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Working The Road: The Golden Age Of Chicago Gospel
Delmark DE 703

United’s gospel catalog was lean but prime. During the ’50s, Chicago was gospel’s capital — its Vatican and Mecca, home turf of its pioneer exponents: Thomas A. Dorsey, Mahalia Jackson, and Roberta Martin. By then the music had flourished for at least twenty years; it was old enough to possess its own conventions and stylistic traits yet new enough to still sound fresh. The singers included on this CD were among Chicago’s most innovative and eclectic. By 1951 Robert Anderson was Chicago’s leading male soloist, easily Mahalia’s equal in popularity or influence. Robert Ballinger’s later recordings became minor hits and caused a sensation among lovers of blues piano. Lucy Smith also played piano; she spent several years accompanying the Martin Singers on records and James Cleveland derived his piano technique from her. Lucy’s singing and lead vocalist Gladys Beamon Gregory’s performances are a testament to the glory of Chicago gospel.

1 Robert Anderson – Come In The Room
2 Robert Anderson – Trust In Jesus
3 Robert Anderson – How Could It Be
4 Robert Anderson – Oh Lord, Is It I
5 Robert Anderson – How I Got Over
6 Robert Anderson – Sow Righteous Seeds
7 Robert Anderson – He's Pleading In Glory
8 Robert Anderson – He's Pleading In Glory (Alternate)
9 Robert Anderson – My Expectation
10 Robert Anderson – How Could It Be (Fragment)

Robert Anderson and The Gospel Caravans
Robert Anderson, lead vocals
Albertina Walker, Ora Lee Hopkins, Elyse Yancey, Nellie
Grace Daniels, vocal group
Edward Robinson, piano
Louise Overall Weaver, organ


11 Reverend Robert Ballinger*– Working The Road
12 Reverend Robert Ballinger*– Standing In The Safety Zone
13 Reverend Robert Ballinger*– I John Saw The Number
14 Reverend Robert Ballinger*– Drop Your Net
15 Reverend Robert Ballinger*– My Soul Loves Jesus
16 Singing Sammy Lewis*– I'm Heaven Bound
17 The Lucy Smith Singers*– Come Unto Me
18 The Lucy Smith Singers*– Jesus, Lover Of My Soul
19 The Lucy Smith Singers*– Down On My Knees
20 The Lucy Smith Singers*– I Just Had To Call His Name
21 The Lucy Smith Singers*– He'll Make You Happy
22 The Lucy Smith Singers*– He's My Everything
23 The Lucy Smith Singers*– Hold The Light
24 The Lucy Smith Singers*– Hold The Light (Alternate)


Working The Road - The Golden Age Of Chicago Gospel
featuring Robert Anderson, Rev. Robert Ballinger, The Little Lucy
Smith Singers and Singing Sammy Lewis


United's gospel catalogue was lean but prime. During the 1950s, Chicago was gospel's capital, its Vatican and Mecca, the home turf of its pioneer exponents, Thomas A. Dorsey, Mahalia Jackson, and Roberta Martin. By then the music had flourished for at least twenty years; it was old enough to possess its own conventions and stylistic traits, new enough to still sound fresh. The singers included on this anthology were among Chicago's most innovative and eclectic. Sources as varied as Chopin and boogie-woogie, Broadway ballads and country blues, were drawn upon and changed utterly, folded into the capacious gospel sound.

