After recording 6 albums within a 2-year span, the Inspirations slowed things down a bit, releasing only one album a year for the next couple of years. Released in 1968, “Jesus is Coming Soon” became a pivotal album for the Inspirations, as it brought the group to the forefront of the industry. The group was already making waves, appearing in major concerts across the south-east and venturing further out into new territory each month. They had also began making guest appearances on the Gospel Singing Jubilee television program, thus allowing their unique brand of Southern Gospel Music to be heard in households across the nation. But then, came this latest album by the Inspirations, yielding the massive hit song, “Jesus is Coming Soon”.

Recorded at the Mark V Studios in Greenville, SC and featuring the usual list of musicians from previous recording sessions with the Inspirations, this album was a bit of a step up from their previous records as far as arrangements, songs, vocals and overall quality. Once again, the guys gathered along the “Road to Nowhere” for the cover shot, which is the same area they shot the cover for their earlier album, “From the Heart of the Great Smokies”.

With a nice, sparkling guitar intro, the Inspirations kick things off with the upbeat, “They Shall Walk With Me in White”, which was a song I was absolutely obsessed with as a kid. I would put this album on the turntable and listen to this song over and over again, and it still remains one of my all-time favorite songs by the guys. Written by Luther Presley, the Inspirations discovered the song from a gentleman named Harrison Stringer, who led the singing at a lot of evangelical meetings in churches in the mountains of North Georgia. Stringer used this song a lot, and the Inspirations heard the song in one of those meetings and worked up an enjoyable arrangement for this album. The song has been covered in bluegrass circles including Ralph Stanley and the Primitive Quartet, and in fact, Karen Peck & New River recorded an extremely vigorous bluegrassy version of the song in 1991/1992 on the recording, “Travelin’ On”, which was a table project they recorded in their very early years as a group.

Slowing the pace down, Ronnie takes the lead on the Dottie Rambo classic, “The Holy Hills of Heaven”. Interesting thing to note with the Inspirations’ arrangement of this song, when they take the first pass on the chorus after the first verse, they leave off the last line of the chorus, “I’ll take my flight like a mighty eagle, when the hills of home start calling me”. Instead, they use that as the coda on the chorus after the second verse, which adds a creative dynamic to the song. This arrangement appears to be unique to the Inspirations, as I am not familiar with anyone else who adapted this particular arrangement. I grew up listening to this album and this song, and I am pretty keen with catching unique variances in arrangements, but I never caught it until they used the same arrangement when they re-recorded the song on their 2003 recording, “The Journey Ahead”, which caused me to go back and listen to the Inspirations original version, and I couldn’t believe that I missed that after all those years! But I digress…

Next, we come to the song that put the Inspirations on the map, as they tackle the now classic, “Jesus is Coming Soon”. Written by RE Winsett, back when the country was embroiled in WWII, the song was basically unknown for nearly a quarter century until it was unearthed by a wonderful group from South Carolina called the Sheltons. The song was discovered accidentally by one of the Shelton siblings who was given the song by her piano teacher to learn, because it had some unique chords in the song. Their dad heard her playing the song and liked what he heard and decided it may be a good song for them to sing and record. The Sheltons ultimately decided to cut the song on their forthcoming album, “Heartfelt Gospel”, which was produced by Martin Cook, who also played piano for the album. In preparing for the recording session, the Sheltons met with Martin and the rest of the Inspirations to go over the songs they planned to record. When they sang “Jesus is Coming Soon”, all the guys in the Inspirations loved the song, and they asked if they could record it, as the Inspirations were getting ready to record a new album as well. The Inspirations debuted the song on the Gospel Singing Jubilee television program, and it took off like a rocket, ultimately becoming one of the most loved and recognized songs in our genre. That performance immediately spurred other groups to sing and record the song as well, including the Florida Boys, Downings, Blackwood Brothers, Dixie Echoes, Thrasher Brothers, and the Oak Ridge Boys, who recorded the song a year later, on their 1969 album, “It’s Happening”. In the early days of the Singing News charts, the songs were bigger than the groups singing them, and they listed all the major groups who were singing a particular song, so the Inspirations and Oak Ridge Boys are both listed (along with other groups) as having the #1 song in the Singing News chart with “Jesus is Coming Soon”, from January-March, as well as June-August 1970, though it’s a common consensus that it was the Oak Ridge Boys who took the song to #1, as they were the group who was most well-known at the time. In fact, “Jesus is Coming Soon” won “Song of the Year” honors at the very first Dove Awards ceremony commemorating the top singers, musicians and songs for 1969! One interesting thing to note, is how slow the original version was, and how the Inspirations (and even the Oak Ridge Boys) sped up the tempo over a relatively short period of time, and it’s the faster version of the song most groups tend to sing, including the Inspirations.

