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The Johnson Family Singers were an American singing family in the 1940s.[1]
History edit
The Johnson Family Singers were a musical group that consisted of a father Jesse ("Pa"), mother Lydia ("Ma"), and four children: Kenneth (Red), Betty, and twins Bob and Jim.[2] The family lived in an apartment in Greensboro, North Carolina, and struggled to survive during the Great Depression. Jesse worked as a house painter and mill worker.
In the fall of 1937, Jesse returned from the Stamps-Baxter Music School in Dallas, Texas, where he was inspired by the emerging Gospel music of the day.[3] He became a teacher of shape note music.[3] His first students were his children, at the time 10, 9, and 7 years old respectively.[2] They began to sing at family reunions and churches.[4]
In 1940, the family attended a singing convention at the Armory Auditorium in Charlotte, NC.[2] This led to 50,000-watt radio station WBT asking the family to sing on "Grady Cole's Sunday Morning Farm Club".[2][4] The family's signature song on the program was "There’s a Little Pine Log Cabin".[3] They would go on to sing on several CBS Radio Network programs.[5]
In the late 1940s, the Johnson Family recorded 52 songs for Columbia Records, under the direction of Art Satherley.[2] Later, a similar number of songs were recorded on the RCA-Victor label.[2] Their contract with Quaker Oats[4] ended their radio career in May 1951.[1]
The family appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1958.[2] Over the next 40 years, Betty Johnson had a solo career of her own.[6]
References edit
- ^ a b "Johnson Family Singers Songs, Albums, Reviews, Bio & More". AllMusic. Retrieved 2023-10-31.
- ^ a b c d e f g "Johnson Family Singers". snaccooperative.org. Retrieved 2023-01-19.
- ^ a b c "johnson". History South. Retrieved 2023-01-19.
- ^ a b c "Betty Johnson: The Johnson Family Singers 1930s". PBS SoCal. Retrieved 2023-01-19.
- ^ "Betty Gray Obituary (2022) - Bluffton, SC - Valley News". Legacy.com. Retrieved 2023-10-31.
- ^ "Johnson Family Singers Collection, 1943-1997". finding-aids.lib.unc.edu. Retrieved 2023-10-31.
Further reading edit
- Johnson, Kenneth M. (1997). The Johnson Family Singers: We Sang for Our Supper. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi. pp. 160. ISBN 1-57806-004-4.