jones Woody, W.E. Gordon, Loyd Braser, Prestley Miller, Hutie Bishop, G.E. Shaffer, Claud Richerdson, T.D. Vaughan, Edd Brown, J.W. Fowler, R.E. Freeman, Roy Barler, J.T. Speakman, A. A. Robertson, E.C. Roberts, Thoams Stochton, R.R Pollock, H. Barnart, Walter B Scale, James Depew, W.W. Combs, B.C. Unseld, J.G. Vaughan, V.O.Stamps, and 12 unnamed.
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There's a Beautiful Song: Early Gospel Ensembles before World War Two, A History and Selected Discography by Daniel Seriff
Gospel is music with no clear pedigree. Stylistically, it is a miscellany of African, European and homegrown American musical elements melted together into a stew of ecstatic worship, praise and hope. When Africans were brought to the Americas as slaves, they were frequently forcibly converted to Christianity, or, at the very least, were prohibited from practicing their own religions. They were not allowed to sing their own songs, which had been so central to their lives in Africa. Much like in Native American culture, music pervades every aspect of African tribal life. There is no concept of "sacred" versus "secular"; all music is functional.
This permeating functionality of music carried over strongly into enslaved life on the plantation. Spirituals filled the churches (the only place blacks could gather without white supervision) and work songs and field hollers drifted over the fields. The latter music eventually laid the basis for the blues, while the former absorbed a few more influences on its way to becoming gospel music as we know it today. Proper spirituals had set European-penned texts and were usually sung using syncopation and characteristically African rhythms, but the increasing popularity of English composer Isaac Watts (1674-1748) calmed down the rhythms of Black church songs into something more staid and metrically square. The hymns of "Dr. Watts" were especially popular amongst the Baptist and Black Methodist denominations. This type of European-derived music, sung in a cultivated vocal style reminiscent of vaudeville singing, or even of actual conservatory training, is the sound that dominated the gospel recording scene in the first three decades of the 20th century.
George White, the first director of the Fisk Jubilee Singers, originated the use of the term jubilee in relation to vocal ensembles, which would become a common designation for gospel groups. The word has Biblical origins, and ultimately derives, via Latin and Greek, from the Hebrew word yobhel, which is the ceremonial ram's horn that was blown during the Jubilee year. The Biblical Jubilee was "a year of emancipation and restoration provided by ancient Hebrew law to be kept every 50 years by the emancipation of Hebrew slaves, restoration of alienated lands to their former owners, and omission of all cultivation of the land."[1] White thought the term appropriate because of the recent liberation of the black slaves from their bondage.
Prior to the advent of Thomas Dorsey and the Golden Age of Gospel, several ensembles, many associated with the black colleges and universities that were endowed in the years immediately following Emancipation, delivered the music of their churches to white audiences fascinated by anything having to do with the cultural practices of the newly freed slaves. These groups, based primarily out of Tennessee, Virginia and North Carolina, toured Europe and the North raising money for their sponsoring institutions and awareness of their existence. Recordings of gospel songs survive from as early as 1902, and most groups sold their recordings well enough to support at least a few decades of activity. The remainder of this paper is a discussion of five gospel groups active before and during World War Two, their histories and their recordings.
Fisk Jubilee Singers (ca. 1870 - present)
The earliest, most well known and most discussed of the early gospel groups is the Fisk Jubilee Singers. Fisk University, then known as Fisk Free Colored School, was founded in 1865 in a former US army hospital in the heart of Nashville's black community, just to the north of Charlotte Avenue on the west side of the city (Vanderbilt University was installed ten years later only a dozen or so blocks to the south).[2] The establishment of a resident vocal ensemble was the brainchild of George Leonard White (an aptly named fellow, as he was indeed a white man), a Gettsyburg veteran and the treasurer of the University at the time. Before the war, White was a choirmaster, and during the conflict he acted as band sergeant for the Union Army. During his tenure at Fisk, he began to collect and arrange the songs of the slaves that he had heard during his army service. His assistant Ella Sheppard (later one of the mainstays of the Singers) brought him songs for his collections, even though she was somewhat leery of ever using them as performance material. For Ella, and many others, those songs were "associated with slavery and the dark past, and represented the things to be forgotten."
