sweartotellthetruth

Swear to Tell the Truth for Tuesday, May 12th, (1:00-2:30 pm)

At the heart of today’s program. a feature on the Specialty label’s gospel catalogue. The first major gospel act to record for Specialty, in 1947, was the Pilgrim Travelers, a quartet from Texas who had recorded for the Library of Congress. The Soul Stirrers joined the label in 1950 and it was the Soul Stirrers with Sam Cooke (after he replaced the group’s original lead, R.H. Harris) who guaranteed the huge attention given to Specialty and its gospel roster, when the larger world discovered African-American gospel and its golden era.

We now know a great deal more about gospel on important labels like King, Savoy, Peacock and Nashboro, and we can appreciate how fine these other catalogues were but there’s no question that Specialty’s gospel catalogue was exceptional. Our feature will be a representation of the best-known acts on the label and a few lesser-known acts.

On the Show:

HowellDevine – Muddy Waters – Steve Strongman – Soul Stirrers – Original Gospel Harmonettes – Chosen Gospel Singers – Pilgrim Travelers – Princess Stewart – Rev. Charlie Jackson – Ruby Andrews

Listen to the program at FM 93.3 in Hamilton or on CFMU online at cfmu.msu.mcmaster.ca. The program will be available to stream or as a podcast until Jun 9th.

Contact Us

To reach us with comments or queries, write us at sweartotellthetruth@gmail.com.

You can also follow the program at sweartotellthetruth@nosignifying on Twitter.

Next week (May 12th)

TBA.

cmc