ROBERT ANDERSON
By 1951 Robert Anderson was Chicago's leading male soloist, easily Mahalia's equal in popularity or influence. Born in 1919, he began singing in church as a boy, and in the early 1930s was one of the first members of the Roberta Martin Singers, generally regarded as the premier gospel group. Martin herself had a master's degree in music, though she had worked her way through school playing in store-front churches (and movie theaters). She was a subdued vocalist, decidedly not a belter, but soulful enough to tear up congregations whenever she deigned to solo. Most times she relied on the young people, originally teen-aged boys, later men and women who comprised her group. She drove them on with magnificent piano accompaniment, both lyrical and propulsive, a stylized Baptist version of the sanctified technique identified with,say, Robert Ballinger. Among her early acolytes, Robert Anderson may have been the most talented; he was clearly the most ambitious. By 1939 he had left her group and begun singing duets with R. L. Knowles, a Kansas City native who had made his mark as the
lead singer of Reverend Clarence Cobbs' First Church of Deliverance Radio Choir, the first ensemble to perform modern gospel on the air. Between them Knowles and Anderson are credited with bringing the "ad-lib" style to church singing: the jazzy runs, the free-spirited melisma, the frank acknowledgment of secular music, whether it be pop, blues, or swing. Indeed, with his smoky baritone and effortless phrasing, Anderson was often compared to Bing Crosby, although they had little but crooning in common. Though Anderson's blue-notes were scattered wide and free, his salient character was a sense of time that kept him lagging behind the beat. It seemed lazy but really was soulful and meditative. "And he always ended where he was 'posed to," remembers his accompanist Edward Robinson. "I used to play Prayer Changes Things, his big hit, every night, and I was never sure we'd end up together. But, baby, we always did."
After a California tour with Knowles (which included, he once said,
an extra role in Gone With The Wind), Anderson returned to Chicago,
and established a music studio where he instructed singers and musicians, and published his compositions. In 1943 he appeared at the National Baptist Convention, where his performance of Something Within had dozens of people running and leaping, falling out in the spirit. In 1946 he made a tour of the south: in Birmingham, Alabama, he sang on the radio, and reported that ambulances were double-parked all over the city, carrying listeners slain by his power to the local Colored Hospital.
The next step was to form his own vocal group, one modeled on his mentor's. But where Roberta Martin's crew was always co-ed, his first group consisted of female singers, the finest soloists he could find in the churches of Chicago and Gary, Indiana. He first called them the Good Shepard Singers (the name of his studio), then his Gospel Caravan. By the time he recorded for United, the group consisted of Albertina Walker, Elyse Yancey, Ora Lee Hopkins, and Nellie Grace Daniels. They were the brighest, crispest vocal ensemble in Chicago, matched only by the great Philadelphia groups, the Ward Singers and the Davis Sisters (they would also be the inspirations of the Birmingham-based Original Gospel Harmonettes.) Each member could lead, and each performed a specific role. Albertina, the melifluous squaller, was a female version of Robert Anderson: she shared his love of delayed time and "whoa-whoa-whoa" yodelling. (Among other singers inspired by Anderson would be James Cleveland, who spent some years as his piano accompanist, and the quartet leads, Sam Cooke, Johnnie Taylor, and Lou Rawls all of whom trained with him, and all of whom carried his style into pop music.) Elyse Yancey, the oldest, was the most serious, the deep or "consecrated" member. Ora Lee Hopkins was the shout-getter, the rhythmic sparkplug; Nellie Grace Daniels was the demure soprano, a role clearly patterned on that of the Martin Singers' soprano lead -- and Anderson's best friend -- Delois Barrett Campbell.
The Gospel Caravan fell out with their boss. On April 18, 1952, after he left the studio, the women and Edward Robinson remained and cut a single under the name "The Caravans." Over the years, the Caravans would become the most durable and popular of female groups. Even today when "Contemporary Gospel" has overwhelmed "Traditional," ex-Caravans like Albertina Walker, Inez Andrews, Dorothy Norwood, and the most successful member Shirley Caesar remain super-stars, accompanied on records by large choral ensembles, though still adhering to the small group sound in person. Every set of Caravans, and there were several as members either retired
or launched their own careers, was formed to Anderson's original
specifications. Albertina Walker remained the group's manager and
alto; there was always a lyric soprano (Iris Christmas, Johneron
Davis, and, most famously, Delores Washington); always a hard
Yancey-like lead (Bessie Griffin, Inez Andrews, Cassietta George),
always a showmanly house-wrecker (Dorothy Norwood, Shirley Caesar). The Caravans' sound was already vivid on these 1952 recordings; and they spurred Anderson to some of his most inspired work.
Come in the Room finds him growling like a Baptist preacher,
and rocking like a Pentecostal. Trust In Jesus demonstrates the way
blue tonality informs his style; the slurs come unbidden.
Two songs, How Could It Be and Pleading in Glory, begin as ballads
but move into compelling and relentless choruses: Anderson was
clearly out for blood, hoping that these songs would be "sure nuff hits." I have chosen two takes of both songs, to demonstrate the subtle differences in meter and tune he came up with, as the spirit led him. A more retiring, pop sound is evident in
My Expectations or Sow Righteous Seeds (with Nellie Grace Daniels'
mocking-bird floating over his eagle): these songs were hits for
Anderson perhaps because they anticipate the harmonies and melodic
approach of Contemporary Gospel. But the masterpiece is his own
composition Oh Lord, Is It I, a song later recorded by his close
friend Mahalia Jackson. His singing is wonderfully free
and sensitive, at one moment filled with the rolling "r"'s of a
concert baritone, the next with the slurs of a church-man. My
favorite moment comes toward the end when he sings "My soul looks up to thee, I pray, Oh Lord, Oh Lord, is it I?" Caught up in the song he barely completes the verb, " to thee I pr', o Lord," dotting the last word in a fleeting syncopation.
After the Caravans quit, Anderson spent some years leading a male
group, as harmonically resplendent as his female singers. But his popularity declined with the rise of Contemporary Gospel. He
became a house-keeper for the Chicago-based Ann Landers (!), and next delivered flowers for a shop owned by his first accompanist John Burns. Occasionally he would earn royalties from Mahalia Jackson's recordings of his music. In the 1980s he made a series of recordings for Spirit Feel. In early 1995 he entered the hospital, where the last person he saw was Edward Robinson, the loyalest of his disciples, for a by-pass operation. It failed, as it usually does with diabetics, and he suffered a stroke, lingering for several months in a vegetative state, where his most reliable visitor was Eugene Smith, an old buddy from the Roberta Martin Singers. His death that June inspired a large funeral at the Greater Harvest Baptist Church, whose choir he had once conducted. As one friend remarked, it was a larger crowd that had heard him sing for years.