The original ensemble was made up of six women and five men, all Fisk students, who had, most of them, already lived lives straight out of a Shakespeare tragedy. Ella Sheppard¹s father had purchased her out of slavery, but only after her mother had tried to save her from a life in bondage by attempting to drown her. John Wesley Work, one of the early music directors at Fisk, told this story of Ella¹s infancy in 1915:
A master of a Tennessee plantation had sold a mother from her babe, and the day for the separation was fast approaching when the mother was to be taken "down South". Now, the condition of the slave in Tennessee was better than in any other state, with the possible exception of Virginia. To be sold "South" was, to the slave, to make the journey from which no traveler ever returned. So it was not strange that the mother would sooner take her life and that of her babe, than to go down into Mississippi, which, to her, was going to her grave. Bent upon throwing herself and her child over the steep banks of the Cumberland River, she was stumbling along the dusty road, her infant clasped close to her breast, muttering in frenzy her dire determination, "Before I'd be a slave, I'd be buried in my grave!" An old "mammy", seeing the terrible expression on her face, and hearing these words, read her intentions. In love she laid her dear old hand upon the shoulder of the distressed mother and said, "Don't you do it, honey; wait, let me take one of de Lord's scrolls an' read it to you." Then, making a motion as reaching for something and unrolling it, she read, "God's got a great work for dis baby to do; she's goin' to stand befo' kings and queens. Don't you do it, honey." The mother was so impressed with the words of the old "mammy" she gave up her fell design and allowed herself to be taken off down into Mississippi, leaving her baby behind.
In setting out from Nashville on Oct. 6, 1871, the group began its 130-year (and counting) lifespan on a train headed to Cincinnati. The school desperately needed money, and the hope was that the ensemble could bring in some cash to keep it afloat. After the first few tour dates, the Fisks fame began to spread, and the invitations came fast and furious. The group succeeded in raising $40,000 on an eighteen-month tour of Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Maryland and Washington, D.C. They had planned to be away from Nashville only a few months.
On March 4, 1872, the group performed for Vice President Schuyler Colfax and several members of Congress, and on the next night President Grant witnessed a performance at the White House. Despite rubbing shoulders with the Commander in Chief of the United States of America, however, race got the singers kicked out of their hotel. The singers received rave reviews in newspapers and journals all across the North, and were even praised by Mark Twain. "I do not know when anything has so moved me as did the plaintive melodies of the Jubilee singers," he wrote. Their amazing success in the Northeast propelled them across the Atlantic at the invitation of the Seventh Earl of Shaftesbury, where they found praise from all who heard them equal to what they had received in the United States, including from Queen Victoria herself. The tour finally ended after seven years, and $150,000 raised for Fisk University (a little over two and a half million, in 2001 dollars), after a concert in Lüneburg, Germany, on July 1, 1878. Four of the group elected to stay in Europe. Isaac Dickerson remained to pursue an education in Edinburgh, sponsored by Dean Stanley, and spent the rest of his life teaching and evangelizing in Britain. Minnie Tate was forced to retire, her voice in tatters, as was Benjamin Holmes who suffered from tuberculosis. Thomas Rutling was so exhausted by seven years of nonstop touring that he refused to sing in that final concert, and he never returned to American soil. Only one of the original group of Fisk Singers, America Robinson, returned to complete her degree at Fisk. Many of those who did return to the United States went on to become prominent figures in the black community.[6]
George White attempted to resurrect the Jubilee Singers privately in 1879, but after he injured himself in a fall, Frederick Loudin took over the group. He subsequently led the private ensemble on a tour of Australia, New Zealand and Asia. This group dissolved again not to long afterwards. Beginning around 1905, the university put together several groups known as the Fisk Jubilee Quartets. Several of these newly formed groups toured much as their predecessors did, but none was ever able to incite the level of demand that that illustrious first group did. Many recordings exist of the Fisk Quartets, spanning the period from 1909 to 1940. A rather patronizing quote from the Victor catalogue of 1922 gives a good indication of how these "race records" were marketed:
