The Looper Trio--Singing on the Way

A very quick essay for this last-minute post.  From a number of cyber-sources, I learned that the Looper Trio hails (or hailed) from Tennessee.  And we have this info, from today's back jacket: "Coleman Looper {group leader} began singing in a quartet in Indiana in the Fifties.  He later came to Tennessee joining his brother Oral in a quartet known as 'joyful Echoes.' ... In 1964 Brenda Looper, the daughter of Oral, joined Coleman and Oral to form this trio.  With Brenda's high soprano voice, Coleman singing tenor and playing the electric guitar, Oral singing baritone and playing the flat top guitar."  A little further down, we read, "Our sincere thanks to Neal McCormick who played the bass guitar."  Neal was probably performing on a guest basis for this LP.

That's an exact quote, including the sentence fragment.  Not being a grammar Nazi, but just in case you found yourself wondering where it was going.  The last two sentences would have worked nicely with a comma between them, so maybe it was a typo at Gospel Records and Recordings, the Dayton, Ohio outfit listed on the jacket and label.  No actual label name, but you can't have everything.  Discogs says this was pressed by Rite Record Productions, but it doesn't have a year.  This is monaural, so I'm thinking 1965-ish.

Outstanding music here, and I put it up once before, though the original page is one of the many I deleted a few years back.  I would categorize these folks as bluegrass gospel, but people in cyberspace seem to classify them as southern gospel--no big deal.  I sometimes use the label "country gospel" for music that straddles the line between bluegrass and southern gospel, but let's just describe the Loopers as a more Appalachian-sounding Chuck Wagon Gang.  Or I will. You don't have to.  Just download and enjoy.  Can't find composer credit for My Heavenly Home, which is also known as That Heavenly Home--no time to search my songbooks, and on line isn't much help, but I'll see if I can crack the mystery.  I did find the folks behind the modern standard, Wouldn't Take Nothing for My Journey Now, which is actually I Wouldn't Take Nothing for My Journey Now.  Those folks are Jimmie Davis and Charles F. Goodman.  From 1964, looks like.  When I first heard this song c. 1990, I didn't quite get the vernacular--I thought it was about not taking anything to Heaven with you--no books, photos, etc.  Of course, "take" means "trade," as in "I wouldn't trade anything for...."  Especially anything offered by the Devil.  It had me wondering at first.

In other news, That Old Time Religion, the seventh track in our playlist,  is not the famous "Give me that..." gospel number.  Just so you know.  And, yes, that third title is Give Up.  What's it doing on an LP of inspirational numbers?  Ah, just listen to the lyrics and see.  Clever irony, whether intentional or not.  Give it up for the author, the late Howard Goodman of the Happy Goodman Family, another terrific singing group.

Update:  Thanks to Bob, who identified this as a Rite Record (Cincinnati OH) pressing from 1973.  This page gives years for Rite matrix numbers.  I had figured this might be a Rite pressing, but there's no "Rite" on the dead wax, and no mention of Rite Records on the back jacket.  In addition, there are two tiny words in the dead wax, both of them next to illegible.  The first could be "Nashville" (????).  The group is from TN.  Could it have made these tracks there?  The recordings are mono, and I have two earlier Looper LPs, both in stereo.  Anyway....






DOWNLOAD: Singing on the Way--The Looper Trio



Never Die, Just Be Promoted
Lord, Hasten That Day
Give Up (Howard Goodman)
He Came a Long Way from Heaven
I Want My Life to Be Pleasing to Him
It Was His Love
That Old Time Religion
Wouldn't Take Nothing for My Journey Now (Davis-Goodman)
Now It's Time to Pray
My Heavenly Home
Like to Talk It Over with Him
Country Baptizing

Singing on the Way--The Looper Trio (Gospel Records and Recordings; Dayton OH.  Pressed by Rite Records, 1973)


Lee