2008

SG History 101 - George Younce

Last month, I began a two-part salute to the two Hall of Fame singers that helped make the Cathedral Quartet one of the greatest groups to sing gospel music. Lead singer Glen Payne was the subject last month, and this month it will be their popular bass singer, George Younce.

For many fans of gospel music, particularly those who cut their teeth on it in the 1980s and 1990s, George Younce was one of the outstanding stage personalities in the genre’s history, and one of its’ finest all-time bass singers. But as we’ll see, Younce was a true “quartet man” whose roots go back to the gospel music of the 1940s and 1950s. And he did as much as any man during his long career to popularize that style of gospel music to a generation that was not that familiar with it.

Younce’s story begins with his birth on Feb. 22. 1930 near Lenoir, North Carolina…where he was born George Wilson Younce. His first name, of course, was taken from the first U.S. President, George Washington, whose birthday was still being celebrated on its’ actual day. His middle name, though, was not taken from President Woodrow Wilson, but from the name of the doctor who brought him into the world.

Gospel music fans who remember Younce’s captivating stage personality will not be surprised in the least that from his earliest years, he was quite the entertainer. As a boy, young George would sing and dance from the porch of a local storehouse and gather the pennies that passersby had thrown on the store’s porch to help himself to candy inside. And on Sundays after church, George would re-enact the morning’s sermon by imitating the pastor for his family, preaching from either a chair or the living room table.

Still, it wasn’t until his teens that George became interested in singing gospel music. When George was working at a furniture factory near his family’s home, he would get off work at the same time that a radio program featuring the Blue Ridge Quartet would come on. George quickly was taken with gospel quartet singing, and dreamed of the day when he might be able to sing with the Blue Ridge Quartet. Well, we all have our dreams, don’t we?

In those days in the South, there were plenty of Stamps-Baxter Schools of Music available for people wanting to learn how to sing gospel quartet music. George enrolled and learned well, well enough to sing for a local quartet known as the Spiritualaires by the time he was 17.

George initially sang the lead part with the Spiritualaires, but one day, when he realized that his voice had changed, the quartet allowed him to stay on as their bass singer, which was the part he would sing for the rest of his life.

George happily sang with the Spiritualaires until 1950, when his Uncle Sam called him to military duty. George’s older brother Eugene(known to gospel music fans years later as Brudge)was a paratrooper in World War II, and perhaps it was natural that George became a paratrooper as well, making nearly 30 jumps in the time he was in the Army, one of them over the atomic bomb test blast in Desert Rock, Nevada, which George in later years would describe as “…a pretty good fireworks show!”

Upon his return, George missed gospel singing. He had made friends with a youngster from the Beckley, West Virginia area, but unfortunately, that youngster lost his life in the service. When George went to visit the youngster’s grieving parents there, he met a gospel quartet whose bass singer had just left the group. George said he could sing bass, and after a brief audition, George was hired to sing bass for the Watchmen Quartet. This satisfied George’s desire to sing for a time.

In 1954, George heard about the plane crash that took the life of R.W. Blackwood and Bill Lyles of the famous Blackwood Brothers Quartet. He went to Memphis to audition for the bass singer opening. He was not hired, but the fact that he even had the nerve to try for the job indicated how far he’d come in a short time, and how much he’d grown as a singer.

Soon, though, another up-and-coming quartet originally from California, the Weatherford Quartet, had lost its’ bass singer, a fine young bass named Armond Morales, to the service, and George joined them about the time they had made their move to Fort Wayne, Indiana. George learned a great deal about singing under the direction of group leader Earl Weatherford. While he was with the Weatherford Quartet, George would meet a couple of men who would figure prominently in his life then, and in years to come, lead singer Jim Hamill and pianist/baritone Danny Koker.

In 1954, George heard about the plane crash that took the life of R.W. Blackwood and Bill Lyles of the famous Blackwood Brothers Quartet. He went to Memphis to audition for the bass singer opening. He was not hired, but the fact that he even had the nerve to try for the job indicated how far he’d come in a short time, and how much he’d grown as a singer.

When Morales returned home, George caught on for a short time with Connor Hall’s old Homeland Harmony Quartet. George learned even more about the rudiments of quartet singing from Hall, but soon left that quartet because he was not making enough money to live on with them.

So it was back to West Virginia for George, and he would get Hamill and Koker to join him with the reformed Watchmen Quartet for a time. Then, the chance to make a dream come true came.

The Blue Ridge Quartet was in need of a bass singer in 1957. George had longed to sing with them since his teenage days at the furniture factory, listening to them on the radio. To his astonishment, George was hired to sing bass for his dream quartet.