REVEREND ROBERT BALLINGER
If Anderson is a stone Baptist, Robert Ballinger (1921-1965) is
through-and-through sanctified. He was born in Cincinnati, and spent
several years in Detroit, but made his biggest mark in Chicago, where he served as assistant to Bishop J. E. Watley, Senior, an eminent minister in the Church of God in Christ. In the early 1960s,
Ballinger's recordings for Peacock became minor hits, and caused a sensation among lovers of blues piano. These recordings were cut some years earlier, and, frankly, are not as accomplished.
Yet they show him in his gruff splendor, phrasing with the vaudevillian audacity of women like Sister Rosetta Tharpe or Marion Williams, and experimenting with changes on the sanctified piano style, established over three decades earlier by the likes of Arizona Dranes and Elder Beck. He enjoys deploying a gospel patter, a proto-rap, on Working the Road or I John Saw The Number (with new verses by the Detroit pastor W. M. Denison), and, despite some unwieldly runs, he bounces along. The other tunes are more soulful, and the surprising My Soul Loves Jesus shows him attempting vocal colorations, as if even he had listened to a little Robert Anderson.

SINGING SAMMY LEWIS
Represented by only one selection, the rocking I'm Heaven Bound,
Singing Sammy Lewis (1921-1994) was a Chicago star for many years.
He too sang as a boy with the Roberta Martin Singers, and was greatly
influenced by Mahalia Jackson, whose bluesy runs and impassioned
interjections ("'Halie used to get a dose of the holy ghost," he once
said) he frequently echoed. Lewis also recorded for Vee Jay and
Checker but his big-voiced, emotionally generous style was another
casualty of the Contemporary Gospel take-over.

