This month I would like to take a brief look at this year’s inductees into the Southern Gospel Music Association(SGMA)Hall of Fame.
It is an interesting variety of inductees, ranging from two of the most popular bass singers to ever sing in gospel quartets, to two of the more gifted songwriters and arrangers of their eras, to one of the more successful promoters of traditional gospel quartet singing, to one of the more renowned producers and artist managers, to the founder of one of the most famous quartets from the classic era of quartet singing, and finally to one of the most able helpmates to a promoter and popularizer of the gospel in song that one could imagine.
More on these inductees will be coming here in subsequent months, including perhaps closer looks at some of the particular people, but for now, we’ll just take capsule looks at each nominee.
In the order of consideration above, we begin with one of the most beloved and admired bass singers in the genre’s history, JAMES WILLIAM “BILL” LYLES, a native Tennesseean who progressed quickly from a Chattanooga area quartet to the famous Swanee River Boys, where he no doubt developed the velvet-smooth singing style he later became famous for.
The group Lyles became famous with was the renowned Blackwood Brothers, whom he joined in 1947 upon the departure of that quartet’s bass singer Don Smith to California. Lyles quickly became known for his smooth, melodic bass singing, something that fit in superbly with fellow quartet members Bill Shaw, and James and R.W. Blackwood.
Lyles’ career was tragically cut short at the age of 34 when he perished in the famous plane crash of 1954 that also took the life of R.W. Blackwood. At the time, the Blackwood Brothers had just reached the greatest heights of fame a gospel quartet and achieved to that point, having just made a national television appearance on the highly rated “Arthur Godfrey Talent Scouts” show and achieving a hit with their recording of “The Man Upstairs”.
Lyles was one of the finest and most beloved bass singers in the history of the genre, and it is most fitting that he is finally being inducted into the SGMA Hall of Fame.
Another beloved bass singer entering the Hall this year is the late BILLY TODD, who passed away just months ago. Hailing from Sylacauga, FL…where he began singing in quartets from boyhood. Along the way, he even was in a barbershop quartet with future TV star Jim Nabors(of “Gomer Pyle” fame). He too appeared on the “Arthur Godfrey Talent Scouts” TV show, spotlighting his talent at imitating a trombone, made famous by other gospel basses such as Jim Waites and Ken Turner.
Todd would jump to the “big leagues” of gospel quartet singing in 1958, when he would join the Florida Boys Quartet, replacing the group’s founder, J.G. Whitfield, as bass singer. Todd amazed audiences with his big voice, which he projected with ease, easily being heard from half a foot away from a microphone. He also could solo with the best of them, as his work on such songs as “Beyond the Sunset” and “Too Much To Gain To Lose” attest.
Todd would sing with the Florida Boys until 1972, when he opted to leave the road and settle down as an educator. However, when the Dixie Echoes asked him to “fill in” in the early 1990s while they looked for a new bass singer, that “fill in” stint became a 12-year one, adding to the legend of this friendly, big-voiced man from Florida. Eventually, Todd would retire from the Dixie Echoes…and would settle down finally and live quietly until his passing a few months ago.
Fittingly, Todd will soon enter the SGMA Hall of Fame.
Also, two of the finer all-around musicians are entering the Hall of Fame this year.
The first of those we’ll look at briefly here is NEIL ENLOE, who spent his entire career in gospel music with the Couriers of Harrisburg, PA. Like the other original full-time members of that group, he joined them while a student at Central Bible Insitute(now Central Bible College)in Springfield, MO in 1957.
Enloe hails from Wood River, IL(near St. Louis)where he grew up in a very musical family where church was a way of life. He also listened to a lot of gospel music on the radio in his boyhood, developing a love for harmony and expressing his love of God through music. Despite being shy and introverted, he sought to join one of the many quartets that sang at CBI during that time.
Finally, in 1957, he joined the Couriers Quartet, a group of eager and talented young singers that were one of the campus’ more popular quartets. They left CBI in 1958 to begin a full-time singing career, and established themselves in Harrisburg, PA where they began to take quartet singing where it was not well-known before.
Along the way, Enloe also became the quartet’s pianist on occasion when the pianists they had would leave the group for one reason or other. Enloe didn’t have a lot of formal training, but with constant practice became a most capable pianist.
In the early 1960s, Enloe began to write songs for the group. In the beginning, it was a song here or there, but by the late 1960s he began to write a large number of the group’s new songs.