As already mentioned in previous articles, the Inspirations were highly influenced by the Harmonizing Four, and “When They Ring Those Golden Bells” was a song that group had recorded in 1963, and the Inspirations adapted their version and created one of the best “gospel blues” renditions of the song. With its lone steel guitar intro, Troy kicks it off with his solid bass vocal, before the rest of the guys chime in behind him. It’s a highlight of the recording and one of my favorite renditions of this classic tune.

With a nice steel guitar intro, Ronnie steps up again as he sings another one of my favorites entitled, “This Great Love of Jesus”, which was written by Don Butler and recorded by the Statesmen on their 1967 album, “Showers of Blessing”. I’ve always been partial to the Inspirations’ version, as this was the version I first heard as a kid, and I love the slightly slower tempo and soulful feel of the Inspirations rendition, compared to the Statesmen’s more breezy tempo.

The first side concludes with Jack Laws turning in an exceptional performance on the classic hymn, “In the Garden”. I always felt this was a very soothing arrangement, and it remains one of my all-time favorite renditions of the song.

Side 2 kicks off with a couple of great up-tempo tunes, “The Old Account Was Settled Long Ago” (love the guitar work), which feature both Ronnie and Archie, and “Walkin’ a New Road”, which features Archie, and was written by songwriting team Ike Davis and Ray Heady, who penned many fantastic songs during the 60’s and 70’s including “In the Shelter of His Arms”, “The One Who Died For Me”, “A Way to Cross Over”, “Teach Me Thy Way” and others. Both aforementioned songs were included on a solo album by Anna Gordon, of the Chuck Wagon Gang, titled, “Anna Gordon Sings Country Gospel Favorites”. The Inspirations heard Anna’s album, liked those particular songs, and decided to include them on this album, and both are highlights.

Slowing the pace down, Jack steps up once again as he sings another Dottie Rambo tune, “Too Much to Gain to Lose”, before Troy turns in one more outstanding performance on the spiritual, “Walk in Jerusalem”, which was another tune the Inspirations drew out of the Harmonizing Four’s well of great songs. This was another tune I would listen to a lot as a kid, and even as an adult, I have thoroughly enjoyed hearing the current Inspirations stage the song, as it’s always a highlight of the program for me, plus it’s just a fun, easy going spiritual that adds so much to the Inspirations’ overall repertoire. Along with the Inspirations’ outstanding version of the song, I also grew up listening to another version recorded by the Weatherfords on their album, “Come on, Let’s Sing”, which featured a spectacular performance by the legendary Bob Thacker! Much like the Inspirations’ version, I was (and still am) enamored by Bob Thacker’s excellent delivery of the song. Additionally, I was thrilled when the Oak Ridge Boys recorded an exceptional performance of the song on their 2019 recording, “17th Avenue Revival”.

The classic hymn, “Just Over in the Gloryland”, highlighted by a nice steel guitar track and featuring Jack, picks up the tempo once more, before the album wraps-up with yet another classic tune, as Ronnie thoughtfully sings, “Just a Rose Will Do”. This was a popular quartet tune during the 60’s, having been recorded by numerous artists such as the Prophets (this was one of “Big” Lew’s best loved songs), Blue Ridge Quartet, Sego Brothers & Naomi, Florida Boys, Rebels and “Little” Troy Lumpkin (this was his sugar stick as well, and my favorite rendition of the song).

“Jesus is Coming Soon” would be the first album the Inspirations actively pushed to radio, and subsequently, after the album was released, the group shipped 500 copies of the entire record to radio stations across the country, thus commercially introducing the Inspirations to thousands upon thousands of potential listeners, who may not have previously been familiar with the group. The success of both the song “Jesus is Coming Soon”, along with the album itself, plus their guest appearances on the Gospel Singing Jubilee, the Inspirations started making huge strides into becoming one of the greatest quartets to ever grace a Southern Gospel stage, as fans and artists alike were clamoring to find out more about the boys from Bryson City, North Carolina!

Interestingly, this album doesn’t feature a lot of Archie, as most of the songs tend to focus more on Ronnie, Jack, and Troy. As the group began experiencing personnel changes, Archie would eventually become the focal point of the Inspirations’ sound. Despite some obvious steps forward with the production aspects and overall quality of the recording, “Jesus is Coming Soon” doesn’t really offer anything new that the Inspirations hadn’t already covered musically. But what it does offer is growth and maturing in the evolution of their sound. By this time, Martin was nearly 30 years old, Jack was around 23, Archie and Ronnie were approaching 20, and Troy was finally around 16 years old, and they had grown tremendously as singers in the last 2 years since they released their first album in 1966. At this point, they were proving to the Southern Gospel community that they had what it took to be mainstays in the industry, and they were here to stay; and guess what…the Inspirations are still here, and still proudly proclaiming that “Jesus is Coming Soon”!

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