THE LUCY SMITH SINGERS
It's appropriate that Robert Anderson's co-stars should be the
Lucy Smith Singers. Smith was his great friend and occasional
accompanist; while the group's lead Gladys Beamon Gregory was another pal, and, as he admitted in his last years, "my favorite (pronouncing the last syllable as if it rhymed with bite) singer." Smith and Gregory had been child stars in the Pentecostal Church of All Nations whose pastor was Elder Lucy Smith, Smith's grandmother and a powerhouse in the city's history: her funeral was one of Chicago's largest ever. Lucy, Gladys, and Florence Watson made up a trio of teen-age girls, who rank with the Martin Singers as among the pioneer gospel groups.
Lucy (born,1924) and Gladys (born,1925) were of the same generation as Dinah Washington, who also began singing gospel in the 1930's, and, like them, regarded Roberta Martin as the greatest gospel singer. Had they followed Dinah into blues, I have no doubt they would have matched her fame: indeed, Lucy still sounds like a young Dinah. But Lucy preferred playing piano to singing. She studied classical music, and specialized in the
compositions of Chopin and Beethoven, even as she used to accompany the shouting saints while they danced all over All Nations. Her mother
died when she was three, and some years later her father James Austin
married Roberta Martin. Lucy spent several years accompanying the
Martin Singers on records (where she sometimes doubled on organ)
and on the road. James Cleveland derived his piano technique from her. Meanwhile Gladys toyed briefly with night-club singing, and then spent thirty years working as an office manager. Spared the rigors of hard traveling, she has retained her voice, and at 72, may be the greatest living gospel singer.
These recordings from the mid-1950's have a demure charm, a touch
of country-and-western's plaintive melodies, respectable harmonies (though neither Catherine Campbell nor Sara McKissick is the match of
Lucy and Gladys), and spectacular lead work. Lucy's bluesy arrangement
of Jesus Lover Of My Soul is, at once, spiritual and erotic, and she
tosses out some wonderful melismas on Hold The Light. Gladys shines
throughout, whether taking her time through He's My Everything, her
most famous solo, or gleefully swinging through Come Unto Me, where
she swallows breathes and conjoins discreet words to motor the beat.
Any album that includes Robert Anderson, Lucy Smith and Gladys Beamon at their youthful best is a testament to the glory of
Chicago gospel.

NOTES BY ANTHONY HEILBUT
Anthony Heilbut's study of gospel music, The Gospel Sound: Good News and Bad Times, has just been published by Limelight in its 25th anniversary edition.)



Robert Anderson and The Gospel Caravans
Robert Anderson, lead vocals
Albertina Walker, Ora Lee Hopkins, Elyse Yancey, Nellie
Grace Daniels, vocal group
Edward Robinson, piano
Louise Overall Weaver, organ
Reverend Robert Ballinger
Reverend Robert Ballinger, vocals and piano
unknown, drums

Singing Sammy Lewis
Sammy Lewis, vocals
Lucy Smith, piano
Herman Stevens, organ

The Lucy Smith Singers
Lucy Smith, Gladys Beamon, Sara McKissick (soprano),
Catherine Campbell (alto), vocal group.
Lucy Smith, piano
Herman Stevens, organ

Complete notes enclosed by Anthony Heilbut who also compiled and produced this album.

Robert Anderson
1. Come In The Room 2:31
2. Trust In Jesus 2:44
3. How Could It Be 3:01
4. Oh Lord, Is It I 2:59
5. How I Got Over 2:40
6. Sow Righteous Seeds 2:43
7. He's Pleading In Glory 2:10
* 8. He's Pleading In Glory (alternate) 2:51
9. My Expectation 3:34
*10. How Could It Be (fragment) 2:35
Reverend Robert Ballinger
*11. Working The Road 1:50
*12. Standing In The Safety Zone 3:03
*13. I John Saw The Number 1:35
*14. Drop Your Net 2:07
*15. My Soul Loves Jesus 2:48
Singing Sammy Lewis
16. I'm Heaven Bound 2:17
The Lucy Smith Singers
17. Come Unto Me 2:50
18. Jesus, Lover Of My Soul 2:42
19. Down On My Knees 2:49
20. I Just Had To Call His Name 2:48
21. He'll Make You Happy 2:17
*22. He's My Everything 3:05
23. Hold The Light 2:40
*24. Hold The Light (alternate) 2:56

