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Dave's Top Eight
1. Jerry Reed...Revisited by Darrell Toney (reviewed 6/07) (5 Stars) Click title to purchase at CBD.com...click artist name to read Dave's Review. A CD will automatically fall out of the Top Eight after twelve months if no CD surpasses it before then.
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Civil War In Four Minutes
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-----------Wednesday, February 07, 2007Remembering Terry McMillanGospel music recently lost a terrific studio musician. Terry McMillan was one of those unsung heroes who made everyone else shine with his contributions to countless recordings. The clip above shows him in one of those rare moments where he took the spotlight and delighted everyone. This is from a Homecoming video. I wrote "Gospel music" above, but really, McMillan played on all sorts of recordings. I first heard him years ago when he was on tour with Amy Grant and Micheal W. Smith, playing in the band. I can't recall the venue, but I do remember that he came out for a feature solo and stole the show. I believe Michael W. Smith had just released his i 2 (eye) recording...if so, that would make it 1988. Monday, December 25, 2006The term "Southern Gospel"Click HERE to hear Ed Sullivan use the term "Southern Gospel" on May 1, 1966. Of course, I realize he means "gospel music from the south," not Southern Gospel from the white quartet traditions that we use the term to describe today. After all, Sullivan is introducing James Brown (who died today at the age of 73). Still, it's interesting to hear how the term was used in an era before its definition was restricted to its current focus...at that time, the "Southern" in "Southern Gospel" meant a section of the United States, not a particular style, even though the term overall is being used to define Brown's style. And of course, before that, the "south" part of the USA was defined due to the division created during the Civil War. "The South" is really southeast on a map of the modern USA. It's funny how some labels originate from a simple, logical combination of terms, but then persist based on traditional usage even as the underlying reality that caused the terms to combine shifts away. Labels: Observations, Old Clips Wednesday, December 20, 2006Classic Stamps ClipAt YouTube.com, someone with the username "sleepycreek" has posted a vintage clip of J. D. Sumner & The Stamps singing "Wayfaring Stranger." This clip is from a 1967 episode of the The Buck Owens Show. Vocalists include Jim Hill, Donnie Sumner, Jimmy Blackwood, and JD. If the date is correct on this clip, and the list of group members over at www.sghistory.com is correct, the musicians are Tony Brown on piano and Billy Blackwood on drums, with Mylon Lefevre and Duke Dumas playing the two guitars. That looks like Mylon on the left. You can only get a brief glimpse of the other guitar player and Tony Brown is only seen at the beginning of the clip. J. D. bottoms out on an E below low C near the end of the clip. Update: By the way, I learned of this clip thanks to James Moore who linked to it on AMGS...should have mentioned that earlier. Labels: Old Clips Saturday, November 19, 2005Golden Gate Quartet (Old Clip Link)Reading about groups from days gone by can only go so far. Written descriptions can never substitute for actually hearing the music, though. I ran across a neat website while browsing earlier this evening. It's called "BT Memories." WBT is a radio station that was established in Charlotte, NC in 1922. The website is maintained by former station employees and features a rich array of photos, articles and soundclips. Fans of old-time Southern Gospel music will want to check out an 11 minute sound clip by the Golden Gate Quartet from 1942 available HERE. (It's in RealAudio format.) Scroll down to the section titled "Oldtime Radio Sounds." The site also has a photo of the group HERE. This black group was very versatile as the clip demonstrates. They perform with acoustic guitar for accompaniment, as did many of the groups during this era. The program featured in the clip is mostly secular music, but there's a sacred number just before the clip fades out. The Golden Gate Quartet does not sound at all like a "black group" to me. I've heard the Fairfield Four, Blind Boys of Alabama and others who sing in a traditional black gospel male quartet format. The Golden Gate Quartet is much more polished...less emotion driven. Their blend is sensational, and they have a precise rhythm that makes me think of the Melody Masters of the late 1940s. They sound like they could have sung right alongside the traditional white quartets of the day, and indeed they did share the stage with the Statesmen, Blackwood Brothers, and others in the late 1940s. This all changed after the Brown Vs. Board Of Education decision by the Supreme Court raised racial tensions in the South. The group left the US to tour Europe in the mid-1950s and eventually relocated there...an unfortunate turn of events for Southern Gospel music, because the genre has been almost exclusively segregated as a white form of music ever since. There have only been five major black groups in Southern Gospel since that time...Teddy Huffam and the Gems, Charles Johnson and the Revivers, Don Degrate and Strong Tower, the Gospel Enforcers, and the Reggie Saddler Family. Only two major groups that started out as all white Southern Gospel groups have had a black member...the Imperials and the Gaither Vocal Band. It's been over fifty years since Brown v. BOE. You'd think with all the pressure to stand out and be unique in a genre where so many groups sound the same, at least a few major groups in SG would actively pursue black candidates whenever they have an open vocal position...but no, the few active black groups that we do have in SG are all black and the other groups are all white...with a few Native Americans thrown in here and there. Labels: Old Clips 
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