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When we think of Southern Gospel Music, immediately names such as Mosie Lister, George Younce, Bill and Gloria Gaither, Jake Hess, J. D. Sumner, Dottie Rambo, Glenn Payne, and Howard and Vestal Goodman come to mind. Of course, those are only a few of the many well-known personalities who influenced this genre of Christian music. The people mentioned above, along with hundreds of others, have helped to carry on a tradition that had its beginning in the mid-1800s.
During those years Ephraim Ruebush and Aldine Kieffer were most active in the spread of Southern Gospel Music, as it was later called. They promoted the use of a full scale of shape notes that allowed for a more complete harmony in the arranging of songs. Until that time many southern songs were sung using a scale of four shape notes, which came to be known as Sacred Harp or fa-sol-la singing. Music students learned to sound the pitch of a particular note according to its shape and position on the music staff. “Singing schools,” held in churches, school auditoriums or other common meeting places became extremely popular. Although some shape note music is still being produced, for the most part, it has given way to a more conventional method.
In the early 1900s, James D. Vaughn became a huge figure in the popularizing of Southern Gospel Music. He is credited with having started the traveling quartet movement. Prior to this time quartets consisted mostly of two men and two ladies who sang four-part harmony in their own churches. In 1910, it is reported, Vaughn and three of his brothers formed the Vaughn Quartet -- a tenor, a lead singer, a baritone and a bass. During the early years of their existence they only performed in and around there own communities for church services and revival campaigns.
Eight years before forming his all male quartet Vaughn had started a music publishing company. His quartet began to sell the song books at singing engagements, greatly increasing the distribution. After realizing the success of one quartet, he formed other similar groups -- 16 in all -- and sent them out singing and selling books and sheet music. He recorded his first album in 1921, thus starting a recording company, and in 1922 built one of the first radio stations in Tennessee. Some have called James D. Vaughn the “father” of Southern Gospel Music, while others use the term “founder.”
Virgil O. Stamps founded a music publishing company in 1924, and, as Vaughn had done, began using traveling quartets to help with the distribution of the song books and sheet music. By 1929 that venture had become the Stamps-Baxter Music Company, which later became one of the major music publishers in the United States.
During years that followed, singing schools became even more popular, especially in rural communities. People who wanted to learn the shape note system of singing flocked to those “schools.” Albert Brumley taught more than fifty of those singing schools before he became a full-time songwriter. His first published song was “I'll Fly Away,” in 1931. In the years that followed, Brumley became the most prolific Southern Gospel songwriter in America. Traveling quartets and radio programs carried his musical messages across our nation. Researchers for the Smithsonian Institute called him “the greatest white gospel songwriter before World War II.”
E. M. Bartlett, Sr., who died in 1941, was the founder of the Hartford Music Company and the Hartford Musical Institute, which launched the careers of many successful writers and and teachers. “Victory in Jesus” was among Bartlett's compositions.
During World War II gas rationing greatly curtailed the traveling of Southern Gospel quartets, however, recordings and radio continued to take this genre of music to the masses, especially across the southern portion of our nation. All night singings in school auditoriums and all day singings at churches, with dinner on the grounds, were well attended. Many radio stations built small auditoriums within their facilities where weekly singings were held. Those broadcasts were very popular.
We would be remiss if we didn't mention some of the other pioneers of Southern Gospel Music; men such as A. J. Showalter, Frank Stamps, James Blackwood, Lee Roy Abernathy, G. T. “Dad” Speer, Hovie Lister, Thomas A. Dorsey, and Bob Wills. The list could go on and on including other persons equally as talented and influential.
As young people attended concerts given by touring groups such as the Statesmen, the Stamps Quartet, and the Blackwood Brothers, to name a few, they became inspired and began to form their own quartets, often writing the songs they sang.
Today, thousands of dedicated young people are greatly involved with Southern Gospel music, which seems to indicated that this tide of Christian music which keeps flowing into our society will continue to swell. The number of singing groups in the United States could possibly be as many as 8,000, according to one major SGM publication. A great portion of those are part-time groups, which sing for special occasions and on weekends, while many other professional groups keep a rigid schedule all through the year.
Someone once asked, “Who has influenced Southern Gospel Music down through the years more than any other person?” The answer came back, “Do you mean who besides Mosie Lister?” Since the mid-1900s, very few Southern Gospel singing groups could be found who have no used one or more of Lister's compositions.
The Gaither Homecoming Videos and concerts have kindled a giant stir in our nation, causing interest in Southern Gospel music to increase in record proportions. It has helped many of the older Southern Gospel greats to become even more recognized and popular. Some who had left the “road” have been called back out and are now appearing regularly in concerts. A prime example is J. D. Hill, former member of the Stamps Quartet and the Statesmen Quartet, and composer of “ What a Day That Will Be .”
Reader Comments
I am looking forward to reading more of your writings. Very interesting.
God is good all the time & all the time God is good.
Elaine Harcourt
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Written: 04/30/2005 
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Behind the Songs
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