SG History 101

SG History 101 - Lead Singers

This is the second in a series of articles providing an overview of some of the greatest singers in the history of quartet singing (the stylistic basis for much of what we today call “southern” gospel) by part.
 
Last month, we began this overview by focusing on the first tenors, the singers responsible for the highest notes in male quartet singing. Following the traditional order of the classic gospel quartet on stage from left to right, this month the focus will be on the most distinctive second tenors, better known as the lead singers.
 
Now the term “lead” singer doesn’t necessarily imply that the singer in that role is always the featured vocalist on every song. It simply refers to the common placement of a song’s melody line in the second tenor part of a quartet arrangement, although in most cases it’s that singer who usually has the quartet’s most distinctive and outstanding singing voice, and consequently is most often featured on songs the quartet sings.
 
As we noted last month, however, the earliest quartets were more sales vehicles for the music publishing companies that owned them than entertainers or “stars” in their own rights.
 

In spite of that fact, by the 1930s, some quartet leads began to stand out among their peers.  Down in Texas, the Rangers Quartet was starting on their way to taking gospel quartet to a wider national venue, and they were led by their marvelous lead singer Vernon Hyles, who not only had a strong and expressive voice in the lead range, but could sing down in a bass range as well. His voice and managerial acumen had as much to do with the Rangers eventually becoming the most popular male gospel quartet by the war years as anything.
 
But down in Mississippi, a diminutive young man with a big, big lead voice was coming into his own with his family quartet, the Blackwood Brothers. James Blackwood had amazing voice projection ability as well as a wide range. He could sing as high (or higher) than most gospel first tenors, and after World War II, helped by the innovative arrangements of pianist Jackie Marshall, James and the Blackwood Brothers became the nation’s most well-known male gospel quartet, assisted in great part by their triumphant appearance on Arthur Godfrey’s popular Talent Scouts TV program in 1954.
 
James Blackwood continued to be a standard bearer for classic gospel quartet lead singing well into the 1980s, after he’d finally left the Blackwood Brothers to join the Masters V. And even after that, after he’d formed his own quartet, and then occasional solo appearances, he continued to be one of gospel music’s greatest and most beloved lead singers.
 
But in the following decade, a number of lead singers who would be recognized as some of the best to ever sing quartet music began their careers.
 
Of those, perhaps the most distinctive and preeminent of those singers was a young man from Alabama who got his first major singing job at the age of 16 with the well-known John Daniel Quartet named W. Jake Hess. Hess went from the Daniel Quartet to one of the most accomplished quartets even to sing in the genre, the Melody Masters Quartet. It was his work with that group that caught the ear of Hovie Lister, the already much traveled gospel pianist seeking to form his own “super” quartet. Lister invited Hess to join his new Statesmen Quartet in 1948, and for most of the next 15 years, Hess defined the sound of that outstanding quartet. Hess’ unique vocal style and wnning personality made him one of the most popular singers (of ANY part) to ever sing gospel music in the southern quartet genre.
 
But Hess, like Lister, had his own dreams. He left the Statesmen in late 1963 to form his own quartet of hand-picked singers, and that group, the Imperials, soon became one of gospel music’s top groups. Hess’ musical versatility enabled his Imperials to become one of the pioneer groups in reaching younger audiences in the late 1960s with a slightly more contemporary sound than other quartets.
 
After Hess left the Imperials in 1968, he continued singing with groups of his own, and later joined the aforementioned Masters V in the 1980s. Hess spent his latter years as a featured iconic singer on the Bill Gaither Homecoming team, maintaining that unique vocal approach and winning personality to remain one of the most influential and best-loved gospel singers ever.
 
There were many other lead singers who became popular with gospel music fans in the 1940s.
 
Buford Abner of the Swanee River Boys was one. An accomplished songwriter as well as a distinctive singer, his highly influential singing and writing style made him and his quartet popular throughout the 1940s into the 1950s and 1960s as well. Another was Wally Fowler, another John Daniel Quartet alumnus who was featured with his Oak Ridge Quartet and as a soloist as well, and became even more widely known in the 1950s through TV and his famous “All Night Sings”, a phenomenon he began in 1948.
 
Other outstanding lead singers coming to prominence during the 1940s included Buddy Parker, who sang with Bobby Strickland’s Crusaders and later the Harvesters Quartet, Elmo Fagg, who began his long career with the Blue Ridge Quartet in the later part of the decade, and Lee Kitchens, who came to prominence in the 1940s with what would become known as the Rebels Quartet, and still later sang with the innovative Sons of Song trio.
 