By that time, the Couriers had become a trio, but because of Enloe’s unique arrangements, his original songs, and his own fine singing(as well as the distinctive voice of tenor Duane Nicholson), the Couriers began to become more popular in the southern gospel world, even though their style had moved away from the genre’s mainstream by that time.
Enloe was responsible for writing some of the most popular and recorded gospel songs of the late 1960s and early 1970s. Such songs as “Give Me Jesus”, “Lost, Searching, Found”, “He’s More Than Just A Swear Word”, “The Joy Of Knowing Jesus”, and his most famous composition, “Statue Of Liberty”, are among the most loved songs in the genre.
Enloe still travels with his old Courier “teammates”, Nicholson and Dave Kyllonen as “Dave, Duane, and Neil”…and today, at nearly 71 years of age, Neil Enloe is still a vital, important contributor to gospel music. That, and the fact that he and his fellow Couriers are among the most respected artists in gospel music history, fully justifies Neil Enloe’s induction into the SGMA Hall of Fame.
Another singer/writer/arranger of note going into the Hall this year is HAROLD LANE, founder of the Gospel Harmony Boys and a featured performer with the famous Speer Family for over 20 years.
Lane’s career in gospel music is illustrated in more detail in the June 2006 installment of SG101, devoted entirely to him. A native of West Virginia, Lane started the Gospel Harmony Boys in 1951, and quickly built them into one of gospel music’s most accomplished quartets, and attracted the attention of one of gospel music’s most prolific tenors and group managers, Connor Hall, who managed the legendary Homeland Harmony Quartet. Hall hired Lane away from the Gospel Harmony Boys in 1956 to sing and arrange for his illustrious group, such were Lane's’always prodigious musical skills.
That arrangement only lasted a year, and Lane returned to the Gospel Harmony Boys for the next ten years, writing songs like “I’ve Done What The Lord Says Do”, and providing his quartet with steady lead singing and always inventive musical arrangements.
By 1967, the Speer Family needed a permanent replacement for G.T. “Dad” Speer, and Brock Speer hired Lane to sing and arrange for his illustrious group. Lane would fit the Speers like a glove, and some of the most famous songs he wrote were when he was with the Speers, including “Touring That City”, “The Church Of The Living God”, and “What Sins Are You Talking About”, the latter one of the most highly charted songs in gospel music history.
Lane would retire from the Speers in the late 1980s, but still remained active training new young would-be singers in the music school run by Ben Speer. Lane is now reported to be in poor health these days, but thankfully, the hope is that he will enter the Hall of Fame before he moves on to an even better place.
One of this year’s inductees is particularly well-known for helping to remember the genre’s great performers from the pat, and preserving the historic sound of traditional quartet music.
CHARLIE WALLER is the colorful Executive Director of the SGMA, and has been involved with promoting the genre since 1971. He founded the Southern Gospel Music Association of Georgia in 1982, which eventually became the Southern Gospel Music Guild, which was the predecessor to today’s SGMA…and existed to address the concerns of traditional gospel quartet artists that the Gospel Music Association was catering too much to the newer, more contemporary gospel styles.
Waller’s big contribution to the preservation of traditional quartet music came in 1988, when he created the yearly Grand Old Gospel Reunion event in Greenville, SC, an event that remains one of gospel music’s major annual events, where tribute is paid to the industry’s legends. Significantly, this event predated the well-known Gaither “Homecoming” events.
Waller continues to be active in the promotion of traditional gospel quartet music, even acquiring control of the Florida Boys name when members Les Beasley, Glen Allred, and Derrell Stewart retired from full-time touring.
It is only fitting that the man most responsible for there even being an SGMA and a Hall of Fame be inducted into it.
Our next inductee was one of the first individuals to push for professionalism in the gospel music business.
DON LIGHT came to gospel music from outside it…he had been a drummer on the Grand Ole Opry and a manager for Billboard magazine’c Nashville office, when he became concerned about all the misunderstandings that arose out of confusion in bookings that he decided to establish the first talent agency to streamline the business affairs of gospel singers.
The Don Light Talent Agency was established in 1965, and among the first clients were the Happy Goodman Family and the Oak Ridge Boys. Later, they would be joined by such artists as the Florida Boys, the Cathedral Quartet, the Rambos, and Wendy Bagwell and the Sunliters.
