Early Gospel Singers – B

Source: AllMusic by Steve Leggett

Source: AllMusic

Way Down In Egypt Land – Video

Coming To Christ – Video

The group became Alabama’s first professional quartet when in 1926 they were discovered by a Columbia Records talent scout, and travelled from Jefferson County to record in Atlanta. They achieved nationwide popularity through their live radio broadcasts over WAPI, WVRC and WJLD. Becoming one of Columbia’s most prolific black vocal groups, they played vaudeville stages in New York and Chicago with the likes of Ethel Waters. They played a mix of both gospel songs and secular material, performing on gospel and vaudeville stages alike. The group disbanded in the 1930s when Dave Ausbrooks died. Their complete recorded works were reissued on two compact discs in 1995 by the Document Records label.

Source: Last.fm

He Took My Sins Away

Source: AllMusic

The Devil Is Loose In The World – Video

A 1922 graduate of Roger Williams College in Nashville, Tennessee, Brewster settled in Memphis in the 1920s; he served as the pastor of the East Trigg Avenue Baptist Church in South Memphis from 1930 until his death in 1987. His lasting fame, however, is through his musical composition.

Though there are several available recordings of Rev. Brewster’s gospel groups The Brewster Singers and The Brewsteraires, there are only two vocal recordings of Rev. Brewster himself. Both recordings credited to “Rev. W.H. Brewster And His Camp Meeting Of The Air” appeared on the Gotham single “Give Me That Old Time Religion”/”So Glad I’ve Got Good Religion”. Each song features a narration by Rev. Brewster followed by vocals.

Brewster was also the composer of more than fifteen gospel music dramas, including From Auction Block to Glory (1941) which was the first nationally-staged African American religious drama that featured gospel songs written specifically for the production. He was honored by the Smithsonian Institution in 1982 for his music when it presented his musical drama Sowing in Tears, Reaping In Joy.
– Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._Herbert_Brewster)

Source: AllMusic.com

Washington was born in Indiantown, South Carolina, though some sources state Durham, North Carolina. His primary nickname, “Bull City Red”, came from the “Bull City” town of Durham, where he grew up. He was sometimes alternatively called Oh Red. Although he was just good enough as a guitarist to imitate Fuller, with whom he frequently played, he was a talented washboard player and also sang.

A partial albino, Red was a street musician in Durham before becoming the sole sighted member of a band managed by the talent scout J. B. Long, which included at various times Fuller, Sonny Terry and Davis. In 1935, then a trio featuring Red, Davis and Fuller, the band went to New York to enter the recording studio for the first time, in a session for the American Record Corporation (ARC). As his collaborators were blind, Red signalled them by touch when the recording process was ready to end. Accompanying Fuller along with Terry, Red recorded many songs for ARC’s Perfect label between 1935 and Fuller’s death during surgery in 1941.

Red also recorded songs based on gospel music with Fuller, Terry, and Sonny Jones, under the name of Brother George and His Sanctified Singers. He recorded “I Saw the Light” with guitar backing by Davis. On Fuller’s latter-day compilation album, Get Your Yas Yas Out, Red played the washboard on “Jitterbug Rag”. Between 1935 and 1939, he struck out on his own as well, recording solo with his own vocals, guitar and washboard. His tracks included “Black Woman and Poison Blues” and “I Won’t Be Dogged Around”.

In 1941, Red became involved with another band. In late 1940, he had introduced Brownie McGhee and his collaborator Jordan Webb to his manager, John Baxter Long and also to Fuller and Terry. After Fuller’s death, the group came together along with another washboard player, Robert Young, to record. Red died in 1958, at an unknown location.

Source: Wikipedia

A native of Mobile, Alabama, Burnett joined the Baptist ministry in 1911, preaching “good old-fashioned sermons in a manner made famous by the Reverend J. M. Gates”, as writer Lerone A. Martin noted in his book Preaching on Wax: The Phonograph and the Shaping of Modern African American Religion. The self-taught Reverend, who proudly proclaimed he “never spent a day at school”, began achieving success preaching on the gospel tent circuit in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas. Burnett was first recorded by the small Kansas-based record label, Merit Records, which was managed by musician and music store owner Winston Holmes. With Holmes, the Reverend recorded his sermon, “The Downfall of Nebuchadnezzar”, and, despite limited promotional capacities, a Columbia Records talent scout “discovered” Burnett in late-1926.

However, the Reverend’s work with Columbia was briefly delayed as Holmes, who still had a recording contract with Burnett, filed a lawsuit against the label, which he consequently lost. Burnett re-recorded “The Downfall of Nebuchadnezzar”, and the sermon sold unexpectedly well—approximately 80,000 copies in total—as listeners were interested in the Reverend’s emotive interpretation of Daniel 4:14. Settled in New York City, Burnett, from 1926 to 1929, recorded 32 sermons (four unissued), becoming one of the more extensively represented preachers on record. Most of the Reverend’s work saw him accompanied by vocalists Sister Ethel Granger and Odette Jackson, and organist Porter Grainger. Inspired mainly by the writings found in the Book of Revelation, the Reverend found additional success with sermons such as “The Great Day of His Wrath Has Come”.

The Reverend took a nine-year hiatus from recording, but returned to New York City in 1938 to record eight sermons for Decca Records, including another version of “The Downfall of Nebuchadnezzar”. Burnett’s former organist, Grainger, recommended the Reverend to record producer Joe Davis in 1945, leading to eight more sermons (two unissued) being released on Davis’s Jay Dee label. As many as 16 sermons were anticipated to be released; however, in February 1946 Davis bought out the remainder of the Reverend’s recording contract for $100.00. The Reverend’s later life is unknown, but it is speculated he returned to preaching until his death.

Burnett is the first individual to record the widely-covered song “Jesus Make Up My Dying Bed”, although his rendition was never released officially. Nonetheless, the composition is thought to have influenced Blind Willie Johnson’s version of “Jesus Make Up My Dying Bed”. Versions by Charley Patton, Bob Dylan, John Sebastian, and Led Zeppelin have also followed over the years. Dylan recorded the Christian hymn, “Will the Circle Be Unbroken”, in response to Burnett’s version, and released the tape on the compilation album The Bootleg Series Vol. 11: The Basement Tapes Complete, in 2011.

Source: Wikipedia

“Jesus Make Up My Dying Bed”