All the above singers remained prominent as the 1950s dawned, and even more would take their places alongside them as outstanding quartet lead singers.
 
Men like Jim Hamill, who sang with many, many quartets throughout the 1950s, who had a charismatic personality to go with a big voice that seemed to be able to sing as long as needed. Hamill finally settled down with the Rebels in the 1960s before becoming the driving force behind the Kingsmen Quartet in the 1970s through the early 1990s.
 
And men like Glen Payne, who began his long career in the 1940s with the Stamps-Ozark Quartet right out of singing school, but didn’t really become prominent until he joined the Weatherford Quartet in the 1950s. It was with that group that Payne really hit his vocal stride. He was not really a tenor but a baritone who could sing a second tenor part as well as any. Of course, most modern gospel music fans are aware that Payne’s most well-known work came with the Cathedral Quartet beginning in 1964 and lasting until his passing in 1999. Payne was also featured with the Gaither Homecoming troupe and was very well-liked and respected by peers and fans alike.
 
Other fine lead singers who came to prominence in the 1950s included Arkansas native Les Beasley, who parlayed a long stint with the Florida Boys into a leadership position he holds today in the industry, Smitty Gatlin, who assumed the lead part with a reformed Oak Ridge Quartet after Wally Fowler left the group, and became a popular and beloved singer into the 1960s, Shorty Bradford, a longtime associate of gospel legend Lee Roy Abernathy, who sang lead with a number of quartets Abernathy was in, and showed off a huge vocal range with Abernathy in the Happy Two, and Jay Berry, an outstanding young singer from Missouri who, with the Prophets and later the Rebels, became recognized in the 1960s as one of the very best lead singers ever until his untimely loss of voice in 1965 or so.
 
The 1960s brought gospel music more outstanding lead singers. When Jake Hess left the Statesmen to form the Imperials, his departure left a huge hole in the quartet, vocally AND on stage. Two of the better lead singers who did a commendable job in filling that hole were Jack Toney, who brought his outstanding voice over from the Dixie Echoes, and Roy McNeil, who also starred with the Prophets and Stamps Quartets.
 
The Oak Ridge Quartet (later to become the Oak Ridge Boys) lost a great lead voice when Smitty Gatlin departed, but gained another as well as a fine songwriter and energetic manager in Duane Allen, who had been with the Prophets and Southernaires in his native Texas prior to joining the Oaks.
 
When JD Sumner left the Blackwood Brothers to join the Stamps Quartet, he looked no further than his own family to find a powerful, dynamic lead singer. Donnie Sumner was an important part of that quartet into the 1970s. His replacement, former group baritone Ed Enoch (JD’s son-in-law) , did an outstanding job there for several more years.
 
Jack Mainord was a fine lead singer for the Plainsmen through the early 1960s, while Neil Enloe (a recent inductee into the SGMA Hall of Fame) was a very good singer in addition to his superlative songwriting and arranging skills for the Couriers.
 
The 1970s saw the emergence of, among others, Kenny Hinson, one of the most distinctive and accomplished lead singers, who was featured with his very popular family group. And another young quartet lead came to prominence with the Singing Americans and later became even more popular with the Gold City Quartet in the 1980s, Ivan Parker would cite the Oak Ridge Boys as a primary influence on his approach to singing gospel music.
 
As in my previous article, this examination of gospel quartet leads is not intended to mention everyone who sang with every quartet, but only to cite the most outstanding contributors to the lead singing style. And as last month, there will no doubt be omissions and oversights (though hopefully none as egregious as last month, when I failed to cite Coy Cook, an inexcusable oversight when discussing great tenors) .
 
So please feel free to post your comments, especially to make corrections or add names that, for whatever reason, I didn’t mention here. I appreciate those comments, they help make these articles better for both me and our readers.
 
Next month, we’ll continue the series, looking at the all-too-ignored harmonic glue to any good quartet, the baritones.

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Reader Comments

   spirit7productions ~ 11/11/2009

John:All these outstanding Lead Singers you wrote about in your Article are certainly worthy of being Honored.I would like to add two other Names,Eddie Wallace,who I believe is the only living Member of "The Sunshine Boys Quartet" of the 1950's.With Eddie's Distinctive Lead Voice you always knew you were listening to "The Sunshine Boys". Another Name I would like to mention,who is probably not as well known,is,Lane Shaw,who sang with several Quartets.Lane started singing Professionally with his Brothers,"The Key Masters Quartet" in 1946 and The Quartet Recently Retired in 2007.He went on to sing with "The Melody Masters,in Nebraska,and returned to Alabama to rejoin His Brothers. lane Shaw,who passed away a number of years ago,had a wide Range Voice and also was a outstanding Musician.