The Jubilee Songs collected and introduced to the world by Fisk University, and which might be called Negro Folk Songs, are quaint and interesting numbers. Some touch the heart with their pathos; and some although intensely religious, sometimes excite to laughter by their quaint conceptions of Biblical facts.[7]
These early recordings of the Fisk Singers are collected on a three volume series on the Document label, released in 1997:
Document DOCD 5533 - Volume 1, Recordings 1909-1911 (20 tracks)
1) Swing Low, Sweet Chariot 2) I Couldn't Hear Nobody Pray 3) Little David, Play On Your Harp / Shout All Over God's Heaven 4) There Is A Balm In Gilead 5) Roll, Jordan, Roll 6) Old Black Joe 7) Golden Slippers 8) When Malindy Sings 9) Banjo Song 10) Great Campmeeting 11) The Old Ark / Brethren Rise, Shine 12) Good News / Wasn't That A Wide River 13) Done What You Tole Me To Do 14) Po' Moaner Got A Home At Last 15) In Bright Mansions Above 16) My Soul Is A Witness 17) Band Of Gideon 18) I Know The Lord Laid His Hands On Me 19) The Old Tunes 20) In The Morning
Document DOCD 5534 - Volume 2, Recordings 1915-1920 (24 tracks)
1) Steal Away To Jesus 2) Shout All Over God's Heaven 3) Little David Play On Your Harp 4) There Is A Light Shining For Me 5) Swing Low, Sweet Chariot 6) In The Great Getting / Up Mawnin' 7) River Of Jordan 8) O Mary Don't You Weep, Don't You Mourn 9) Couldn't Hear Nobody Pray 10) The Great Camp Meeting 11) Brethren Rise! 12) Good News, The Chariot's Coming 13) Most Done Traveling 14) Oh! Reign Massa Jesus Reign 15) I Know I Have Another Building 16) I Want To Be Ready 17) Roll, Jordan, Roll 18) I Know The Lord Laid His Hand On Me 19) Ezekiel Saw De Wheel 20) You're Going To Reap Just What You Sow 21) Give 'Way Jordan 22) You Hear The Lambs A-Cryin' 23) I Ain't Going To Study War No More 24) My Soul Is A Witness For My Lord
Document DOCD 5535 - Volume 3, Recordings 1924-1940 (29 tracks)
1) You Better Get Somebody On Your Bond 2) Hope I'll Join The Band 3) Keep A-Inchin' Along 4) Shout All Over God's Heaven 5) Steal Away To Jesus 6) Every Time I Feel The Spirit 7) Ezekiel Saw De Wheel 8) Little David 9) Dry Bones 10) I Wanna Die Easy 11) Nobody Knows The Trouble I See 12) Show Me The Way 13) There Is A Light Shining 14) Everybody Ought To Pray Sometime 15) Swing Low, Sweet Chariot 16) On My Journey Now 17) Blow, Gabriel, Blow 18) My Lord's Writing All The Time 19) We Are Climbing Jacob's Ladder 20) Lord I Done Done 21) Oh, Mary Don't You Weep 22) In That Morning 23) I Been 'Buked 24) Shine On Me 25) Sweet Turtledove 26) On My Journey Now 27) Hear The Lambs A-Cryin' 28) Deep River 29) Golden Slippers
The Fisk Jubilee Singers continue to record and tour vigorously. The current director is Mr. Paul T. Kwami, a multi-talented musician originally hailing from Ghana. Stylistically, the current Fisk Singers remain true to their roots. Their current release, entitled In Bright Mansions, contains some of the very same songs that the Fisk Singers recorded in the first half of the twentieth century, and is performed in the same cultivated and trained vocal style as the early recordings exemplify.
Unlike the early days of the ensemble, the modern group must make time for its members to attend classes and earn their degrees. As a result, the group does most of its touring on breaks from school sessions. The Singers spent the first week of March 2003, spring break at Fisk, singing concerts around New York, and they will be in Italy for a week and a half of this coming July at the Umbria Jazz Festival.[9]
Hampton Institute Quartette (ca. 1885 - late 1950s)
Several universities followed the lead of Fisk and sponsored traveling gospel ensembles. Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute (now Hampton University) was one of these. Although the Hampton group did not record until 1939, it traveled the nation giving rigorous concert schedules for several decades, going back to at least 1890. In 1929, the peak of their concretizing activities, the group gave an exhausting schedule of 258 concerts. In three sessions in 1939 and 1941, the group recorded some two dozen songs. These recordings (along with a handful of recordings by other groups or individuals that are not presently relevant) are preserved on a 2001 CD release, again on Document Records:
Document DOCD 5628 - Recordings, 1939 & 1941 (25 tracks)
1) Goin' To Shout All Over God's Heaven 2) Little David, Play On Your Harp 3) I Want To Go To Heaven When I Die 4) Ezekiel Saw De Wheel 5) De Ole Ark A-Moverin' On 6) Mary And Martha Jes' Gone Long 7) In Bright Mansions Above 8) Reign, Massa Jesus, Reign 9) Walk Together, Children 10) Keep Inching Along 11) Old Black Joe 12) Water Boy 13) Deep River 14) Going Home 15) Swing Low, Sweet Chariot 16) My Lord, What A Morning 17) 'Tis Me 18) Steal Away (etc...)
