If It Wasn’t James Vaughan…

A few days ago, I proposed that the person who most shaped the Southern Gospel we know today came after James D. Vaughan. There are several reasons, but two are key.

1. Vaughan never lived to see the genre called Southern Gospel. In his day, Christian music was called “sacred.” Of course, this was due to the content of the lyrics rather than the style. Even in the recordings of the 1960s, you’ll see the popular groups referred to as “sacred singers.” It’s a rather big stretch to say a person started something sixty years before it was properly identified with a distinct name.

2. The most popular current artists like Jason Crabb, Booth Brothers, Triumphant, Gaither Vocal Band, Isaacs, Gold City, Hoppers and Greater Vision barely resemble the early Vaughan and Stamps-Baxter Quartets. Even nostalgic groups like the Dixie Echoes and the Chuck Wagon Gang who sing in “the old style” take advantage of high powered sound systems and other modern technologies in the recording studio. I realize that styles change, but other traditional genres like Bluegrass and Blues have remained relatively constant. Also, it’s worth noting that very few groups today sell songbooks of their own music. Even less offer general collections in hymnbook format, but in Vaughan’s day, selling printed songbooks was their bread and butter.

Of course, neither of these points should diminish James D. Vaughan’s list of significant contributions. His title should actually be more general and wide-sweeping than “Founder Of Southern Gospel Music.”

Really, what Vaughan should be credited for starting is the Christian music business.

Vaughan’s publishing company was formed in 1902. He put a professional quartet on the road singing and selling songbooks in 1910, launched a music school in 1911, started a periodical in 1912, and started one of the first gospel radio stations in 1922. He was also a songwriter with several titles to his credit that have endured the test of time.

Prior to Vaughan, people did not approach sacred music with a career in mind. After Vaughan, they did. What Vaughan started was less about Southern Gospel and more about the general commercialization of gospel music.

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…Then Who Was It?

So, what one person contributed the most to the Southern Gospel industry we have today?

It would have to be the person who was most directly involved in putting many significant parts of the Southern Gospel machine in place. Today, the characteristics that define Southern Gospel artists include a certain range of musical styles; groups typically travel in buses; sing with tracks; pitch their products for sale from the stage; depend on major concert events for survival; etc.

Of course, the sum total that we have today comes from a combined effort of many people over the years, but one person must have been more innovative and out front leading the way on a repeated, consistent basis and on a number of fronts.

Some might argue in favor of Bill Gaither, or perhaps people like James Blackwood, Les Beasley, Claude Hopper, and James G Whitfield.

When all things are considered fairly, though, I don’t see anyone who did more to define the genre than J D Sumner.

Sumner was a leader in almost every area of the industry. He was one of the first gospel singers to appear in the movies and on television. He was a songwriter, a group owner and the owner of a talent agency. He was a comedian and a master of the record pitch. He started the National Quartet Convention. He bought one of the most popular brand names in the industry, the Stamps, and made that brand more famous than they had ever been. This was no small feat, because the Stamps-Baxter quartets…multiple groups co-existing…had already set the standard for popularity quite high in the years before the name was owned exclusively by Sumner.

Through Sumner’s association with Elvis Presley, he introduced millions of people to Southern Gospel music who would never have heard about it otherwise. Because Presley was so generous in allowing J D Sumner & The Stamps to be featured at his concerts, Sumner himself became an international star. No individual in Southern Gospel music before or since has been as famous as J D Sumner was across multiple genres during the 1970s and the years following Presley’s death.

Behind the scenes, Sumner helped form the Gospel Music Association and later the Southern Gospel Music Association. The term “Southern Gospel” had already been used for over a decade when the SGMA formed in 1994, but forming the association essentially gave the genre’s name a stamp of approval.

Sumner led the way and others followed for most of his life, but he wasn’t bull-headed. He knew a good thing when he saw it and he knew a trend when he saw it. These are evident respectively in his participation with Bill Gaither’s Homecoming videos from the very beginning and with using pre-recorded performance tracks in the last few years of J D Sumner & The Stamps.

Every significant group in Southern Gospel today has been affected by some past act of J D Sumner. They continue to place a high priority on his contributions whether they want to or not. Any time an artist sings on the stage at NQC, steps on a tour bus, sings a Sumner song or simply aspires to sing in front of a massive audience, they testify that J D Sumner was the Father Of Southern Gospel Music.