After 50 years in the music industry – from recording 78s in the 1940s to performing at the funeral of a US President the Oak Ridge Boys say farewell with an album dedicated to good ole Mom.
Country and gospel music stalwarts, the Oak Ridge Boys’ have a history stretching back to 1943. In 2023 they announced they would embark on a farewell 50th anniversary tour during 2023 and 2024. Their discography is impressive. They had thirty different personnel changes, cut over thirty studio albums, issued thirteen compilations (including three volumes of greatest hits) and released eight Christmas albums. Their fifty-six singles included seventeen Billboard country music chart toppers.
The Oak Ridge Boys currently consist of Duane Allen, William Lee Golden, Richard Sterband and Ben James who was brought into the group to stand in for the seriously ill Joe Bonsall. Sadly Bonsall died in July this year and Ben James appears on this album as full member.
Originally a gospel quartet called Wally Fowler and the Georgia Clodhoppers they were formed in 1943 in Knoxville, Tennessee, performing for the the workers and their families at the giant Oak Ridge National Laboratory during the second world war. When three members of the original quartet left to form another group Fowler (a singer, songwriter and a sharp operator) simple hired another group – the Calvary Quartet renaming them the Oak Ridge Quartet.
This was an era when white gospel groups criss-crossed the southern USA, ploughing the backroads, performing in churches, at it’s outdoor events including programs, country fairs and picnics, many broadcasting 15 minute radio spots sponsored by advertisers and taking the chance to record should the opportunity arose. Their recording debut came in 1947 with Capitol Records. Fowler also got them on the ‘Prince Albert Tobacco’ segment on the Grand Old Opry broadcast from the Ryman Theatre, Nashville.
They went on to wax for Mercury, 4 Star, Starday and many other labels throughout the 1950s. Fowler eventually sold the rights to their name to a group member Smitty Gatlin.
Gospel albums for Checker, Starday and Skylite followed along with a change of name to the Oak Ridge Boys, dumping ‘Quartet’ which seemed outmoded. Albums for Warner Brothers, Heart Warming and Dot, failed to dent the country music chart they struck a deal with Columbia which got them back into the charts in 1974 and Paul Simon used them on his hit ‘Slip Slidin’ Away’ in 1976.
Realising they were going nowhere with a steady stream of gospel albums they switched to country music. Good move – they hit both the country and pop charts in 1981 with a cover of Dallas Frazier’s ‘Elvira’ and the doo-wop inspired ‘Bobby Sue’ from the 1982 album of the same name containing cover versions of The Band’s ‘Up On Cripple Creek’ and The Fiestas 1959 R&B hit ‘So Fine’.
TV shows, guest appearances (including US variety shows and cameo appearances in series such as the ‘Dukes Of Hazard’), TV commercials, multiple Grammy and CMA Awards were piled high and their albums regularly made the upper reaches of country music charts.
The title of this set says it all – ten songs about mothers, harking back to an earlier era when homelife was predictable and comfy, free from real woes and cares, delicious home cooking and eating too much) (on ’That’s The Way Mama Made It’, and hymn singing on ‘Mama’s Teaching The Angels How To Sing’ and other ‘spiritual’ songs. Willie Nelson makes an obligatory guest appearance on ‘I Thought About You’.
Country music and gospel music have an unbreakable bond – Johnny Cash regularly performed gospel songs with The Carter Family cutting gospel tracks to keep his God fearin’ fans happy; Elvis loved singing gospel harmonies with The Jordanaires and the Blackwood Brothers; Jerry Lee Lewis sang gospel music with real panache. They all got right with God and they loved the music.
After 50 years in the music business and 30 personnel changes the Oak Ridge Boys are signing off with a MoR country album best listened to sittin’ in that old rocking chair.