As interest in gospel quartets waned in the mid-1950s, however, the group gradually stopped touring, and by 1960 the Hampton Institute ceased its sponsorship of the group.
Like the Hampton Institute did until 1960, many historically black colleges and universities currently sponsor or have in the past sponsored a gospel or jubilee ensemble of some type, most notable among them being Howard University in Washington, DC, and Florida A&M University in Tallahassee, FL. Princeton University also supports a gospel group.
Norfolk Jazz/Jubilee Quartet (ca. 1917 - ca. 1942)
This community-based group from Norfolk, VA, was very popular, and is very well represented in the recording catalogue. Born out of secular and vaudeville groups, they drew attention as part of the Mamie Smith Review, as well as on their own as a stage act. Their recording career spanned nineteen years, and displays the stylistic changes in gospel quartet singing during the inter-war period, and they also recorded a great many ensemble blues and vaudeville numbers. The four founding members were Len Williams (bass), Buddy Butts (tenor), Otto Tutson (second tenor) and Delrose Hollins (baritone). The quartet was sought out by OKeh Records in 1921 after they gained a name by touring as far west as Chicago and into New England. In 1923, the group moved over to Paramount Record Company, where they released over forty items.
The extensive recording catalogue of the Norfolk Jazz/Jubilee Quartet has been released, again by Document Records, as a six volume set:[14]
Document DOCD 5381 - Volume 1, Recordings 1921-1923 (24 tracks)
1) Monday Morning Blues 2) Jelly Roll Blues 3) Standing On The Corner 4) Wide, Wide World 5) Preacher Man Blues 6) Southern Jack 7) Cornfield Blues 8) Big Fat Mamma 9) Strut Miss Lizzie 10) My Mammy 11) Blues That Drove Man To Ruin 12) I Hope I May Join The Band 13) Who Built The Ark? 14) Going Home Blues 15) Honey, God Bless Your Heart 16) Wang Wang Blues 17) When I Walked Up I Was Sharp As A Tack 18) Get Hot 19) Shall We Meet On The River 20) Every Ship Must Find Harbor 21) I Could Learn To Love You 22) Quartette Blues 23) Sad Blues 24) Stop Dat Band
Document DOCD 5382 - Volume 2, Recordings 1923-1925 (23 tracks)
1) Father Prepare Me 2) My Lord's Gonna Move This Wicked Race 3) Raise R-U-K-U-S Tonight 4) Dixie Blues 5) Ain't It A Shame 6) Where Shall I Be (take 1) 7) Where Shall I Be (take 2) 8) I'm A Pilgrim 9) I'm Gonna Build Right On Dat Shore 10) Cryin Holy Unto The Lord 11) Roll, Jordan, Roll 12) I'm Going To Meet My Mother 13) Swing Low, Sweet Chariot 14) Ezekiel Saw De Wheel 15) Pleading Blues 16) Jelly Roll's First Cousin 17) What You Going To Do When The World's On Fire (take 1) 18) What You Going To Do When The World's On Fire (take 2) 19) When I Was A Moaner 20) Throw Out The Lifeline 21) Get On Board, Little Children, Get On Board 22) Every Time I Feel The Spirit 23) I'm Gonna Make Heaven My Home
Document DOCD 5383 - Volume 3, Recordings 1925-1927 (24 tracks)
1) Somebody's Always Talking About Me 2) Sit Down, Sit Down, I Can't Sit Down 3) Pharaoh's Army Got Drowned 4) Great Jehovah 5) I'm Gonna Do All I Can For My Lord (take 1) 6) I'm Gonna Do All I Can For My Lord (take 2) 7) Jesus, Lay Your Head In The Window (take 1) 8) Jesus, Lay Your Head In The Window (take 2) 9) Revival Day 10) Do You Want To Be A Lover Of The Lord? 11) See The Sign Of Judgement 12) Oh, The Shoes That My Lord Gave Me 13) I Want To Cross Over To See My Lord 14) If Anybody Asks You Who I Am 15) Let The Church Roll On 16) Queen St. Rag 17) Louisiana Bo-Bo 18) Swing Low, Sweet Chariot 19) Down By The Riverside 20) I'm Nearer My Home 21) Daniel In The Lion's Den 22) The Old Account Was Settled Long Ago 23) I Will Guide Thee 24) Shepherd Where Is Your Little Lamb?