For most of the next six years, George would join Elmo Fagg, Ed Sprouse and Kenny Gates to make one of the finest, smoothest sounding quartets to sing gospel music. The quartet’s music was described as the “sweetest singing this side of heaven”, and certainly George did his part to make that so. Not only was George benefitting from the patient coaching and teaching he would get from manager and group leader Fagg, but he was also getting voice coaching on the side from “the Professor”, the great Lee Roy Abernathy, long recognized as one of the best vocal coaches for bass singers.

George would take a brief leave of the Blue Ridge Quartet in 1958 to fill in with the Florida Boys for a short timr until Billy Todd would permanently assume that quartet’s bass singing job, but he would be a fixture with the Blue Ridge Quartet until 1964.

Over in Akron, Ohio, a trio featured in Rex Humbard’s large Cathedral of Tomorrow was looking for a bass singer to become a quartet. George’s old friend Danny Koker was their pianist, baritone, and arranger. The other members of the trio were alumni of the Weatherford Quartet, tenor Bobby Clark and lead Glen Payne. They knew enough about George to persuade Humbard to pursue George to sing bass with them.

George was successful with the Blue Ridge Quartet. He and his wife Clara had settled down in the Spartanburg, South Carolina area, and most singers would not have chosen to leave such a position to work for a church quartet.

But Humbard’s church, thanks to its’ television exposure, offered more than most churches would in terms of salary and exposure, plus George would not have to be on the road virtually every night. This reality coupled with the realization that George was a family man now, with children to raise and provide for, along with his existing friendships with Koker, Payne, and Clark tipped the scales in favor of George accepting Humbard’s offer.

So in November of 1964, the Cathedral Trio became the Cathedral Quartet. The new quartet caught on quickly in the gospel singing world, recording a pair of albums for HeartWarming Records featuring string and brass accompaniment, and even a live album from the Holy Land during its’ first five years of existence.

But after those first five years, the singers felt that Humbard was asking them to do too much church type work that they weren’t called to do…such as counseling, for example. Not that the men in the quartet were unwilling or unable to do that work, but they were primarily singers who felt called to do that to make their living.

So by 1969, the quartet decided to leave Humbard’s church and go on the road full-time as a traveling gospel quartet. They signed a recording contract with Canaan Records, and George began to write songs.

George was actually a pretty good songwriter. Songs such as “If I Could Just Hold Out” and “Then I Found Jesus” did well for the quartet. And in 1972, George’s song “Yesterday” became a hit for the Florida Boys as well as the Cathedrals. It is by far George’s best-known and best original song.

Eventually, the Cathedral Quartet overcame their initial lean years to become one of the most popular gospel quartets ever by the 1980s. By that time, George had started to make a habit of winning the Singing News Favorite Bass Singer award.

In all, the Cathedrals won 70 Singing News awards and several Dove awards as well. All this recognition was due to not only their inspired singing, but to George’s own stage presence as MC and spokesman for the group.

George took over MC duties for the group after Koker left the quartet in 1968, and his knack for entertaining, stemming from those childhood days on the storefront porch and the family living room after church, was instrumental in winning new fans for the quartet and keeping them. His onstage banter with Payne also charmed and blessed audiences for many years. To many, it was as much George’s personality as his fine singing voice that helped keep the Cathedrals at the top of the gospel singing world until their retirement in 1999.

For George was gifted with a most flexible voice. Like the great bass singers of his time and place, he was adept at almost any kind of song. His range allowed him to sing vocal lines reminiscent of quartet lead singers, but he was also quite able to drag bottom with the best of them.

In 1998, George was voted into the SGMA Hall of Fame. He was fortunate to be so recognized when he was still alive to experience it.

Sadly, in those later years, George battled serious health issues. A heart attack in 1987 almost ended his career. Fortunately, George recovered, thanks in large part to his joyous personality and his desire and zest for life. George always looked for the positive side of any situation. In the last years of his life, he spoke of being “packed and ready” for heaven.

After the retirement of the Cathedrals, George didn’t stop singing. He made limited appearances as a soloist and with his son-in-law, Ernie Haase, and Jake Hess in the Old Friends Quartet. Those appearances along with his appearances with the Gaither Homecoming cast kept George in contact with the gospel music fans whom he loved, and who loved him in return.

Finally, on April 11, 2005, George Younce passed away, and no doubt went immediately to a choice seat in the bass section of the heavenly choir.

George Younce spent 49 years being married to his wife Clara, and had four daughters(Gina, Dana, Lisa, and Tara)and a son, George Lane. He was also blessed with three grandchildren.

And to gospel music fans, he remains a beloved legend, one of the finest and most popular gospel singers of all time.

SG History 101 - Glen Payne

Many gospel music fans believe that the Cathedral Quartet was one of the finest groups to ever sing gospel music. Their popularity is legendary, and their influence lives on today in gospel music. They are arguably among the most admired artists to ever sing Christian music.

The quartet was led by two of the finest and most beloved men in gospel music history. This month I'’ll begin a two-part study into the two men who led, shaped, and represented the Cathedral Quartet during their 35-year existence.

