Swanee Quintet - Parts 3 & 4, 1969 - 1990

A reminder that this is primarily th work of Dr Hep Cat, I helped, but the bulk of the material came from him - there will even be a suplimental as he has come up with even more but this was already uploaded and you can't delete Embedupload items.

...continued from Tony Cummings Cross Rhythms.

"Pioneers in gospel like Sister Rosetta Tharpe and the Ward Singers had taken gospel music beyond the confines of the church and in the '50s New York disc jocky and gospel singer Thurman Ruth began to present his Gospel Caravans at the Apollo. Thurman remembered the Swanees as "the greatest singing group that I had at the Apollo. They were terrific. I had them with another big-name group and the big name was closing. But the Swanee Quintet was so tough that I had to let them close the show."
By the '60s the sales of the Swanee Quintet's singles were dipping and though Nashboro released albums like 1960's 'What About Me', 1962's 'The Anniversary Album', 1963's 'Meetin' Tonight' and 1964's 'Soul Stirring Gospel' the golden age for the group seemed to be over. But then "Mister Dynamite", James Brown, took an interest in the Swanee's dwindling career.

Brown had once worked as a shoe shine boy outside the WGAC radio station in Augusta (where the Swanees had their afternoon radio programme). The shoe shine boy grew up listening to the Swanee Quintet and in his teenage years secularised the sound of Ruben Willingham and the Swanees to start James Brown & The Famous Flowers. The R&B star took the Swanee Quintet under his wing and gave them a spot in his touring review and even produced a single, "Try Me Father", with them. As it turned out, even with the James Brown Band behind them the single, on Crescent Records, a gospelisation of Brown's 1958 hit "Try Me", was not a success. Shortly after that session Ruben Willingham left the Quintet to enter the ministry and perform as a solo singer, although on his first recordings in 1969 he used the Swanees as a backing group. Johnny Jones was briefly tempted into an unsuccessful mainstream R&B career, but he too rejoined the Swanees from time to time.

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