SG History 101

SG History 101 - Omissions

I knew when I began my series here five months ago on southern gospel’s outstanding performers by part that I would inevitably overlook some important contributors to the genre inadvertently. This month’s article is an attempt to make up for some of those omissions.

I confess that having “leftovers” may not be as satisfying as having the main course of the menu, but when it’s apparent that the leftovers who are here are just as deserving of being on the main menu as the previously featured dishes, it’s my hope that you’ll sample away and be just as satisfied this time around as you may have been the first time through.

The artists touched on in this article are here by your helpful comments and suggestions from those past articles, and because I am in full agreement with you that they should have been mentioned the first time through. Before I begin though, I’ll briefly review some criteria for inclusion into an article about southern gospel music history.

It’s my feeling that 25 years is more or less a proper “cutoff point” for inclusion into a history article, for to properly evaluate an artist’s place in a genre that has spanned 100 years, enough time needs to have passed for an artist’s work and impact can be objectively evaluated into a historical context.

This is why that, however talented and influential they may be, one simply cannot properly evaluate artists like Guy Penrod and Lauren Talley historically,yet. When their careers and impact have spanned enough time so that they can be said to have influenced a whole generation (or two or more) of artists, perhaps then artists like they can be evaluated as to their place in gospel music history. Until then, it would seem to me to be a bit premature to assess them historically.

No such situation exists for most of the artists I featured previously, or for those this month, either. Without any further ado then, let’s look at some of the artists I should have looked at earlier in my series, but didn’t.

First, among the great tenors of all time that I overlooked the first time around, none was more beloved and influential as a singer that Connor Hall.
The native South Carolinian formed the Homeland Harmony Quartet in 1942 and managed it into one of the finest gospel quartets to ever grace a stage or record a song.

The quartet had some of the finest and most famous singers to sing in a quartet, but always, it was Hall’s distinctively clear tenor voice that defined the sound of the quartet. Perhaps Hall’s version of the Vep Ellis-penned classic “The Love Of God” is one of the most celebrated “signature songs” of any gospel quartet singer, then or now.

Yes, Connor Hall was one of gospel music’s greatest tenors,so were a couple of unrelated gentlemen named Cook.

Coy Cook was nicknamed the “mayor of Flea Hop”, the Alabama town from whence he hailed. Always popular with fans, he spent many years with the Florida Boys, the Dixie Echoes, and the Apostles, among other groups. His tenor voice was influential and copied by many.

And Johnny Cook was probably best remembered for his years with the famous Happy Goodman Family, which he joined in the 1970s when Vestal Goodman developed health problems. The family wanted a singer who could duplicate Vestal’s sound as closely as possible while she recovered, and if one didn’t look too closely, when one heard the Goodmans with Cook on stage, it was hard to tell the difference between Cook and Vestal vocally, such was Cook’s amazing tenor range. This similarity was best illustrated on their recording of “Looking For A City”, which was arranged as a contest between Cook and Vestal as to who could go higher. This was also a highlight of Goodman concerts in that period.

Cook later sang with the first post-Vestal iteration of the Happy Goodman Family as well as the 1990s reorganized Statesmen Quartet, then segued into a solo career and still later conducted evangelistic meetings. Cook was an extremely popular and gifted singer, and truly one of the genre’s brightest stars of the 1970s and early 1980s.

Two of the more illustrious lead singers of the genre shared an Alabama heritage and stints in the Dixie Echoes, as well as the respect and admiration of gospel music fans everywhere.

Jack Toney began his career with the Joymasters in the 1950s, and along the way spent time with the Prophets, Searchers, and Stamps Quartets. In the early 1960s he was featured with JG Whitfield’s Dixie Echoes, and began his rise to acclaim there. But in 1963, Toney was asked to replace Jake Hess in the Statesmen Quartet. He never quite replaced Hess in the eyes and ears of the fans, but he certainly earned acclaim and respect for his considerable vocal talent. His clear and musical voice defined what a quartet lead singer should be to many gospel fans.

When Toney left the Dixie Echoes, that quartet got a talented and charismatic lead singer from the Tennesseans Quartet named Dale Shelnut to take his place. Shelnut was an immediate hit, and his flair for spirituals was something that gospel fans always enjoyed and appreciated. Shelnut’s son and grandson carry on his legacy in the Dixie Echoes of today.

Among the baritones I could have mentioned but didn’t in my initial article were a couple of men who first made their names in gospel music in the 1950s.

Bob Crews sang both lead and baritone in a long career with the Harmoneers, while Bill Crowe sang for many years with his father-in-law Elmo Fagg in the Blue Ridge Quartet as well as with the Foggy River Boys for a brief time in the early 1960s. Both men were known as prototype “quartet men” that could blend expertly in harmony and also take a feature part in a song with equal aplomb.

And one bass I forgot to highlight in my initial article on bass singers was one of the early pioneers of the genre. Frank Stamps was a veteran of World War ONE who was the bass singer and manager of the first gospel quartet to record on a major record label,the Stamps All-Star Quartet, who made a record for RCA in 1927.

Stamps learned to sing at the Vaughan School of Music, but later joined his brother V.O. in organizing what became known as the Stamps-Baxter music company. He left that organization in 1945 to set up the Stamps Quartet music company, and branched out into singing schools, giving back to future generations what he originally got out of singing gospel quartet music.

And sing it he did. Stamps’ talent was such that a very young J.D. Sumner heard the Stamps All-Star Quartet in Florida, and decided then and there he wanted to be a bass singer in a gospel quartet. Stamps was a legend in the history of gospel music, as a singer, manager, and teacher.

One more bass singer I ought to have included initially was Burl Strevel, a most accomplished singer with the Blue Ridge Quartet and the Sunshine Boys, and a popular one with fans and other singers alike.

But probably the most egregious omission I made in my original article series was last month, when I overlooked one of the most accomplished artists (male OR female) in the entire genre of southern gospel music.

Dottie Luttrell Rambo was a gifted songwriter and guitarist who began her singing career at revivals and church events all through the Southeastern United States. After marrying Buck Rambo, Dottie not only became the featured singer for the Rambos trio, but she became one of the most prolific songwriters in the history of Christian music, with classics such as “Tears Will Never Stain The Streets Of That City”, “Sheltered In The Arms Of God”, “If That Isn’t Love”, “He Looked Beyond My Faults”, and “We Shall Behold Him” all to her credit.

Yes, as a singer, writer, and performer, Dottie Rambo is one of southern gospel music’s all time greats,and I should have said so last month.

I truly hope that this look at some of the “leftovers” I didn’t serve initially helps to make up for my lack of attention to them initially, and helps them to be recognized in their proper place in the long history of this great genre of gospel music.

See you again next month..

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Reader Comments

   tbeitzel ~ 04/09/2010

You're very brave to list singers specifically as most certainly, someone will wonder why their favorite singer wasn't included. You certainly do span the years with your research and I always enjoy reading your articles.

By the way, Bill Crowe is Elmo's nephew, not son in law...but hey, who's keeping notes. LOL. Keep up the good work John!

   .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) ~ 04/27/2010

Have you ever noticed that the 50s recordings of groups like Homeland Harmony, Statesmen, Blackwoods, Oaks, etc sounded more like Pop than Country?



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