The Echo of Hymns: Arthur Rice's Journey Through Gospel's Golden Era and the Rise of Southern Quartets
Jun 16, 2024
Randy
Can you imagine a time when the radio was the lifeline for weather updates and church announcements? Join us on a nostalgic journey through the history of gospel music with our special guest, Arthur Rice. Raised in Weaverville, Buncombe County, Arthur recalls the powerful influence of radio stations like WWNC and WSKY on his childhood, filling his home with hymns and country music. Arthur's story unfolds from his early days with the Rice family group to his celebrated career with legendary quartets such as the Kingsman Quartet, Squire Parsons, and the Kingdom Heirs. We also touch on the health and well-being of Squire Parsons, offering a heartfelt glimpse into the lives that have shaped gospel music for generations.
In the second segment, we explore the rich heritage of Southern Gospel music quartets with insights from the Minister of Music at Trinity Baptist Church in Asheville, who has also led the Southern Gospel Music Association since 2015. Discover how the Southern Gospel quartets of the 1940s and 1950s, initially formed to promote songbooks, skyrocketed to fame through the power of radio. You'll learn about the traditional structure of a male quartet and hear personal anecdotes about iconic groups like the Statesmen and Blackwood Brothers. We also recount the tragic 1954 plane crash that claimed the lives of RW Blackwood and Bill Lyles, cementing their place in gospel music history. This episode is a tribute to the legacy and contributions of these early quartets, whose music continues to resonate today.
Can you imagine a time when the radio was the lifeline for weather updates and church announcements? Join us on a nostalgic journey through the history of gospel music with our special guest, Arthur Rice. Raised in Weaverville, Buncombe County, Arthur recalls the powerful influence of radio stations like WWNC and WSKY on his childhood, filling his home with hymns and country music. Arthur's story unfolds from his early days with the Rice family group to his celebrated career with legendary quartets such as the Kingsman Quartet, Squire Parsons, and the Kingdom Heirs. We also touch on the health and well-being of Squire Parsons, offering a heartfelt glimpse into the lives that have shaped gospel music for generations.
In the second segment, we explore the rich heritage of Southern Gospel music quartets with insights from the Minister of Music at Trinity Baptist Church in Asheville, who has also led the Southern Gospel Music Association since 2015. Discover how the Southern Gospel quartets of the 1940s and 1950s, initially formed to promote songbooks, skyrocketed to fame through the power of radio. You'll learn about the traditional structure of a male quartet and hear personal anecdotes about iconic groups like the Statesmen and Blackwood Brothers. We also recount the tragic 1954 plane crash that claimed the lives of RW Blackwood and Bill Lyles, cementing their place in gospel music history. This episode is a tribute to the legacy and contributions of these early quartets, whose music continues to resonate today.
Speaker 1:
Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to another exciting episode of Hot Mike with Houston and Hogan. I'm the Randy Houston part of this equation, and you are. This is Dave Hogan from Hogan Holler. We still go find that on a map somewhere, aren't we?
Speaker 1:
Good to see you, Dave. Hey, we want to say thank you so much to Chuck Rice who was our guest on Hot Mike with Houston and Hogan. Actually, the past couple of episodes and a lot of you liked hearing from Chuck again and us telling all the radio stories and we appreciate that very much, Chuck. We have another Rice guest in our studio today.
Speaker 2:
Right, Dave, we're delighted to have Arthur Rice and we're going to. We've talked about radio history, we've talked about country music history and today we're going to concentrate on gospel music history. We're going to talk with Arthur Rice, who grew up in Buncombe County, in the Weaverville area, and has been involved in gospel music all his life. Hello, arthur, hello, fantastic having you on the podcast today.
Speaker 3:
Listen, I can't tell you what an honor it is to sit here and talk to you guys and what a blessing you guys have been to me through my life. I believe in giving roses while you can still enjoy them and I just want you guys to know what an honor it is for me to be here and I thank you for asking me. I really do. You know, know that English?
Speaker 2:
character that appeared on the Andy Griffith show, occasionally the butler. What was his name?
Speaker 1:
I can't remember his name, but he had Wendell something of that.
Speaker 2:
Winfield or something like that you all know who I'm talking about. But he would always say aren't you nice, Arthur, aren't you nice for all those kind words?
Speaker 3:
Well, seriously, I mean, you know, when I was growing up, radio was such a huge part of everybody's life really. But you know, with my life, I remember, you know, as a kid, before I went to school, you know my parents would drop me off at my grandmother's house and, man, the radio was tuned to WWNC and the knobs were pulled off of it. I mean, it played 24 hours a day. You know, and you know there's such a vivid memory of you guys and what an impact you, you know you've been. And Scotty Rodheimer, what a man.