Document DOCD 5384 - Volume 4, Recordings 1927-1929 (23 tracks)
1) King Jesus, Stand By Me 2) My Lord's Gonna Move This Wicked Place 3) Father Prepare Me 4) Ride On, King Jesus 5) Our Father 6) I Have Anchored My Soul 7) Crying Holy Unto The Lord 8) Ezekiel Saw De Wheel 9) Where Shall I Be 10) I'm Gonna Build Right On Dat Shore 11) I Wouldn't Mind Dying If Dying Was All 12) His Eye Is On The Sparrow 13) How Is It With Me 14) Wonder Where Is The Gamblin' Man 15) He Just Hung His Head And Died 16) Sinner, You Can't Hide 17) When The Moon Goes Down 18) Lord, I Don't Care Where They Bury My Body 19) I Want To Know Will He Welcome Me There 20) I'm Going Through 21) You're Goin' To Need That Pure Religion 22) Way Down In Egyptland 23) I Heard The Voice Of Jesus Say
Document DOCD 5385 - Volume 5, Recordings 1929-1937 (22 tracks)
1) I'm Pressing On To That City 2) Tell Me What You Say 3) Oh, What A Beautiful City 4) There Will Be Glory 5) I'm Gonna Open My Mouth Unto The Lord 6) Moanin' In The Land Will Soon Be Over 7) I'm Gonna Serve God Till I Die 8) Please Give Me Some Of That 9) Oh, What's The Matter Now? 10) You Got To Live So God Can Use You 11) Way Down In Egyptland 12) Didn't It Rain 13) Believe In Jesus 14) My Feet Been Taken Out The Mirey Clay 15) King Jesus, Stand By Me 16) Tell That Broad (You Came Too Late) 17) Swinging That Blues (Ever Had The Blues) 18) Ha Ha Shout 19) What¹s The Matter Now? 20) I Can't Stay Away 21) Pure Religion 22) Where's That Gambling Man Gone
Document DOCD 5386 - Volume 6, Recordings 1937-1940 (23 tracks)
1) My Lord's Gonna Move This Wicked Race 2) Free At Last 3) Sit Down, Sit Down, I Can't Sit Down 4) Stand By Me 5) He's Mine, Yes, He's Mine 6) Beedle-De-Beedle-De Bop Bop 7) Suntan Baby Brown 8) Stand By The Bedside Of A Neighbor 9) Job 10) Great Change 11) Come On! Let¹s Go To Heaven 12) Jesus Is Making Up My Dying Bed 13) Jonah In The Belly Of The Whale 14) When The Train Comes Along 15) No Hiding Place 16) You Better Run 17) Shine For Jesus 18) Dig My Jelly Roll 19) Moaning The Blues 20) I'd Feel Much Better 21) This Old Worlds Is In Bad Condition 22) The Deat Train Is Coming 23) Queen Street Rag
The Norfolk Quartet appeared on records under several pseudonyms, including the Jubilee Gospel Singers, the Virginia Jubilee Singers, the Midnight Four, the Wiseman Sextet, the Mobile Four, the Georgia Sacred Singers, the Down South Boys and several others. The group began to dissolve when its founder and leader, Len Williams, collapsed and died on stage in 1940. World War II and other artistic and personal pursuits finished the breakup.
Many of their recorded songs feature a solo vocal line accompanied by do-wop like figures in the remaining three voice parts. Indeed, this style of late 1930s gospel would become a direct contributor to the do-wop music of the 1950s.