I’ll begin this month with the story of their lead singer, Glen Payne.

Glen Weldon Payne was born on October 20, 1926 in Royce City, Texas (near the town of Rockwall). He grew up hearing gospel music at an early age. His church-going and God-fearing parents nurtured a love of gospel music into their young son, and although they were by no means wealthy, they supported Glen’s appetite for and desire to sing gospel music at an early point in Glen’s life. Glen got a very solid grounding in the shape-note style of gospel singing which was taught primarily back then.

In 1938, Glen’s grandparents took him to see the famous Stamps Quartet sing. Like many youngsters so inclined, the dream of singing gospel music professionally was firmly planted in Glen’s mind. But how would Glen realize his dream?

Shortly after that concert, Glen’s grandmother died. Glen’s grandfather would soon remarry, however, and his new grandmother saw Glen’s desire to sing, and noticed his talent. She was determined to help Glen realize his dream of singing.

Since the Stamps School of Music was located in Dallas (not far from where the Paynes lived), Glen’s step-grandmother took pen in hand and wrote V.O. Stamps a personal letter, telling the famous gospel music pioneer that if she had any money at all, she’d give it up to allow Glen to go to the Stamps School, and learn how to sing gospel music formally.

Upon receiving the letter, V.O. Stamps was so moved by the love that Glen’s step-grandmother showed for her grandson that he replied to her, telling her not to worry about the tuition. V.O. continued that he would personally see to it that a place would be reserved for young Glen at the Oak Cliff session that coming June. The seeds of a great gospel singing career had been planted.

Glen wasn’t a student very long before he was given his first singing job with a Stamps quartet he would sing in a quartet with none other than V.O.’s talented brother Frank. This was quite an honor for a youngster not even out of his teens.

Glen’s budding singing career was interrupted by a call late in World War II to serve in the U.S. Army. On his way to the Far East by ship, the war ended. In later years, Glen would tell people that “they knew I was coming and gave up”.

So Glen came back home to resume his work with the Stamps Music Company. Not only did he sing with various Stamps quartets, he also taught singing himself for a while after World War II ended.

Glen sang with the Stamps-Baxter quartet as well as Frank Stamps’ All-Stars, and by 1951 he joined the Stamps-Ozark Quartet. Glen was developing a reputation as a most fine lead singer indeed.

Glen’s next singing job would prove to be a watershed in his career. Former Stamps’ employee and singer Earl Weatherford had a quartet that was beginning to attract a lot of attention in the gospel singing world. In 1957, Glen joined the Weatherford Quartet, and within a year, that lineup of Earl, Glen, Earl’s wife Lily Fern, bass singer Armond Morales, and pianist Henry Slaughter became known as one of the top quartets in gospel music. Arguably there was never a smoother sounding quartet in gospel music history.

At about the time Glen joined the Weatherford Quartet, the group became the regular quartet for an Ohio minister with a beautiful church in Akron. Rex Humbard would be the Weatherford’s employer for the next six years, providing a steady income in a line of work not known for that sort of thing. Glen’s talents were being used in church ministry, something that brought him a great deal of personal satisfaction and accomplishment.

That personal satisfaction was never more evident than in 1958, when Glen married the girl he fell in love with at the church, Van Lua, who Glen described as the “prettiest girl in the church choir”. Their wedding was televised on Humbard’s syndicated TV show, and Glen and Van Lua would be lifetime partners thereafter, going on to have three children, who in turn would bless them both with many grandchildren.

Along the way, as with many gospel groups, people came and went. Bobby Clark had joined the group when Lily Fern had to take time off to begin a family, and Danny Koker joined to play piano and sing after Henry Slaughter left for a time.

1963 turned out to be a tumultuous year for Glen and the Weatherfords. Earl missed the road and the freedom to sing wherever he wanted to when he wanted to, which he couldn’t due to the group’s church commitment. After trying to accommodate Earl’s wishes while trying to keep the quartet committed to church services and the attendant work, Humbard finally issued an ultimatum to the members of the quartet. If they wanted to keep singing with Earl, they could leave the church and go with him. And if they wanted to remain with the church, they would have to leave the quartet.

By this time Glen’s loyalties were with Humbard, so he reluctantly left the Weatherford Quartet, and was assigned by Humbard to a trio with Clark singing tenor, and Koker singing baritone and playing the piano. Since the church was known as the Cathedral of Tomorrow, the group became known as the Cathedral Trio.

The trio was very well received. They blended well vocally, and Koker’s arrangements gave them a unique style that soon attracted attention in the gospel music world, no doubt helped by the tremendous reach of Humbard’s television ministry.

