Rupe became interested in the Soul Stirrers at the urging of Pilgrim's Traveler singer J. The sad irony in the timing of Harris's departure is that the group had just been signed to Art Rupe's Specialty label. "The singers felt they could do anything they wanted," Harris complained at the time, as quoted in The Gospel Sound. Harris was a happily married man his wife, Jeanette, sang lead with the great female quartet the Golden Harps. Frustrated by the amount of moral compromise around him-particularly in regard to sex-Harris quit the Soul Stirrers in 1950. Particularly compelling is King's pedal steel guitar part on the haunting "Come and Go to That Land."īut there were other, more tawdry, aspects associated with the gospel group, the wages of popularity one may argue. Instrumentalists Faidest Wagoner and Bob King were added, greatly enhancing much of the group's work. By the late 1940s, the Soul Stirrers, led by Harris, had pioneered the concept of bringing sophisticated church songs-often with R&B-like instrumental backing-to the contemporary gospel scene. In 1949, Paul Foster-previously a member of the Golden Echoes-joined the lineup he would stay until 1963. Classic gospel material like "By and By," "He's My Rock, My Sword, My Shield," and "I'm Still Living on My Mother's Prayer" were written and recorded by the Soul Stirrers. Perhaps most important to their development was that Harris and Crain began composing. Roosevelt and British prime minister Winston Churchill.
Less than ten years after Lomax's primitive field recordings, the Soul Stirrers performed on the White House lawn for President Franklin D.
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Their harmonies were full of rhythmic invention: Farley began employing the two-beat bass line, a technique very important to doo-wop, and later, rock and roll. As their style developed, the Soul Stirrers made full use of their own innovations. His relaxed, insistent vocal style-greatly influenced by the Blind Lemon Jefferson blues recordings he had heard at home-changed the group's approach from rural jubilee to what would soon be called modern gospel. Harris, then a Texas farm boy, joined the group in 1937. Lomax remembered their music in The Gospel Sound as "the most incredible polyrhythmic stuff you've ever heard." (Senior Roy) Crain, the Soul Stirrers were first recorded by Alan Lomax for the Library of Congress in 1936. Harris was succeeded by Cooke, who in turn was followed by several excellent vocalists-Johnnie Taylor (later of note for the not-so-sanctified Stax hit "Who's Makin' Love to Your Old Lady While You Were Out Makin' Love?"), Willie Rogers, Richard Miles, and Martin Jacox.įormed in Trinity, Texas, around 1932 by bass singer J. Even to this day Harris remains the model for the modern gospel style. (Rebert) Harris, Cooke's predecessor and one of the group's earliest members, was gospel's consummate stylist, balancing great emotional range with delicately controlled phrasing. Many years prior to Cooke's tenure with the group, the Soul Stirrers were the first quartet to add a fifth member, which allowed the lead singer to step out and bellow ardent lead lines with the four-part harmonies intact. The Soul Stirrers differentiated themselves from their contemporaries-The Five Blind Boys, Pilgrim's Traveler-by boasting immensely talented frontmen. The group embodies the leap gospel made in a generation's time from the backwoods church to today's urbane show business.
And while his influence can't be overstated-Cooke was gospel's first true sex symbol, even transforming it in some ways into a sexual music-his is not by any means the Soul Stirrers' entire story. Cooke, though brilliant, was a member of the group for just six years of its roughly six-decade existence. Addresses: Record Company- Specialty Records, c/o Fantasy Inc., Tenth and Parker, Berkeley, CA 94710.Īlthough they are known to the secular world primarily as the vehicle for singer Sam Cooke's rise to R&B prominence, the Soul Stirrers are far more important for creating, or at least defining, the modern gospel quartet sound. Robinson, Willie Rogers, Johnnie Taylor, Leroy Taylor, and Faidest Wagoner (instrumentalist). Later members include Keith Barber, Thomas Bruster, Sam Cooke, Julius Cheeks, Paul Foster, Martin Jacox, Bob King (instrumentalist), Richard Miles, Jimmy Outler, R. (Rebert) Harris, lead vocalist and James Medlock, baritone.
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