Or, The story of why an all-male quartet sounded like a mixed one.
No idea on the year--no Discogs listing for this. Plus, there's at least one other group by this name--an all-male quartet.
Speaking of all-male quartets, when I was editing these files on MAGIX (to catch any surface noise not silenced by VinylStudio and to space and number the tracks), I thought I was listening to an album by the Brothers Quartet, which is (obviously) four men. So I couldn't understand why I was hearing two female voices. I figured the Brothers Q. must have had an amazingly high tenor and lead. Once I realized my error, I had to do the jacket scanning and photo editing anew, which is time-consuming. And I was already up too late and starting to doze off--hence, the delay.
This can happen when you're doing two projects at once. When the files export into MAGIX, they're not labeled, which doesn't help. No loss, since I was going to put these guys up, anyway. The liner notes, by Gospel DJ Jerry Tope (of WLGN Radio in Logan, Ohio) only give first names for the singers--Penny, Janet, Steve and Larry, and I suspect their last name isn't Songsmen. Going by the song credits (on the back cover), Janet and Steve could be Janet and Steve Peters, and Penny could be Penny Meade, and Larry's last name could be Leach. But I don't want to assume. Oddly enough, the "musicians" (i.e., accompanists) get full-name listings. The quartet was based in Pleasantville, Ohio, which is very close to here, and the recording was made in Cincinnati, which is not nearly as close. The performances and production are highly professional, especially for such a small label.
Some familiar songs, and four which are very possibly group originals. The all-time classic On the Jericho Road, given the "P.D." treatment on the jacket, was by Donald S. McCrossan. Year:1928.
I'd place the Songsmen's style between Southern quartet (aka. Southen gospel) and country gospel. The former took on more and more of a country sound as time went on--which is to say, more of a modern country sound. The quartets always operated in the realm of country, but initially in the old-time mode of, say, Smith's Sacred Singers. Some of the earliest recorded quartet music hearkened back to "shape note" (or "shaped note") singing, which is a wonderful tradition going back to the late 1700s, as far as printed music goes. It's related to solfège, and other systems were tried, too, including numbering the noteheads and writing out the syllables (do/doh, re, mi, etc.). I have a Methodist hymnal of the latter type.
Dee Gaskin's Come Morning appears to be from 1979, so that likely places this in the 1980s, which is what the cover photo has me suspecting.
And the rain is starting again. We absolutely do not need more of the stuff after the recent local flooding....
DOWNLOAD: The Songsmen Quartet: Coming Your Way
First Day in Heaven
I'm in This Church (Joel Hemphill)
Beulah Land (Squire Parsons)
I Find Pleasure (Words and Music by Penny Meade)
My Best Friend (Words and Music by Janet Peters)
On the Jericho Road (Donald S. McCrossoan)
He's Still Working one Me (Joel Hemphill)
Consider the Lilies (Joel Hemphill)
He Cares (For a Nothing Like Me) (Words and Music by Steve Peters)
Singing and Shouting (Words and Music by Larry Leach)
Come Morning (Dee Gaskin)
I Want to Be Like My Lord (Jimmy Jones)
Lee
7 comments:
That label looks awfully familiar...
https://ernienotbert.blogspot.com/2019/01/rod-not-rob.html
https://ernienotbert.blogspot.com/2018/11/school-is-in.html
Must be a popular label! :)
Cool! With obvious blogger like us, yes!
"Your First Day in Heaven" is a Stuart Hamblen song (and a good one). This group may have learned it from the Gaither version, which came out in 1981. So early 80s looks like a good guess as to date!
I meant, with obsessive bloggers like us. ("Obvious"?)
Thanks, Buster! That title did seem a little un-Gaither. Glad to find my date guess was good. It's the look of the group, more than anything else.
And this is a quartet of six?
The four singers, plus two of the musicians! Usually, with less fancy quartets than this one, the piano player will appear in the group photo, making it five (unless the pianist is also one of the singers). And there are occasionally five-member quartets, which of course should be called quintets, but people are used to "quartet." And five-part harmony is basically window dressing on the tenor/lead/baritone/bass structure, anyway.
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