Speaker 1:
I want to try to get him on our podcast. I really do.
Speaker 3:
He's doing great, that's all I mean. You guys were just. You know, you guys played the music that became the soundtrack to my life. Well, bless your heart.
Speaker 2:
And so many others.
Speaker 3:
You know the country music was so rich and good. And then you know we couldn't wait till hymn time.
Speaker 1:
We played a song of faith.
Speaker 3:
Every hour, every hour.
Speaker 1:
And it was my favorite part of the hour and I've been such a fan of gospel music since childhood and a large part of my childhood in gospel music was right back to the radio with Dave Hogan on Sunday morning hymn time at WSKY.
Speaker 3:
So it's all connected here, well, you know there was only a couple stations, you know growing up that we listened to, and that was WWNC or WSKY.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:
And then Wise kind of came along and kind of hit when we were teenagers. Yes, yes, and so you know, that was it. I mean really, and so we got all our information from the radio station. The music was such a rich part of our life. And every time a snowflake came down yeah. Is there going to be school today? Is there going to be school today? Yeah, Radio.
Speaker 2:
People depended on radio to find out that information. And now the schools just send out an email blast. Text blast.
Speaker 3:
Yeah, text.
Speaker 2:
And people will find out instantly from the school. But back in those days radio all the school officials would call the radio station. Please announce that such and such a school is going to be closed because of weather today. And, of course, the phones at the radio station would ring off the hook, so much so that you couldn't answer the phone, and I would, you know, bring in my wife or somebody to help out when it was threatening weather, because of all those phone calls that came in.
Speaker 1:
Especially on Sunday mornings when the church services were involved. That would be just a phenomenal Sunday morning, but that song of faith every hour, that was a chance for me to go back and relive some of my childhood by playing songs from the Happy Goodman family and the Seagull Brothers and Naomi, and the list goes on and on of those childhood heroes.
Speaker 3:
We looked forward to that moment because we never knew what you were going to play. We were always anticipating, okay, who we're going to hear this hour, and it gave us a chance to hear a lot of the groups that we couldn't hear. They would come through the area every once in a while, but it kept that music alive and kept it in our hearts.
Speaker 1:
It really did, and, of course, the Kingsman Quartet.
Speaker 2:
Let's do a little bio of Arthur Rice, our guest right now. Arthur will elaborate on this as we go through the podcast. Arthur, as I mentioned earlier, was raised in the Weaverville area and grew up actually in gospel music, from the time he was sitting on his mom's knee, Then same with the Rice family, a family group. Your first professional job was with the famed family group and your first professional job was with the famed Kingsman Quartet and then you were with Squire Parsons for a while.
Speaker 3:
By the way, how's Squire's health? He's doing good. I talked to him the other day. He's doing good. You know trying to get out. If Linda let him out of the house, I think he'd be a lot better.
Speaker 2:
People ask me I often run into people who will ask about Squire Parsons because he had a real battle with illness the last time I heard. And then from Squire, you went with the Kingdom Heirs. I call them the Dollywood Quartet often when I introduce them on the radio. Here are the Kingdom Heirs, the Dollywood Quartet, and you were the lead singer for the Kingdom Heirs for over 27 years. Oh wow, and you left the Kingdom Heirs just recently, in 23?.
Speaker 3:
Yeah 2023? 22, actually, so 2022. It'll be two years, almost two years.
Speaker 2:
And you are the Minister of Music at Trinity Baptist Church in Asheville and we'll elaborate on your career as we go through the program and we'll talk more about Trinity Baptist Church and what you're doing there a little later. But you're also the president of the Southern Gospel Music Association. Yes, and how long have you been president of the association?
Speaker 3:
I've been president since 2015. I believe it was 2015.
Speaker 2:
I was thinking driving to our studio today. There are probably people, I'm sure, listening who really don't know much about the finer points of what southern gospel music is. Why don't you define for us a southern gospel music quartet and the different parts? Of course? Quartet indicates that there are four people, and let's talk about a male quartet now and tell us what a male quartet in Southern Gospel music consists of.
Speaker 3:
Well, you know, southern Gospel music kind of started back in the 40s and the 50s really kind of growing very quickly. What it started, as was a lot of the publishing companies, songwriters that started these publishing companies that wrote songbooks for churches. They didn't have a way At that time, you know, you didn't have a way of, you couldn't send an email or you couldn't send, you know, a flyer. It didn't really have the same impact. So what they would do is they would hire four singers and create a quartet or trio and then they would send them all around the country to sing and they would sing their songs so that they could sell songbooks to the churches. That's kind of how our music kind of got started.
