Mid-60s gospel from Memphis
The Gable-Airs were apparently “discovered” on Rev. Cleophus Robinson’s long-running gospel tv program
Their most well-known song is “Move Upstairs”
Which was on a golden-age gospel compilation, I believe
If you’ve been in the car with me sometime in the last 10 years, you’ve likely heard it
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnYY08uKYmk
Hard to find much info about them other than the YouTube posts and their comments
But there’s gold there
“They tell that Roscoe would start singing in the parking lot of the church with the Gable Airs in tow, come down the side aisles to the front, dip and grab the mike and the whole place would be up for grabs. It was not unusual for Lindsey to carry a change of clothes when he sung. While giving it his all he would in no time be soaking wet with utter perspiration even down to his leather shoes from singing so hard! Many a night Cleotis and A.B Crutchens would literally have to carry Roscoe to his car. That was no small feat as Roscoe stood every bit of 6’6”
Roscoe is Roscoe Lindsey, the group’s lead singer
“Popeye” was on guitar
I’m not sure who the bass singer is, but he’s amazing, and he brings a whole lotta oomph to the harmonies
Another example:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XIhhmOdPJfA
From Instagram, a family friend posted a pic of Roscoe
ALL the drip
They put out an album on Battle Records (out of Detroit) in 1963 that had Move Upstairs and Singing Goin’ On Just the Same
But today’s dose wasn’t on it
I’m not sure where it was released
YouTube shows that they had quite a few promotional 45s on the Song Bird label (from Houston)
Sometimes spelled “Gable-Airs” and sometimes “Gable-Aires”
But even the most comprehensive discography of Song Bird (https://www.bsnpubs.com/abc/songbird.html) doesn’t list them
Regardless, their true impact wasn’t recordings but their performances at New Bethel Missionary Baptist Church
This is actually in Germantown, a predominantly white suburb southeast of Memphis
That’s where those grand entrances and soul-stirring renditions took place
New Bethel was founded in 1869
But its roots stretch back even further
The church website recounts that a female member of a prominent white Germantown family “granted” a tract of land for enslaved people to worship and study
It was one of the so-called “hush harbors” that existed in the antebellum south
Hush harbors (sometimes also referred to as “brush harbors” or “bush harbors”) were sanctuaries in the lands outside of plantations
Where secret meetings would be held – often services of syncretism blending Ashanti, Ibo, Yoruba, Fon or other west african traditions with euro-american christian ones
They could be severely repressed and punished
But also helped formed the basis of the emerging black churches
The hush harbors are sometimes said to the the origin of the negro spirituals
In the US, there never solidified the large-scale african “religous” syncretism that happened in the colonies of Haiti, Dominican Republic, Trinidad, and Brazil
My rudimentary understanding is that this partly had to do with the aggressive christian evangelism among american protestants; the consensus authority on this topic appears to be Albert Raboteau’s Slave Religion: https://www.semcoop.com/slave-religionthe-invisible-institution-antebellum-south
In any case, the black (primarily methodist and baptist) churches of the US developed gospel, and of course the foundation of so much of american music (blues, soul, R&B, jazz, etc)
The Gable-Airs’ style — with strong piano and guitar lines — fits my sensibilities to a tee. And this was well before some of more famous gospel groups “went funky” to try to keep up with musical trends in the late 60s and early 70s
Will probably come back to some of those in future doses, too…