After a year or so, Humbard wanted to make the group a quartet, since that was the prevailing and most popular sound going in gospel music. The search was on for a bass singer, and by 1965, another ex-Weatherford Quartet member, who Glen knew briefly from his days with the quartet, George Younce, was brought in to comprise the Cathedral Quartet. Younce had come aboard from one of the most successful quartets going, the Blue Ridge Quartet, and both Glen and George were excited to be singing together again.

Quickly, the new quartet developed a reputation as one of the best-sounding quartets in the industry, thanks to Clark’s trained tenor voice, Glen’s strong lead singing, Koker’s equally strong singing and his piano and arranging skills, and Younce’s versatile bass voice. The Cathedral Quartet’s reputation was spreading far and wide, particularly after recording a pair of albums for HeartWarming Records in the mid-1960s that were quite advanced for their time, and critically acclaimed as well. “With Strings” and “With Brass” took gospel quartet singing to new and different levels.

By 1968, Clark left the quartet, and the following year, Koker did as well. It was mostly up to Glen and George to fill the ranks and keep the quartet going, and they were able to find people to keep the sound consistent and the quartet viable. But by 1969, the same desires and issues that confronted Earl Weatherford began to play on Glen and George as well. Humbard wanted his singers to do counseling and a number of other pastoral tasks, which neither Glen nor George felt comfortable or called in doing. They were singers, and there was more and more demand for them in concert settings.

So, in 1969, the Cathedral Quartet opted to leave their position at Humbard’s church, and go into a traveling gospel music career full time. This made Glen essentially a quartet manager, and this was a new phase of his gospel music career. At times it was a real struggle for both him and George, for without the support of Humbard’s church, the two found it hard at times to keep the quartet going. Members came and went at a more rapid rate, and there was pressure from their record company, Canaan Records, to sell more records or lose their contract.

But by the mid 1970s, the Cathedral Quartet began to turn its’ fortunes around with songs such as “The Last Sunday” and “Statue of Liberty”, and simultaneously, Glen and George developed quite a stage presence in personal appearances. They quickly became the stabilizing forces within the quartet, and through even more ups and downs in the following years, Glen Payne and George Younce kept the Cathedral Quartet on a steady rise to the top of the gospel music world, reaching their peak of fame by the early 1980s.

As the quartet’s manager, Glen kept his quartet booked on a solid basis on most Wednesdays through Sundays, sometimes even singing in as many as three different venues on a Sunday. At times, Glen and George would sleep on the bus on a Sunday night, even after the quartet had returned home.

And as the quartet’s lead singer, Glen’s work on such hits as “The Prodigal Son”, “We Shall See Jesus”, “It’s Almost Over”, and “Sinner Saved By Grace” were instrumental in not only defining the sound of the Cathedral Quartet, but keeping them atop the gospel music world well into the 90s, warding off the challenges of such quartets as the Kingsmen and the Gold City Quartet.

And as a businessman, Glen was able to diversify and maintain a publishing company as well as ownership in recording studios and even a record company. He was always a model for the right way of doing things, whether it be singing, managing, business, or just being a role model and influence on aspiring singers.

And along the way, honors poured in. Numerous Dove awards, 11 Grammies, Singing News Fan Awards all of these became routine accomplishments for Glen and the Cathedral Quartet. In addition, Glen was placed in the Texas Gospel Music Hsll of Fame in 1993, the GMA Hall of Fame in 1995, and the SGMA Hall of Fame in 1997 all this while remaining at the top of the gospel music world with the Cathedral Quartet.

By 1999, Glen’s longtime comrade and partner George Younce was in ill health, and Glen himself was getting weary of the road, and it occurred to both men that the time had come to finally call it a career and retire the Cathedral Quartet. Plans were made for a final farewell tour for the group, and after it got underway, Glen was diagnosed with liver cancer. It was almost as if the curtain was being drawn on the Cathedrals in a most dramatic way.

During the tour, Glen was hospitalized. But ever the trouper, when it came time for the National Quartet Convention, Glen was still part of the quartet’s stand via telephone from the Vanderbilt University hospital. At George’s request, Glen sang “I Won’t Have To Cross Jordan Alone” over the telephone and it brought down the house at the convention. It was one of the most moving moments ever associated with live gospel music or the convention.

But six weeks after the initial diagnosis, and just five days short of his 73rd birthday, on October 15, 1999, Glen Payne passed away. In the words of Bill Traylor, a colleague and friend of Glen’s for some 30 years, "He (Glen) was a man of honor and integrity and he loved God, his family, and those in gospel music with all his heart."

Glen Payne’s legacy lives on and will for some time. He is an integral part of the gospel music lineage that began with the Weatherfor Quartet, and went on through the Cathedral Quartet, straight through to Legacy Five, Signature Sound, and the music ministries of artists such as the Talleys, Greater Vision, and the Mark Trammell Trio.

Next month, we’ll look at the other half of the Cathedral legacy, George Younce.