*previously unissued

Robert Anderson
1. Come In The Room 1111 2:31 (Alex Bradford, Unichappel Music, BMI)
2. Trust In Jesus 1050 2:44
3. How Could It Be 1113 3:01
4. Oh Lord, Is It I 1112 2:59 (Robert Anderson, Unichappel Muisc, BMI)
5. How I Got Over 1049 2:40 (Clara Ward/Dorothy Pearson, Andrea Music, ASCAP)
6. Sow Righteous Seeds 1048 2:43
7. He's Pleading In Glory 1114 2:10 (Robert Anderson, Unichappel Music, BMI)
8. He's Pleading In Glory (alternate) 1114 2:51 (Robert Anderson, Unichappel Music, BMI)
9. My Expectation 1052 3:34 (Doris Akers, Manna Music, ASCAP)
10. How Could It Be (fragment) 1113 2:35
Reverend Robert Ballinger (no master numbers assigned to this session)
11. Working The Road 1:50
12. Standing In The Safety Zone 3:03 (Robert Ballinger, MCA/Duchess Music, BMI)
13. I John Saw The Number 1:35 (Traditional)
14. Drop Your Net 2:07 (R.W. Collins)
15. My Soul Loves Jesus 2:48 (Public Domain)
Singing Sammy Lewis
16. I'm Heaven Bound 1594 2:17 (Public Domain)
The Lucy Smith Singers
17. Come Unto Me 1553 2:50 (Traditional)
18. Jesus, Lover Of My Soul 1554 2:42 (Traditional)
19. Down On My Knees 1555 2:49 (Lucy Smith)
20. I Just Had To Call His Name 1557 2:48 (Lucy Smith)
21. He'll Make You Happy 1595 2:17 (James Cleveland, Unichappel Music, BMI)
22. He's My Everything 1556 3:05 (Thomas Phillips/Camille Harrison, arranged by Lucy Smith)
23. Hold The Light 1592 2:40 (Sammy Lewis, Unichappel Music, BMI)
24. Hold The Light (alternate) 1592 2:56 (Sammy Lewis, Unichappel Music, BMI)

United Records was the first successful black-owned record company. Operated by Leonard Allen, tailor, retired policeman and obviously one of exceptionally wide taste in music, the two labels (United and States) issued some of the best performances in the jazz, blues, gospel and R&B idioms between 1951 and '57. Delmark is proud to release this important body of masters, including many previously unissued, recorded in studios which pioneered high fidelity recording in the '50s.

Compiled and produced by Anthony Heilbut
Album Production: Robert G. Koester and Scott Dirkes
Supervision: Leonard Allen
Photos: from the collection of Anthony Heilbut
Design: Al Brandtner

Other albums on Delmark that contain United masters include:
The Dandeliers, Hornets, Five Chances, Palms, Strollers & Drakes, Chop Chop Boom (Delmark 702)
The Four Blazes, Mary Jo (Delmark 704)
Tab Smith
Top 'n' Bottom (Delmark 499)
Ace High (Delmark 455)
Jump Time (Delmark 447)
Honkers & Bar Walkers, featuring Jimmy Forrest, Tab Smith, Paul
Bascomb and others (Delmark 438)
Jimmy Forrest, Night Train (Delmark 435)
Paul Bascomb, Bad Bascomb (Delmark 431)

Future albums coming in the United series will feature Junior Wells (with Muddy Waters, Elmore James, Otis Spann, Willie Dixon and others), Robert Nighthawk, Memphis Slim, Roosevelt Sykes, J.T. Brown, Big Walter Horton and others.