We'll pretend it's Sunday morning--or I will, anyway. Otherwise, I'd have to title this "Monday a.m. shellac."
Lots of great stuff here, and most of these sides are seeing the light of blog for the first time (my blog, anyway). And they've all been ripped using my 3.5 mil needle, so they sound great. Most of them, anyway. Some were hopeless from the start, like the poorly recorded Vaughan Quartet sides (on the Vaughan label, by the way), the Homer Rodeheaver and Charles Gabriel duet, and.... Hmm.
Well, actually, everything else sounds quite good, old-78-wise. A note about the Rodeheaver/Gabriel side: Gabriel was the hugely popular gospel songwriter who wrote the music and/or words for Will the Circle Be Unbroken, Higher Ground, and tons more. The three Gabriel songs in this zip are (The) Glory Song, His Eye Is on the Sparrow, and Where the Gates Swing Outward Never--the last one featuring Gabriel himself. Unfortunately, the sound quality isn't much, and neither is Gabriel's singing. He was in his 60s at the time (1922), so maybe his voice hadn't aged well. But it's cool to hear the man himself.
Philip Phillips' Home of the Soul (1865) was a huge hit in its day and beyond. I don't know when it fell out of fashion--maybe the 1920s?--but it enjoyed something like a 50-year run as a standard. Our performance, by the Whitney Brothers, is gorgeous, and the falsetto (semi-falsetto?) lead is amazing and fascinating. And we get to hear them again on The Light of the World Is Jesus.
You can't go wrong with this Sunday playlist. If you do, I'll disavow any knowledge of your actions.
Click here to hear: Sunday Morning Shellac, 6-5-16
PLAYLIST
Glory Song (Oh, That Will Be Glory for Me) (Chas. H. Gabriel)--Criterion Quartet, 1908
His Eye Is on the Sparrow (Gabriel)--Harry K. Shields, Tenor, poss. 1924
Where the Gates Swing Outward Never (Gabriel)--Charles H. Gabriel and Homer Rodeheaver, 1922
Home of the Soul (Phillips)--Whitney Brothers Quartet, 1909
White Than Snow (Fischer)--Dixie Jubilee Singers, 1925
Let the Lower Lights Be Burning (Bliss)--Dixie Jubilee Singers, 1925
Throw Out the Life-Line--Harry Macdonough and Hayden Quartet, 1911
Love (Callaway)--The Vaughan Quartet, 1927
I Am Praying for You (Cluff-Sankey)--(Frank C.) Stanley and (Henry) Burr, 1909
When You Get It Right (Sebren)--Vaughan Quartet, 1927
He Leadeth Me (Bradbury)--Mr. and Mrs. Wheeler--soprano and tenor duet, 1910
The Light of the World Is Jesus--Whitney Brothers Quartet, 1909
Lee
2 comments:
Hi Lee - I am so thrilled to discover your blog, and especially this post - my grandfather was George W. Sebren who worked with James D. Vaughn, as the first editor of "Vaughn's Family Visitor" from 2012-2014, and also of course singing and playing music together in the Vaughn Quartet! My father, Herbert L. Sebren was also a great musician with the Norfolk symphony. I have been trying for YEARS to find any recordings of my grandfather (or his brother, A. B. Sebren who sang with the Vaughn Happy Two). Do you have any more recordings by the Vaughn quartet or other related groups that might have my grandfather on them? Thanks again so much! All the best, Sam
Hi, Sam. Thanks for posting--fascinating info! I'm afraid I only own one other Vaughan Quartet side--this time on the Victor label. You can find it at this link: https://musicyouwont.blogspot.com/2016/06/sunday-morning-shellac-1908-1927.html
Hope that helps.
I had one other Vaughan label 78, but the surface damage was so bad, I had to get rid of it.
And here are eight V. Quartet sides at the Internet Archive: https://archive.org/search.php?query=%22vaughan%20quartet%22 Somebody overdid the hiss filtering, but they're listenable.
Continued luck in your search.
Best, Lee
Post a Comment