Speaker 1:
Okay, I didn't realize that.
Speaker 3:
And then as it grew, the quartets kind of started on their own and kind of went out on their own and that sort of thing. We're talking about radio, the importance of radio, and you know, the Statesmen and Blackwood Brothers, really radio was such an important part of it because they would go into the town, into a town, for a concert that night. Well, people didn't know who they were. I mean, they were just, you know, just a group and they would go in, the guys would check in the motel and they would rehearse all day and Hovey would go to the radio station, he would promote and he would preach and promote the concert for that night.
Speaker 2:
And that's kind of how that— but a quartet is made up of a lead singer, which was your part with the King Damaris. Yes, and what else?
Speaker 3:
Well, you have first tenor, second tenor or lead singer, baritone singer and bass singer, and then most of them had a piano player. So there was usually five. You know at least five of them in the early days. The lead singer it kind of depended on the group. The lead singer was kind of the one that carried the melody most of the time. Now that would switch parts every once in a while, but usually you had one part that carried the melody and most quartets was the second tenor. Now, if you look at the history of, say, the inspirations, uh, archie watkins, the tenor singer, carried the melody on most of the uh, you know. So you didn't really classify him as a lead singer, but if you broke it down and made it technical, he was actually the lead singer of that quartet most of the time.
Speaker 1:
I've heard that said many times. When people listen to the Inspirations music, archie's singing lead Exactly.
Speaker 3:
And then you have the rich heritage of all the family quartets and family groups that started and there's such a rich history of that and they kind of carried that music along through the churches and through the local churches and then around regionally and a lot of those grew, and so that's kind of how those started Arthur.
Speaker 2:
I came from a family of gospel music singers as well.
Speaker 2:
I came from a family of gospel music singers as well, and except for me, everybody in my family could either sing or play an instrument, or both except for me. But I hold the world championship in listening. I'm the greatest listener ever, ever. And from the time I was a toddler I was listening to the radio, all kinds of music, from big band music to gospel music to country music, whatever was on the radio. And you mentioned the Blackwood brothers and the statesman. I remember probably 10 years old, if that old I remember hearing Walter Winchell talk about the plane crash that took the life of RW Blackwood and Bill Lyles, half of the Blackwood Brothers Quartet. I believe that was 1954. I believe it was 1954.
Speaker 2:
I think, it's right, and I think I know at the Hall of Fame you have some old clips of the Blackwood Brothers Quartet and the original quartet.
Speaker 3:
Yeah, we have a display of some of the original and we also have a display of that news article that came out Because at that time I mean they were as big as anybody original. And we also have a display of that news article that came out because, when you know, at that time I mean they were, they were as big as anybody well, the blackwood brothers had just won the arthur godfrey.
Speaker 2:
Talent scouts, wow program yeah, which is, I guess, uh, the closest thing to it today would be american island, american american island or the Voice. Yeah. So they were tremendously popular and they recorded for RCA. Victor and the Chuckwagon Gang recorded for Columbia. There was, I don't think, a record label exclusively for gospel music at that time. Yeah, there wasn't, there wasn't exclusively for gospel music at that time yeah there wasn't, and so these quartets, the early, gospel quartets were on major labels.
Speaker 2:
But I also remember quartets like the Swanee River Boys and the Browns Ferry Four. You know Grandpa Jones, merle Travis, one of the great guitar players of all time and also a a songwriter, wrote songs like 16 Tons. Grandpa John's, merle Travis and Alton and Raven Delmore the Delmore brothers made up the Browns Ferry Four Gospel.
Speaker 3:
Quartet.
Speaker 2:
And my dad was a big fan of them and I was named after Alton. My middle name is Alton named after Alton Delmore. So I go way back. As I said, as a listener. I'm the world champion, but I listen to the announcers and that's why I got into DJ work later on. But you guys who are singers and Randy's got some background in singing gospel music as well you guys need listeners, don't you? Absolutely, you've got to have listeners.
Speaker 3:
Absolutely. I tell people all the time if we didn't have people that could listen, there would be nothing but singers singing to singers. Sure, sure, but you know. Going to your story, I love how God works in people's lives. It's like for you your family was singers. You were not, but undoubtedly you have reached more people in your radio years and talking than anybody. And that's how God works and I love that.