SoundMan

   .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) ~ 11/11/2009

I think that Mike English has probably influenced a great number of lead singers since his days with the Singing Americans. My personal favorite is Dale Shipley. No one has a bigger voice or better tone. Others that should be mentioned are Clayton Inman, Arthur Rice and Jonathan Wilburn.

   .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) ~ 11/12/2009

Man, how can you possibly mention every great lead singer... or even every hugely influential lead singer? Great job, John. Of course, I feel duty bound to mention two more: my personal fave Gentleman Jack Toney (Dixie Echoes, Prophets, Statesmen, Masters V, Stamps) and the hugely influential Dale Shelnut (Dixie Echoes.)

Chris J. Becker
Cedar Rapids, IA

   .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) ~ 11/13/2009

Good call, Chris!

Jack and Dale are two of the finest and most influential leads in the genre's history...and I should have written more about them and their contributions.

I might add that in all these articles I'm writing, I'm not merely listing favorites of a particular time period, but singers that a historical consensus might determine have made a lasting historical impact on the genre, due to either influence, quality of work, or unique popularity.

A problem with trying to include singers from the 1980s and 1990s in this sort of analysis is simply that it's too premature to objectively assess the impact of those singers in a historical sense, because not enough time has passed to get a clear picture of that sort about those singers.

Certainly English, Inman, Rice, and Wilburn are fine and gifted singers...but I feel it's advisable to wait a little while longer to accurately assess their overall historical impact on the genre.

Morning glory and evening grace,

Giving the world a smile each day,


john.sogospelnews.com

   .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) ~ 11/13/2009

John, another great article. I think you hinted at a uniqueness of Southern Gospel groups that confuses groups in other genres. If you go to Rock, Country, even old Motown, when you speak of the Lead singer, thy have in their mind THE singer who just about always has the lead or melody in the song, for the whole song. Southern Gospel groups are certainly a different animal. When you hear a SG group, the Tenor may have the lead all the way through the song, and may do so on 5 or 6 songs in the program. Even the Bass singer is featured on several songs in a program. Yet in a SG group, the Lead singer is usually the singer who has the most dominating voice in the group and the singer who usually is most adapt able to carrying the melody. I think it's great that we are unique.

I have to agree with Chris though, Jack Toney would have been in my top 5 all time Lead Singers.
I must admit though that I never had the opportunity to hear any of the Rangers early recordings so I never got to hear the voice of Vernon Hyles. I guess maybe you're just a lot OLDER than me.

Deon Unthank
SoGospelNews.com
My Blog

Some people are like Slinkys…  Not really good for anything, but they
still bring a smile to your face when you push them down a flight of stairs -  Author Unknown

   spirit7productions ~ 11/13/2009

John: I agree with your assessment of The SGM Lead Singers of The 1980's and 1990's. There are a number of very good Vocalist from that period,however many of them have yet to distinguish them self in The Industry.

SoundMan

   .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) ~ 11/13/2009

Thank you, SoundMan, but I didn't say that those more recent fine singers "...have yet to distinguish themselves in the industry." Obviously they already have...I merely stated as an opinion that their work has not had the time to establish itself into a form that could be used as an objective basis to evaluate their historical impact just yet...that's all.

Morning glory and evening grace,

Giving the world a smile each day,


john.sogospelnews.com

   .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) ~ 11/13/2009

John, one thing that has not been mentioned about some of the great sounding Lead singers today is endurance. Most of the singers you have mentioned sang for decades, not just years. That ability to stick around for so long is part of what made them great.
What I'm saying is that most of the great Lead singers we are hearing today haven't proven themselves for durability. That takes nothing away from their singing ability, but durability has yet to be proven.

Deon Unthank
SoGospelNews.com
My Blog

Some people are like Slinkys…  Not really good for anything, but they
still bring a smile to your face when you push them down a flight of stairs -  Author Unknown

   .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) ~ 11/16/2009

Determining the best lead singers of SG history...
...or tenor, baritone and bass for that matter....
is sort of like deciding who the best athletes are. It is impossible, and usually is a result of who you love.
I loved Jay Berry, and in my heart he is the best singer I've ever heard, and I've heard most of them. But, I realize that his longevity keeps him from being mentioned...by everyone but me
.....as one of the best of all time.
That was another excellent article, and I can't think of anyone of significance that you left out.

Keep me safe ‘til the storm passes by

   .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) ~ 11/20/2009

It was great to see Jay Berry included. How about Ben Speer?

   dannygraham ~ 04/28/2010

Couple of my favs are Jonathan Wilburn and Guy Penrod



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