FBF's Southern Gospel Music Information Project

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About

Southern Gospel Music is characterized by close harmonies and a strong religious lyrical content.

The innovation in music that led directly to the emergence of the Southern Gospel trend was the introduction around 1800 of shape-note musical notation.

The motivation behind the shape-note system was the belief on the part of music instructors that the use of distinctive shapes to identify the musical notes fa, sol, la, and mi would make it easier for singers to sight-read, thereby improving the quality of their singing. The first system that achieved a significant following consisted of four shapes. It has survived as a defining characteristic of Sacred Harp Singing?, sometimes referred to as "fasola" singing. Inspired by European musical practices, some American musicians wanted to adopt a seven-shape system. In 1846 Jesse B. Aikin? of Philadelphia published his Christian Minstrel, a songbook employing a seven-shape system, and many rural singers began following the new system.

A driving force behind the seven-shape system among rural singers arose during the 1870s in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley. There, the seven-shape advocates Ephraim Ruebush? and Aldine Kieffer? established a songbook publishing house, inaugurated a musical periodical promoting rural music and the seven-shape note system, and opened the Virginia Normal Music School?, the country's first educational facility devoted to the teaching of the seven-shape music system.

With the Ruebush-Kieffer?conglomerate as a model, publishing companies, musical periodicals, and normal schools that were dedicated to the furtherance of seven-shape note singing sprang up throughout the South. The most influential publishers were J. M. Henson? in Atlanta, GA and A. J. Showalter? in Dalton, GA, and James D. Vaughan? of Lawrenceburg, Tennessee, The Hartford Music Company?, in Hartford, Arkansas with whom Albert E. Brumley? and E.M. Bartlett? worked.

James D. Vaughan?, who sponsored the first professional southern gospel quartets, established the first southern gospel magazine, recorded the first southern gospel quartets, established the first southern gospel music radio station. The United States Congress has declared and recognized Lawrenceburg, Tennessee as the Birthplace of Southern Gospel Music.

Beginning in 1911, Vaughan began holding a regular music "normal" school in Lawrenceburg to train shape note singing school instructors. These instructors then fanned out across the country teaching the Vaughan method to the nation.

James D. Vaughan? published millions of shape note songbooks from this building on the Lawrenceburg Square. The Vaughan music enterprise included music publishing, songwriting, radio and famed Vaughan School of Music?, all headquartered on the public square in historic downtown Lawrenceburg, Tennessee.

Publishers also promoted their songbooks by organizing quartets who traveled around the South, singing the publisher's songs and selling the songbooks in which the songs appeared. Many are still writing songs for the songbooks that are used at present-day singing conventions.

One of the best known of the Vaughan Quartet?s included Palmer Wheeler?, Keiffer Vaughan?, John Cook?and "Big" Jim Waits?. This group also included the legendary Dwight Brock? on Piano.

Always the pioneer, James D. Vaughan? put radio station WOAN on the air in 1922. Two tall towers dominated the Lawrenceburg Skyline for nearly a decade. WOAN was the first radio experience for many of the early Southern Gospel Music legends.

Typically, seven-shape songbook publishers placed on the market one or two books per year.
It has been estimated that by 1930 some 200,000 of these songbooks were sold each year in the rural South. To enhance sales, publishers included in each new book several previously unpublished songs. Consequently there was a demand for songwriters. Many of the early Southern Gospel Music singers were also composers of songs set to the seven-shape notational system and popularized by their fellow singers. These composers included J. W. Askew?, Roswell G. Clark?, H. C. Collins?, J. M. Henson?, Andrew Jenkins?, Charles E. Moody?, J. L. Moore?, James Cleveland Moore?, Homer F. Morris?, A. J. Showalter?, J. L. Sisk?, Charlie D. Tillman?, and McD. Weams?.

Although seven-shape songbooks found wide use in southern rural churches, their widest distribution was among singers and attendees at singing conventions. These audience participatory events were organized at community, regional, and eventually state levels. They took place at periodic intervals, from monthly to annually. In the days before movies, radio, and television, singing conventions were heavily attended.

