Thank you all for your Christmas greetings. I hope you had a blessed day with friends and family and that 2007 will be one of your finest years ever!

I appreciate all of you who respond to these questions, and also those of you that read and enjoy quietly. If the questions are a bit sporadic this week, please forgive me. We're still sorting out the season and may be out and about.

I was thinking of some Christmas gifts from years past and remembered a few albums that appeared under my tree.

What group recorded the albums "Lead Me Back to Calvary", "Our Best to You", & "Who Am I"?

© CMG SGMRadio.com 2006

The Blue Ridge Qy.

I was going to guess the Statesmen but I can't find anything on the net to confirm that...

John, it seems that songwriters don`t like to have their songs misquoted. My brother had recorded "Who Am I" when The Blue Ridge Qt. came out with it at The NQC in Memphis one year, so he was with Rusty Goodman, and (I think) Burl Strevel said "come over here Rusty and here this Who Am I so Rusty did. When the Blue Ridge came to the line "Who am I, that He would pray not my will thine Lord, Rusty said THINE FOR.

Confirmation that it is the Blue Ridge can be found on this thread on another message board as John and Dean list a pile of Blue Ridge recordings.

http://www.sogospellovers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=4077

You are absolutely correct about the Blue Ridge Quartet. In recent weeks, I have been working on a project. . . transferring all my BRQ albums to CD. I have discovered many treasures that I haven't heard in many years.

The Blue Ridge Quartet has always been among my favorite groups, and I am again finding out why I've felt that way.

I figure that based on the more than 80 Blue Ridge albums you listed as owning that it will take about 40 hours to put them all on CDs. How does that compare with the time it took to transfer all your Goodman and Hinson albums to CD? ;)

John, who do you consider the best of the Blue Ridge Quartet? Or, anyone else that wants to answer that.

When I saw the BRQ, it was Ed Sprouse, Elmo, Bill and George and/or Burl. At least that is my memory........who else, besides Hamill of course, sang with them?

Joe: By the time I saw the Blue Ridge in the early 70s it was Donnie Seabolt on tenor (having replaced Fred Daniels), Laverne Tripp on lead (and writing many of their big songs), Bill Crowe and Burl. I'd be interested in hearing what others thought of that makeup of the group.

They seemed to do a fair bit of country gospel (Wings of a Dove, You Can't Be a Beacon) but there were playing a lot to audiences at fairs who might not have been as familar with SGM songs.

I liked the four man group of either Sprouse, Fagg, Gates, and Strevel or Younce. Bill Crowe added a good blending voice to the group, too. I didn't really like Hamill with the BRQ. He didn't blend as well as I would want a baritone to do.

I think one of their finest lps is "Lead Me Back to Calvary" which is their only LP with Sprouse, Fagg, Crowe, Strevel, and Gates.

Although I may be branded a heritic with this statement, I think Burl Strevel is a much better bass singer than George Younce . . . especially during his BRQ years. Strevel was great as a rhythmic singer and was never "pitchy". He also became quite an admirable emcee.

The quartet lost a great deal of their appeal to me when Elmo Fagg retired, but "the people" must have thought differently, for they became one of the hottest groups in gospel music with LaVerne Tripp singing his country lead.

The first time I saw BRQ in concert, I was 10 years old. The group had Fred Daniel, Elmo Fagg, Bill Crowe, Burl Strevel, and Kenny Gates. Shortly thereafter, Fagg retired.

Burl Strevel is an extremely underrated bass singer. He always nailed it and gave the group a great deep foundation. I don't believe George hit his prime until the late 60s and early 70s, and he was at his finest on the early Cathedrals albums.

My favorite Blue Ridge was Fred, Elmo, Bill, Burl, and Kenny. Nobody outsang Fred Daniel on the tenor in the mid to late 60s, IMO.

I still don't think its George Younce singing Streets of Gold on the Canaan 4605LP.

That's him on Suppertime, but its someone else on Streets of Gold. :harp:

I know what you mean, Mark. It's hard to believe that George ever sounded so smooth and lyrical and "anti nasal" as he did on "Streets of Gold."

That is such a lovely song.

Lee Roy wrote some great songs in that time frame that never became popular. Another of my favorites is "All About Jesus" which the Blue Ridge recorded but never released. I think the Plainsmen Quartet is the only group that ever actually released that song to the public.

Norm, I have almost if not all of the Goodman LPs, but they aren't on my list of "transferring" at this time.

Thanks to you, I also own their biography!

I don't own a Hinson LP and I doubt that will change unless someone sees fit to give them to me. If that happens, I don't think I'll take time to transfer them to CD. If I ever do, I'll send you a copy. OK?