2005

SG History 101 - Promoters

This month, we’ll focus on the concert promoters who were instrumental in the growth and success of gospel music.

As the power and influence of the gospel music publishers in gospel music waned after World War II, many imaginative and innovative concert promoters started to become leaders in the fledgling gospel music industry.

Two men in particular who became chief forces in the South right after World War II were W.B. Nowlin and Wally Fowler.

Nowlin was a Texas Methodist who had gotten his training in the V.O. Stamps organization in the late 1930s, and by 1948 helped to organize the DeLeon Peach and Melon Festival in DeLeon, Texas. After spending $750 of his own money to attract country music superstar Eddy Arnold, he then needed to book a concert to get the Festival off the ground. He chose to book the Stamps All-Star Gospel Quartet as an opening act for Arnold, and the Stamps-Ozark Gospel Quartet to follow Arnold. Despite the objections by Arnold’s manager, Col. Tom Parker (who would later guide the career of Elvis Presley), over a gospel quartet following Arnold, the concert drew 12,000 people, and it was a success all around.
The Stamps-Ozark Quartet introduced a new song, “O What A Savior,” and captured the crowd’s hearts.

The success of that initial concert made Nowlin a regular concert promoter. For a while longer, he continued to book gospel quartets alongside established country stars, opening up new audiences for fans of both genres. By 1950, he promoted his first “Battle of Songs,” which featured the top quartets in a sort of head-to-head competition. Fans were urged to come out and cheer on their favorite quartet. The “Battle of Songs” soon became a Nowlin staple. Over the next four decades, Nowlin began to advertise concerts from his home base of Fort Worth. And by 1962, Nowlin promoted gospel concerts exclusively.

Nowlin was a committed Christian who also understood what made for a good entertainment program. As such, he booked artists that would not only provide a night of good gospel music, but artists that gave people what they came for….and a big part of that was a lot of singing, and not a lot of talk between songs. This was illustrated in the following anecdote from when Nowlin was scouting groups that came to town to sing in churches. One major group sang at a church in Fort Worth, and Nowlin went to see them. Afterward, Nowlin had a conversation with the group’s manager, which went something like this:

Nowlin: When I go to hear a group, I put fifteen pennies in the left pocket of my suit coat. Every time that group sings a song, I move one penny from my left pocket to my right pocket. I do that to keep track of how many songs they give the people, as opposed to talking.

Group leader: Well, how did we do?

Nowlin: I now have only one penny in my left pocket.

That group began to work for Nowlin in the Fort Worth market.

Wally Fowler was already an established gospel music singer and an aspiring country singer. Fowler borrowed a concept from V.O.Stamps from a decade earlier and began to promote what he called “All Night Sings” beginning in 1948. One rainy November night of that year, Fowler convinced Nashville radio giant WSM to broadcast two hours of an All night Sing from the Ryman Auditorium there, packing the house despite the weather. In the years to come, Fowler brought the “All Night Sings” to virtually every major city in the South. Like Nowlin, Fowler initially booked country singers alongside the gospel singers, disturbing some but entertaining many more, attracting national recognition for his concerts.

Just as with publishing companies, successful promoters began to compete. Eventually Nowlin began to dominate Texas, Arkansas, and Missouri while Fowler controlled most of the South east of the Mississippi River. There were other promoters who were dominant in certain areas, such as Loy McCormick in Georgia, J. G. Whitfield in Florida, Lloyd Orrell in the Midwest, and Polly Grimes in California. The latter two were helped by friendly relations with certain artists, such as James Blackwood, who as manager of the Blackwood Brothers, was part of gospel music’s most powerful combination, as business partners with the Statesmen. James and the Blackwoods were the first major group to sing in the Midwest and Far West, and for awhile he controlled promotions for both regions from his headquarters in Memphis. Eventually, though, as the Blackwoods became busier and busier, he turned his mailing lists over to Orrell in the Midwest and Grimes out West, and they quickly became the most important promoters in their respective regions.

Orrell, like Nowlin, was a devoted Christian as well as a no nonsense businessman. To avoid conflicts with groups, who were always bucking to go on last at concerts, he would have the groups draw straws beforehand to determine when they would sing. Some groups volunteered to sing first to avoid conflicts, while singers like Burl Strevel of the Blue Ridge Quartet told Orrell he’d be glad to go on first, just put $75 more in his check!

Like many other promoters and fans, Orrell was concerned when rumors would run rampant about the sinful lives of some gospel singers. After one bad night in Michigan, Orrell called the groups together for a meeting to express his concerns. He told the groups, “Men, we are doing something wrong. Three people called the Bill Gaither Trio packed out this same auditorium two weeks ago, and we had a tiny crowd by comparison. We had better shape up our lives!”

Polly Grimes promoted in California primarily between 1960 and 1982. This writer had the privilege of attending her final concert in 1982 with the Cathedral Quartet and the Florida Boys at El Camino Junior College in Torrance, CA. She was known for treating all the artists with dignity and grace. The one thing she made sure of was that the groups she promoted didn’t book within her jurisdiction for a few months before or after her concerts. Upon finishing concerts for Grimes in Long Beach, groups would go speeding through the night en route to places like Phoenix, San Diego, Fresno, or Bakersfield…anywhere they could go, to respect her wishes to stay out of her territory.

Other noteworthy promoters over time have been Whitfield in Florida and along the eastern Seaboard (particularly during the years of the Gospel Singing Jubilee), the Couriers in their home base of Harrisburg, PA (where their annual concerts at the Farm Show Arena there, featuring not only the Couriers, but most of the other major groups as well), and throughout the Northeast and Canada as well, Ralph Dean in Southern California (taking over Grimes’ territory upon her retirement), and Sonny Simmons in the South.

This is by no means an exhaustive coverage of every promoter of gospel music, but a broad overview of some of the leading promoters and the deveolpment of gospel music through their efforts. This writer wishes to apologize in advance for inadvertently leaving out anyone…I assure you, it is unintentional!