I’ve been real predisposed this week. I’m back now. But anyway, my wife and I stopped at Goodwill this afternoon. She likes to stop there and so do I, so we did. I like to look at music. And by music I mean records. It’s a great place to find old gospel quartet albums.
The Goodwills out here are much more fruitful ground for such endeavors than the ones back in Utopia. There’s always gospel records of some sort out here, I guess maybe the heathen/righteous ratio is more unfavorable in Utopia. Anyway, here’s the loot from today!
Click the image for a larger version.
The top three are all London Parris and the Apostles. London Parris was a phenomenal bass singer, I usually try to snap up anything he did. Here’s an track off of the “His Eye is on the Sparrow” recording, Farther Along. (2:47, 2.5MB)
The next two are a group I hadn’t heard of, Couriers Unlimited. I know of the Couriers, I don’t know if this is just a later iteration or not. Anyway, can you tell the reason I picked them up?! See if you recognize the guy on the left.
Michael English. Not that I’m a big Michael fan by any stretch of the imagination, but I never knew he was with them and it fascinated me. In researching it, I’ve found he was only a member for about six months (this was in ’83 or ’84). He went from the Singing Americans to the Happy Goodmans to the Couriers Unlimited, and from there he went back to the SA for a brief stint before he ended up with the Gaither Vocal Band in ’84. Where of course he shot to stardom.
Anyway, pretty interesting. The album is fairly unremarkable, they sound like an early ’80s SG group going CCM. They do Brent Lamb’s “Army of the Lord,” I thought that was notable.
Then of course there’s an orange Rebel’s album. And did you notice the cassette at the bottom?! The Oak Ridge Boys! “I Guess it Never Hurts to Hurt Sometimes,” there’s some fodder for my pathetic car’s tape player. All right! Looks like a ’92 reissue of an ’83 recording.
Anyway, that’s my haul for today.
7 Responses
March 12th, 2006 at 12:01 am
Wow, really good bass. I never heard of the guy. I just looked over some old records that I have. Nothing fansy but I’ll get them your way next time we are in Indiana, John
March 12th, 2006 at 10:10 pm
I know what you mean about “Goodwill Hunting” (pun intended). :) We went Good willing on Friday. Tavin got a pair of Nike Soccer shoes (or baseball I guess) in excellent condition for $2.50. That’s the rage out here. :) Last time I got Simon a pair of Old Navy jeans for $1.50 and found $7.00 in the pocket after they’d been through the wash a few times and he complained about something poking him! AS for your comment on heathen:righteous ratio for the reason of the gospel albums….you’d better watch it…I’d say it speaks more of the musical flavor of the righteous in the area. :) OBVIOUSLY everyone here keeps all of their albums….:)
March 13th, 2006 at 1:30 am
Predisposed or indisposed…..? Whichever, I’m glad you’re back!!!
March 13th, 2006 at 8:51 am
I love vinyl. You should see the boxes and boxes of records they have upstairs in the attic at Echoes. All old Gospel Echoes recordings. Still in the plastic wrap.
November 30th, 2006 at 8:35 pm
I thot I was thee only one who indulged in southern gospel fantasies, Looking for old guartet records is also a hobby of mine. Stamps Cathedrals, Imperials. Blue ridge, Stamps.Old Oak ridge Boys just to name a few.Ramnants of the Blue Ridge Qt.Live in Spartenburg near us .My wife was shopping at grocery store one and she heard a man singing near by, She commented on his singing and in the conversation he told her that he used to sing with a quartet, the blue Ridge,It happened to be Fred Daniels, the first tenor. Its a small world.
August 31st, 2007 at 8:33 am
I was wondering if you were interested in selling the Couriers Unlimited record with Mike English. If you get a chance, let me know. Thanks!
-Ben
September 8th, 2007 at 7:28 pm
I just might, if I can find it!