Biddleville Quintet (ca. 1920s)
A now somewhat obscure group from Charlotte, NC, they were loosely associated with Johnson C. Smith University (then known as the Biddleville Institute, after the neighborhood in which it is located), the historically black school in that city. The group was apparently led by a laborer named Adam Brown, but beyond that, little biographical information is known. They recorded for Paramount and Pathe, and were the first group from Charlotte to make records.
From the limited resources available, it is difficult to get a complete picture of the stylistic features of the Biddleville style. An early Biddleville recording of "Prodigal Son" was made in the mid-1920s. It exhibits the call-and-response style of exchange between leader and ensemble that has always been one of the central themes of gospel music since its beginnings. Their recording of "Coming to Christ" is more in the style of a camp meeting song. Simple, repetitive rhythms accompany a simple, repetitive tune, facilitating mass congregational singing by congregants who may not be musically trained.
Once again, Document Records has released a set of the complete recordings of the Biddleville Quintet, which takes up one full CD and most of a second (which is filled out with four songs performed by the Birmingham Jubilee Singers and one by the Silver Leaf Quartette):[18]
Document DOCD 5361 - Volume 1, Recordings 1926-1929 (22 tracks)
1) Fight On, Your Time Ain't Long 2) Way Down In Egypt Land 3) I Heard The Voice Of Jesus Say 4) Wasn't That A Mighty Day 5) Heaven Is My View 6) Show Pity, Lord 7) Oh, Why Not To-Night 8) Whosoever Will May Come 9) Coming To Christ 10) Receiving The Message (take 1) 11) Receiving The Message (take 2) 12) Jesus Gonna Shake My Righteous Hand 13) Jacob Sent Joseph 14) This Train Is Bound For Glory 15) Prodigal Son 16) In The Garden Of Gethsemane 17) Wasn't That A Mighty Day 18) Didn't It Rain 19) Jesus Is The Rock 20) Holy Is My Name 21) Way Down In Egypt Land 22) The Day Is Past And Gone
Document DOCD 5362 - Volume 2, Recordings 1929 (21 tracks)
1) The Lord Giveth 2) Jesus Is Gonna Shake My Righteous Hand 3) Got The Heaven In My View 4) Coming To Christ 5) I Heard The Voice Of Jesus Say 6) Pharaoh's Army Got Drowned 7) Handwriting On The Wall 8) Judas And Jesus Walked Together 9) Goin' To Heaven Anyway 10) Jesus Is A Rock In The Weary Land 11) Blessed Be The Tie That Binds 12) I Stretch My Hand To Thee 13) I'm Going Up To Live With God 14) As I Live Let Me Live In Love 15) I'm Tormented In The Flame 16) Dip In The Beautiful Stream (etc...)
Golden Gate Quartet (1934 - present)
This quartet got their start in Norfolk, VA, when four students at Booker T. Washington High School drew together the influences of jazz, ragtime, the Norfolk Jubilee Quartet and the Fisk Singers, and formed their own style so distinctive it would become known as the "Gates" style.[19] Energetic vocal stylings and heavy doses of syncopation and rhythmic invention, as well as an element of humor, jocularity and plain old fun characterize this style.