Community singing schools provided a constant supply of competent singers and persons capable of leading congregational singing. Usually held in the summer months and typically lasting for two weeks, these singing schools were conducted by graduates of similar schools or one of the several southern normal schools. The instructors traveled from community to community, holding classes in schools and churches and boarding with local residents during their stay. They taught music theory, sight-reading, conducting, and harmony. James D. Vaughan? published millions of shape note songbooks from his building on the public square in historic downtown Lawrenceburg, Tennessee.

Another who followed the Ruebush-Kieffer? example was Frank Stamps (1896 - 1965) a native of Upshur County, Texas. He served in World War I, and then attended the Vaughan School of Music?. When his brother, V. O. Stamps?, formed a music company in 1924, Frank organized the Frank Stamps Quartet? as a promotional group to represent the company’s songbooks.

In 1927, the Frank Stamps Quartet? became the first to sign with a major record label, Victor Records. They had the first Southern Gospel hit record with "Give the World a Smile." V. O. Stamps? and J. R. Baxter? formed the Stamps-Baxter? Music Company?, which was based in Dallas, Texas When V. O. Stamps died in 1940, Frank Stamps took over his brother’s duties at Stamps-Baxter? for a few years. Ultimately, Stamps decided to leave Stamps-Baxter? in the hands of J. R. Baxter? and form his own publishing company, the Stamps Quartet Music Company?.

With the backing of Stamps both at Stamps-Baxter? and Stamps Quartet Music?, many groups traveled under the Stamps name and promoted songbook sales. Frank continued to sing with various Stamps groups, including the company’s flagship group, the Frank Stamps All-Stars?. This group ultimately became known simply as the Stamps Quartet, and when Stamps retired from singing with the group in 1950 to focus exclusively on songbook publishing, the group continued to record for the next seven years as the Stamps Quartet?. They changed the group name to the Plainsmen? Quartet in 1957 and severed ties with the publishing company. A few years later, another Stamps Quartet was formed out of the publishing company, but Frank Stamps? did not sing with them. He ultimately sold the company and the Stamps Quartet name to James Blackwood? and J. D. Sumner.

Southern Gospel Music makers flocked to recording, radio, and television studios. The success of the early Southern Gospel quartets inspired the formation of musical groups of other sizes—duets, trios, and larger ensembles.

In time, what would be called Southern Gospel Music asserted its influence on other musical genres popular in the South. Early country music acts incorporated into their repertoires that brand of gospel music available from seven-shape note sources. When bluegrass music emerged as a recognized genre in the late 1940s, the Southern Gospel style of singing was among the country music elements from which bluegrass borrowed.

Among early professional singers whose repertoires included Southern Gospel inspired material were the ((Reverend Andrew Jenkins Family )), ((Smith's Sacred Singers)) (headed by J. Frank Smith), several recording groups including Calhoun Sacred Quartet?, Turkey Mountain Singers?, Moody Quartet?, Gordon County Quartet? which included composer Charles E. Moody?, and numerous Atlanta-based groups, such as the Harmoneers?, the Blue Sky Boys?, James Carson? and Martha Carson?, Sunshine Boys?, Swanee River Boys?, Homeland Harmony Quartet?, Hovie Lister and the Statesmen?, the LeFevres?, and Wendy Bagwell and the Sunliters?.

Groups that owe a debt to the seven-shape notational system are still performing. The Lewis Family? of Lincolnton, known as the "First Family of Bluegrass Gospel Music," blends a Southern Gospel Music derived vocal style with a string band accompaniment that has roots in old-time country music. Another bluegrass band, IIIrd Tyme Out? of Suwanee, records Southern Gospel material in the close-harmony male-quartet style. Other artists include Little Jan Buckner?, Jeff and Sheri Easter, the Encouragers?, Brian Free and Assurance, the Marksmen?, Naomi and the Segos, the Nelons?, Randy Perry?, Karen Peck and New River and Poet Voices.

Suggested Reading

Lois S. Blackwell, The Wings of the Dove: The Story of Gospel Music in America (Norfolk, Va.: Donning, 1978).

James R. Goff Jr., Close Harmony: A History of Southern Gospel (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2002).

George Pullen Jackson, White Spirituals in the Southern Uplands (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1933).

Bob Terrell, The Music Men: The Story of Professional Gospel Quartet Singing (Asheville, N.C.: Bob Terrell, 1990).

Wayne W. Daniel, Chamblee

Published 5/14/2003

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