Anybody Remember Nashboro Records?
A deeper look at Nashville's most important gospel label
I started writing for uDiscover almost a year ago and I'm proud of the range of artists and genres I've been given the opportunity to write about, but I am MOST proud of the feature that went live yesterday about Nashville's historic Nashboro Records.
This feature highlights the visionary work of the late Shannon Williams and three (of the many) artists he produced: Clara Ward, Johnny Whittaker & The Twenty-First Century Singers and Willie Neal Johnson & The Gospel Keynotes.
Click here to read the feature!
To learn more about Nashboro, be sure to check out my 2021 feature on Johnny Whittaker and the 21st Century Singers, which provides more history detailing the label’s weight in Nashville’s larger music community.
Below are a few gems from the Nashboro catalog that are not streaming (hence, not included in the article), but are, thankfully, on YouTube!
The 1970 debut album by the New York Community Choir was released on Nashboro’s contemporary subsidiary, Creed Records. This track, “Pray For Peace” featuring Arthur Freeman, Wilbur Johnson and Rev. Louis R. Grant, was their manifesto of sorts, establishing the choir’s theological stance.
You can read my feature on the New York Community Choir below. You’ll find “Pray For Peace” directly beneath it!
"Dance, children, dance..."
Writer’s Note: Last week, I focused on Amy Grant’s Unguarded (1985), an album that caused a massive controversy in the largely white evangelical world. I’d planned on focusing, this week, on Tramaine Hawkins’ The Search Is Over, released in 1986. I realized, however, that I needed to go a little further back in time to set the stage for that story. Sinc…
Dr. Bobby Jones and New Life released two albums by way of Nashboro Records in 1979 and 1980. With the majority of the compositions written by his then-musical director Gerry Jones, the group recorded the first versions of songs that would be staples on his nationally syndicated Bobby Jones Gospel program, including “He Will Step Right In On Time” (later interpreted by New Life’s Johnny Whittaker and Beverly Crawford), “I’m Happy With Jesus Alone,” and “We Won’t Give Up.”
You can read my feature on Dr. Jones and New Life below and hear the first recording of “He Will Step Right In On Time.”
Dr. Bobby Jones & the Gospel Explosion
This past Sunday evening, a few hundred people gathered at the National Museum of African American Music in Nashville to celebrate the work of Dr. Bobby Jones, an innovative force in gospel music who brought the form into millions of homes internationally with his weekly telecast,
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THANK YOU FOR CONTINUING TO EDUCATE THE WORLD ON THIS GREAT MUSICAL HERITAGE WE ALL LOVE, GOSPEL!!!
Learning, listening, loving!