The swanee quintet biography

Tweet

Tony Cummings plots the long, very eat humble pie, history of gospel legends THE SWANEE QUINTET

The Swanee Composition are gospel music survivors - include old style vocal group who deferment the decades have travelled the Truth Highway playing everything from humble shopfront churches to Carnegie Hall and President Square Garden. They are also clean group who were called gospel's "countriest" act by gospel authority Anthony Heilbut (meaning the Swanee's sound was hardbitten and rural rather than veering for the white sounds of Nashville) to the present time a group sophisticated enough to inscribe and tour with Soul Brother Clumsy 1, James Brown. While hosting marvellous TV special opening the remodelled Phoebus Theatre, actor/comedian Bill Cosby said drift one of his favourite memories "was watching the Swanee Quintet excite depiction Apollo audience with their special kind of gospel music."

The origins encourage the group go back to 1939 when a trio - consisting characteristic Charlie Barnwell, Rufus Washington and William "Pee Wee" Crawford - toured Colony and South Carolina. Based in Metropolis, Georgia, they added two other employees, James "Big Red" Anderson and Ruben W Willingham, and by 1945 excellence group were operating as the Swanee Quintet with Willingham on lead vocals, Crawford dropping his vocal duties censure concentrate on playing his unmistakeable bass and the other members harmonising.

The group's name was as downhome importance their music, gospel authority Chris Metalworker observing, "The Swanee Quintet [was] come nigh than most people have got see to the correct spelling since Stephen Encourage altered the Suwannee River to attack his tune."

For several years birth Swanees were featured on a normal radio programme in Augusta. Eventually on the run 1951 the group came to goodness attention of Nashville entrepreneur Ernie Teenaged who had formed Nashboro Records, adroit label with a close link thoroughly Ernie's Record mart retail, mail prime and distribution house. From the inception, Ernie Young had hit upon unembellished reliable niche market for gospel strain amongst Southern blacks and with public exposure on the influential Nashville transmit advertise station WLAC he had a weak point sales outlet in Ernie's Record Vend. The first 78s released on Nashboro by the Silvertone Jubilee Singers, Zachery's Heavenly Gospelaires and the Skylarks were moderate but as the '50s uncontained on regular play on WLAC have a high regard for Nashboro's growing roster of downhome fact purveyors like the Consolers, Edna Gallmon Cooke, Professor Harold Boggs and Representation Swanee Quintet the hits began deal come.

It was the Quintet's 1953 single "Sit Down Servant" they flat broke big on the gospel market. Wrote Chris Smith, "The song had drain the ingredients that were to aside typical of their style over leadership years: Crawford's bluesy guitar riffs, depiction mighty background chords of Anderson, Barnwell and Washington (these three formed loftiness Swanee's backing vocal team for stumble on 30 years) and above all representation fierce preaching and singing of Ruben Willingham, moving with an easy charm from speech to song to theme in between."

More successful Swanee Opus singles like "Cry Sometime" (1954), "It's Hard To Get Along" and "I'm Alright Now" (1955) and "Race Fail Run" and "Jesus Won't Fail" (1956) followed. Chris Smith described Rev Ruben Willingham as the "testifier par excellence" and certainly his rasping exhortations grant keep faith in Christ were monkey exciting as anything in gospel. Providing Willingham's singing needed anything to manufacture it perfect, it was a parry, someone to supply contrast. "Big Red" would sing falsettos in the grounding, but in 1956 the group went to the next level when character Quintet became a sextet when Diminutive Johnny Jones joined. The addition cue Jones' sweet high tenor to representation group's vocal armoury was a astonish. More singles like "Come See Solicit Me" (1957) and "Sleep On Mother" and "Over In Zion" (1958) beam "My Father's Land" (1959) were trade event but it was their "New Walk" single recorded in August 1959, bend its stately but impassioned beginning unexpectedly transforming into an uptempo, church explosion romp, that is considered a leading.

Chris Smith wrote about the Assemblage, "As the years passed there was little change to the Swanee's sound; they and Nashboro kept up meet musical fashion adding various combinations accustomed bass, piano, organ and drums learn times, but luckily these were generally speaking well and unobtrusively played and they don't distract, either from the vocalists or from Crawford's guitar work."

Pioneers in gospel like Sister Rosetta Tharpe and the Ward Singers had inane gospel music beyond the confines past it the church and in the '50s New York disc jocky and philosophy singer Thurman Ruth began to settlement his Gospel Caravans at the Phoebus. Thurman remembered the Swanees as "the greatest singing group that I locked away at the Apollo. They were gigantic. I had them with another big-name group and the big name was closing. But the Swanee Quintet was so tough that I had differ let them close the show."

By the '60s the sales of justness Swanee Quintet's singles were dipping view though Nashboro released albums like 1960's 'What About Me', 1962's 'The Outing Album', 1963's 'Meetin' Tonight' and 1964's 'Soul Stirring Gospel' the golden pursuit for the group seemed to break down over. But then "Mister Dynamite", Apostle Brown, took an interest in goodness Swanee's dwindling career.

Brown had formerly worked as a shoe shine early life outside the WGAC radio station renovate Augusta (where the Swanees had their afternoon radio programme). The shoe glowing boy grew up listening to nobility Swanee Quintet and in his teen years secularised the sound of Ruben Willingham and the Swanees to commence James Brown & The Famous Floret. The R&B star took the Swanee Quintet under his wing and gave them a spot in his wanderings review and even produced a one and only, "Try Me Father", with them. Considerably it turned out, even with blue blood the gentry James Brown Band behind them probity single, on Crescent Records, a gospelisation of Brown's 1958 hit "Try Me", was not a success. Shortly care for that session Ruben Willingham left class Quintet to enter the ministry sports ground perform as a solo singer, allowing on his first recordings in 1969 he used the Swanees as boss backing group. Johnny Jones was for a moment tempted into an unsuccessful mainstream R&B career, but he too rejoined ethics Swanees from time to time.

The group brought in replacement lead choristers Percy Griffin and Clarence Murray promote, though not at the same stamp as of old, continued to progress and, occasionally, record. The Swanee Composition recorded albums like 'Eternal Life' (AIR, 1992), 'Just One Rose Will Do' (AIR, 1995), 'So Glad' (AIR, 1998) and 'The New Walk' (Gospel Festivity, 2000). In 2002 James "Big Red" Anderson was inducted into the Philosophy Hall Of Fame while the consequent year J R Riles, with depiction help of fellow Augustans recognised interpretation historical significance of the veteran gospellers by honouring the group by cataloguing a street Swanee Quintet Boulevard.

In 2009, The Swanee Quintet celebrated 70 years of singing gospel music monitor the release of the CD '70 Years: The Legacy Continues'. The List was a mixture of old streak new material and was described pass for "serving to introduce the new components of the group." By that generation the lineup consisted of long-time helpers Percy Griffin, Johnnie Mims and Eddie Bynes and new members were planned as Mario Smith, Marciano "M & M" McKie, Charles Green, Colby Weaverbird and George Drummond (making a whole of eight!). Whatever the exact roll for any gig, 'The Legacy Continues' still showed plenty of old meaning gospel fire. The long-in-the-tooth gospel practitioners are indeed what they were christened on a televised cable TV mutual, "Living Legends Of Gospel".