In 1935 (the year the quartet graduated from high school), they began a three-year contract to sing over the Charlotte radio station WBT, which was powerful enough to reach much of the east coast. This wide exposure led to a recording deal with RCA Victor's Bluebird division, which resulted in their first big hit, "The Golden Gate Gospel Train". The rapidly rising star of the Golden Gate was cut somewhat short when two members were drafted into the armed forces during World War II, but the hiatus was not to last long, and they recorded several patriotic songs during the war years. The quartet moved to Paris in 1959, where they are still based, and still do a significant amount of touring across the Continent.[20]
Document's series of Golden Gate recordings is equally as exhaustive as the previously mentioned publications by the label:
Document DOCD 5472 - Volume 1, Recordings 1937-1938 (23 tracks)
1) Golden Gate Gospel Train 2) Gabriel Blows His Horn 3) Bedside Of A Neighbor 4) Jonah 5) Preacher And The Bear 6) Born Ten Thousand Years Ago 7) Behold The Bridegroom Cometh 8) Go Where I Send Thee 9) Won't There Be One Happy Time 10) Job 11) Bonnet 12) Massa's In The Cold, Cold Ground 13) Stand In The Test In Judgement 14) Found A Wonderful Savior 15) Carolina In The Morning 16) Motherless Child 17) Travelin' Shoes 18) John, The Revelator 19) Remember Me 20) Pure Religion 21) Dipsy Doodle 22) Swanee River 23) Lead Me On And On
Document DOCD 5473 - Volume 2, Recordings 1938-1939 (23 tracks)
1) Sweet Adeline 2) Sampson 3) I Was Brave 4) Take Your Burdens To God 5) Ol' Man River 6) When They Ring The Golden Bells 7) My Lord Is Writing 8) Rock My Soul 9) Bye And Bye, Little Children 10) God Almighty Said 11) Let That Liar Alone 12) To The Rock 13) Saints Go Marching In 14) Cheer The Weary Traveler 15) I Heard Zion Moan 16) Noah 17) Lord, Am I Born To Die? 18) What Are They Doing In Heaven Today? 19) Packing Up, Getting Ready To Go 20) Troubles Of The World 21) Lis'n To De Lambs 22) Everything Moves By The Grace Of God 23) This World Is In A Bad Condition
Document DOCD 5474 - Volume 3, Recordings 1939 (25 tracks)
1) Precious Lord 2) Noah 3) Ol' Man Mose 4) Change Partners 5) What A Time 6) He Said He Could Calm The Ocean 7) Hide Me In Thy Bosom 8) If I Had My Way 9) I Looked Down The Line And I Wondered 10) Way Down In Egypt Land 11) Our Father 12) You'd Better Mind 13) I'm A Pilgrim 14) Every Time That I Feel The Spirit 15) Whoa, Babe 16) Stormy Weather 17) The Devil With The Devil 18) Julius Caesar 19) Timber 20) Jonah In The Whale 21) Gospel Train (concert) 22) I'm On My Way (concert) 23) My Walking Stick 24) Darling Nellie Gray 25) What's New?
Relevant, but beyond the scope of this paper:
Document DOCD 5475 - Volume 4, Recordings 1939-1943
Document DOCD 5502 - Radio Transcriptions, 1941-1944
Document DOCD 5638 - Volume 5, Recordings 1945-1949
Document DOCD 5658 - Volume 6, Recordings 1949-1952
Various other Golden Gate Quartet recordings all containing tracks available elsewhere:
Blue Moon BMCD 3015 - The Early Years, 1937-1939
Blue Moon BMCD 3016 - Greatest Hits, 1946-1950
Columbia CK 47131 - Swing Down, Chariot
Fremeaux & Assoc. 002 - Gospel 1937-1941
Goldies 25435 - Rock My Soul & Other Gospel Favorites
RCA Bluebird 66063 - Travelin' Shoes
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Rosenbaum (Georgia)
SIDE II, Band 5 BROTHER, YOU OUGHT T'VE
BEEN THERE
Sung by Reverend Nathaniel Mitchell
and Sister Fleeta Mitchell with piano, and
Brady "Doell Barnes with guitar, and Lucy
Barnes. Athens, Clarke County, September
29, 1979.
Nathaniel and Fleeta Mitchell, long-time fri ends
and singing partners of the Barneses, were both
born blind, Nate in 1910 in Wilkes County, and
Fleeta in Laurens County in 1913. In their
childhoods they had to do hard farm work despite
their handicaps, and both learned eecular mUSic,
Nate playing blues on the harp (harmonica) and
Fleeta playing blues on piano and singing around
Warrenton, Georgia. They met at the Georgia
School for the Blind at Macon where one of
their echoolm£tes was Blind Willie MeTell,
des tined to become a renowned blues recording
artist. Nate became a minister and soon Fleeta
followed him in eschewing worldly music. The
Mitchells have some formal musical training:
Fleeta can read music in Braille, and Nate
has trained his rich baritone voice in
the manner of the Fisk Jubilee singers.
The combination of their style with the
Barneses more country approach is effective,
as in this catchy jubilee . FVV, pp . 46- 47 .
1. Oh, brother, you ought t've been there,
Brother, you ought t've been there,
Brother, you oughtta been there,
When the love come tricklin' down.
Chorus:
Seek, see, seek, seek, and you shall find,
Knock, knock, knock, and the do' shall be
opened,
Ask, ask, ask and it shall be given
When the love come tricklin' down.
Similarly, mother, brother, etc.