Speaker 2:
Well, most of my radio career 90% of it I did a Sunday morning gospel hymn time program, no matter what the format was during the week, on Sunday morning I played gospel music and I looked at it as a ministry really and you mentioned Trinity Baptist Church, where you're now the Minister of Music, and I remember so many times I worked on Sunday morning, therefore I could not attend church.
Speaker 2:
It was kind of like church to me doing that program, but I would finish the program at 10 or 11 o'clock and so many times tune in Ralph and the. Sunday morning radio broadcast from Trinity Baptist Church and before Ralph Sexton Jr. I remember Ralph Sexton Sr and isn't the current pastor at Trinity.
Speaker 3:
The grandson, Grandson of Ralph Jr yes Of Ralph Jr, yeah. And his name is Winston Parrish. Winston Parrish.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, how did you move from the King Damaris Quartet to Trinity? What was the impetus?
Speaker 3:
What was the? How did that come about? Well, it uh, I grew up in trinity and so it was kind of it's kind of turned full circle. You know, I started at trinity and kind of did everything else and then and then returned. Um, that story is a. It's a wonderful story.
Speaker 3:
I just you know, uh, a lot of times when, when god is dealing with you in your life and trying to tell you something, you know he'll make an uneasy spirit about you and you know there's something that he's leading you to do, but a lot of times you don't know exactly what it was. You know, so many times you want to go God, just put me up a billboard and tell me exactly what it is you want me to do. But then what happens is you start seeking his face and you start studying and seeing, okay, where is he leading? And I was kind of going through that period, kind of really at the end of 2021. And I really didn't understand it. I mean, I loved being a part of the Dollywood family. I loved being a part of the kingdom heirs. They had become you know that many years. You spend that many years with people. They become family, you know.
Speaker 1:
Oh yeah.
Speaker 3:
And I loved and I couldn't understand. I figured one day I would die on stage. You know, that was just kind of and I never dreamed of doing anything else. But then, all of a sudden, I started having this kind of uneasy spirit and and felt the Lord was leading. And so finally, one day, um, I was going to the golf course and I pulled up in the parking lot and I turned my car off and I just broke down and I just started. I just started praying. I said Lord, I don't know what it is that you want me to do. I said I'm too ignorant to figure it out. You're just going to have to tell me what it is you want me to do.
Speaker 3:
And I didn't even more than get that out of my mouth and my phone was up on my dash and Pastor Winston's picture popped up on my phone. He was calling me and I looked around. I thought, well, somebody's reading my emails. I thought this is a joke and so, anyways, I answered the phone, I said hello and he said brother. He said, man, I just had you on my mind. He said I was just thinking about you and praying for you. He said I just wanted to let you know that you're thought of and prayed for.
Speaker 3:
Well, I just broke down and told him of what, what was going on and what happened, and and he said, well, would you like to have a conversation?
Speaker 3:
I said I believe I would, and so that started kind of a four or five month conversation and and uh, we had actually kind of decided that maybe it would be the end of the end of the year 20, I would finish the season with the group and then maybe the first part of the 22.
Speaker 3:
But you know, 20, I would finish the season with the group and then maybe the first part of the 22. But you know, I found over the years that when you get yourself out of God's way, god doesn't move fast, but he will move quickly at times. And so whenever I kind of submitted myself to, okay, whatever it is you want me to do, that's what, that's what I'm going to do, as soon as I got myself out of the way, then he could work and he just started just rolling, and so it happened a lot, about six or seven months quicker than we thought, actually both of us thought we were going to do. But that's but everything, the transition, uh, uh, leaving the group. You know they. They took it so well and were so supportive and my family was just a great experience and to know that you're in the center of God's will means so much. It's such a comfort, it really is.
Speaker 2:
It really is, Randy. How are we on time? Do we need to take a break? Is?
Speaker 1:
it about time to take a break. It's about time to take a break and come back and talk about the life you have now at Trinity and what you do there, and also, I want to know a little bit more about what it's like to work at Dollywood. Oh yeah, that's a good idea.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, let's talk about it and maybe work that you've done with Dolly Yep and what kind of person you've found Dolly to be as a result of all those years with the Kingdom Heirs at.
Speaker 1:
Dollywood, absolutely. Oh, that's a great idea. Come back and join us again for Hot Mike with Houston and Hogan. Our guest today, arthur Rice, and we'll be back with him in another episode coming soon. Thank you for joining us. Be sure to click the subscribe button for another episode of Hot Mike with Randy Houston and Dave Hogan.