The A. L. Phipps Family

The A. L. Phipps Family

The Phipps Family from Kentucky was known as a musical family “in the Carter Family tradition”. Founded in the last years of the depression, Arthur Leroy Phipps and his wife Kathleen Norris Helton started to play their own songs of traditional mountain music. Their friendship with A.P. Carter and the Carter Family, as well as…

Leonard Bowles and Irvin Cook

Leonard Bowles and Irvin Cook

I heard about Bowles and Cook first on the Smithsonian Folkways “People’s Pick’s” playlist series that got kicked off by my friend Daniel Bachman in 2015. He described their music best in his notes, writing: It seems appropriate that this is the first song on the playlist because it was the first I ever heard…

Rev. Ernest C. Martin

Rev. Ernest C. Martin

Ernest C. Martin was a bluegrass and country gospel musician and evangelist from Clay City, Kentucky. Born on January 27, 1914, in Clay City, he began his career in music at an early age, playing the banjo, guitar, and banjolina, and singing in church, school dances, and pie suppers. He gained his first steady radio…

Rev. Dallas Alexander

Rev. Dallas Alexander

Dallas Alexander was a prominent figure in the Ohio bluegrass scene, born in Jackson County, Kentucky. He began playing guitar at age 14 and moved to Ohio in 1954. After his spiritual conversion in 1961, Alexander devoted his music to spreading the gospel message. Throughout the 1960s and 70s, Alexander recorded and produced several albums…

“Get Right With God” road sign, Indiana, Mississippi, March 1977 by William R. Ferris
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“Get Right With God” road sign, Indiana, Mississippi, March 1977 by William R. Ferris

It’s hard to tell if this is a genuine Mayes cross. I’ve seen images of crosses with a similar typeface attributed to him. Those were older, and given the bad paint job and the time frame of William R. Ferris photo, this might be one of those older crosses, painted over by someone who “took…

C.Strøm – Music Videos
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C.Strøm – Music Videos

In 2014 I released an album of Norwegian archivist and singer-songwriter C.Strøm. The title track I Have Heard of a Land, written by James Moore in 1914 and recorded by Smith’s Sacred Singers from northern Georgia in the 1920s, is said to be the first ever “country gospel” record. For the video I used the video portrait of…

Sister O. M. Terrell – I’m Going To That City
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Sister O. M. Terrell – I’m Going To That City

Photo of one of Harrison Mayes metal crosses by Peter B. Lowry, Georgia 1970 used as cover artwork for a compilation with rare post-war gospel This album contains a representative collection of post-war gospel recorded between 1947 and 1953. The post-war period through to the mid-50s is generally regarded as the finest for gospel music…

The Looper Trio – Here Today – Gone Tomorrow (Country Gospel, 1971)

The Looper Trio – Here Today – Gone Tomorrow (Country Gospel, 1971)

Haunting and twangy gospel music from Rickman, TN. The Coleman Looper Family is an acoustical (guitars, mandolin, bass, banjo & dobro) group with trio and quartet harmony vocals. The Group is on the road full time in the ministry for the Lord. They travel across the nation from coast to coast. Some say the group…