Light’s agency helped gospel music enter a new era of professionalism, and gave it more credibility in the larger entertainment world.
Light would also produce records by the Oak Ridge Boys, and he helped to organize the Gospel Music Association. He would remain involved with both gospel and country music for many years.
Another purpose of the Hall of Fame is to honor those who helped the reputation of professional gospel music to grow, and certainly Light was a major person in that regard.
Yet another of this year’s inductees helped establish one of the leading gospel quartets of the late 1950s through the 1970s, and reorganized that quartet to lead it again.
ED HILL started singing gospel music as a teenager, and quickly yearned to form his own quartet. He would when he formed the Kings Men Quartet near his hometown of St. Louis, eventually moving them to Knoxville and renaming them the Prophets.
The Prophets were among the most innovative and finest sounding quartets of the 1960s, featuring such noteworthy singers as Lew Garrison and Jay Berry. Hill would continue to guide them into the 1970s, when he would retire the group and sing with such groups as the Statesmen and JD Sumner and the Stamps Quartet. Hill would be featured during the Stamps’ appearances with the late Elvis Presley and conclude those concerts with the famous announcement, “Elvis has left the building.”
Hill would continue with the Stamps past Sumner’s passing in 1998, but not for long. He was inactive for a time after leaving the Stamps, but in 2007 he would re-form the Prophets with a mixture of old and new talent, and is still singing with the new version of that grand old name.
One of the heartening things about this year’s inductees is how many of them still remain active in gospel music. Ed Hill’s humble attitude, genial nature, ready smile, and consistent talent over the past four decades have earned him recognition among the greats of the gospel music business.
This year’s final inductee was the ever-present eyes and helpmate to the late J. Bazzel Mull, one of the most famous promoters and personalities in the history of gospel music. ELIZABETH MULL, known as “Lady” Mull to fans of the famous “Singing Convention of the Air”, hosted by her husband, but “Mizz Mull did her share of the work to help her husband, for he was blind and had been since the age of 11. Her hard work was a major part of the success of Mull’s ministry for some six decades. Surely the principal helpers of a legendary ministry are worth Hall of Fame recognition as well.
And there you have it…a brief look at the eight inductees into the 2009 SGMA Hall of Fame. I’m sure most gospel fans will agree with this writer that all eight are deserving and worthy of recognition as some of the leading names in the history of this
great music.
Author: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
Written: 04/03/2009
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Category: SG History 101
Comments: 6
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Most informative and even inspirational. Thanks for the fine work to pull this info together. I have the greatest of respect for Mr Enloe and Mr Hill. Two of my heros in Gospel Music!
Would respectfully add one thing: I thought Lane's STANDING ON THE ROCK OF AGES was a pretty "Big" tune too. Among his finest! JMO.
PJ / The Prophets
I am THRILLED to hear that Harold Lane is FINALLY being inducted! A most deserving honor. I was just listening yesterday to a little known song he wrote many years ago called "My Father Found Me".... I reckon that his "good" songs are as good or better than a lot of writer's "great" songs.
A lot of folks are "worthy" of this honor, as there have been many that have meant a lot to a kid looking up to them all these years.....
What a wonderful lineup for this year's Hall of Fame. I think we seem to overlook the job that Ed Hill did as baritone and manager of the Singing Americans, making them one of the most popular groups of the 1980s.
Being a Missourian, I am excited that two of this years inductees are from the St. Louis Metropolitan area.
Thanks for the article about the 2009 inductees into the 2009 SGMA Hall Of Fame. I have loved this music since I attended my very first gospel concert back in the very early 1960's, when Ed Hill brought his Prophets Quartet to Radford, VA...my home town.
You were right on about the talents of Billy Todd and Neil Enloe, as well as the other inductees. I remember listening to Lady Mull and her husband during the 60's, another of my fond memories of gospel music.....and, thanks to Charlie Waller, I was able to return to enjoying the music I love so well, with the Grand Ole Gospel Reunion.
Keep me safe ‘til the storm passes by
Wow! Virginia Joe. Ed will be blessed to know that he helped introduce you to the glorious music he loves so much.
PJ / The Prophets
http://www.myspace.com/pauljacksonsings
Congrats to all the inductees, especially my friend, Neil Enloe. I had the priviledge of hearing the "original" Couriers a few months back and they can still get you on your feet!
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