By 1967, the Inspirations’ sound and style was taking shape very nicely…Archie’s voice was getting stronger, and he was giving the Inspirations an exceptional high end. Also, Ronnie had a unique style of singing, and he had developed a distinctive timbre or “cut” to his voice. Archie and Ronnie created some wonderful musical moments for the Inspirations during this time, but not to be outdone, Jack provided some amazing harmony, and his features were always a highlight of any album or concert, and Troy had really grown into becoming an excellent bass singer for being so young (remember, by this time he was not even 16 years old yet!).

Once again, the outstanding services of Mark V Studios in Greenville, SC were utilized, and the instrumentation was beefed up for these next few recording sessions. When recording “What a Wonderful Time”, along with Bill and Joe Huffman (playing bass and guitar respectively), they brought in Buster Phillips to play drums, added Jack Clark on piano/organ and Jack Wyatt to play steel guitar. The arrangements on this album are a bit more polished, and the Inspirations were creating music that was distinctly their own.

“What a Wonderful Time” kicks off with the Dad Speer penned classic, “Daniel Prayed”, which featured both Archie and Troy. Dad Speer wrote the song in 1936, and the Speers eventually included it on one of their first long play albums they recorded in 1958 called, “Golden Anniversary”, which celebrated Dad Speer’s 50th anniversary of singing gospel music.

Along with “Daniel Prayed”, this album continues the trend with their first 3 albums, and we are treated to the Inspirations’ unique renditions of other popular tunes of the day including “Walking My Lord Up Calvary’s Hill”, “God’s Way”, “Surely Goodness and Mercy”, “One More Valley” and “Mama’s Teaching Angels How to Sing”. I do want to give a special mention to the song, “You’d Better Run”, which was a popular song for the Statesmen, who recorded it on their 1967 album, “Showers of Blessing”. The Statesmen actually borrowed the song from the black gospel group, Golden Gate Quartet, who originally sang the song in the late 40’s/early 50’s. The Inspirations’ version was my initial introduction to the song when I was a kid, and I’ve always loved Ronnie’s enthusiastic delivery, along with Troy’s bass vocal.

The big feature song from this album is the title song, “What a Wonderful Time” (aka-“Reunion in Heaven”), which, much like “On the Sunny Banks”, was still a huge song for the Inspirations even into the early 70’s, charting a couple of times in 1970, going as high as #9 in April 1970 Singing News chart. The song was a popular sacred bluegrass number, recorded by Lester Flatt & Earl Scruggs (who wrote the song) back in the 1950’s, but the Inspirations likely heard it from famed bluegrass musician, Carl Story (who recorded it in 1964), but the original bluegrass version is very different from the Inspirations’ arrangement, which is the one that most groups adapted. Speaking of which, several groups enjoyed singing this song during the late 60’s and early 70’s including the Dixie Echoes, Oak Ridge Boys, Sego Brothers & Naomi, Wendy Bagwell & the Sunliters and others. Though slightly different from the Inspirations’ version, the Gospel Echoes (Rambos) appear to be the first Southern Gospel group to record the song on their 1965 album, “Cross Country Concert”.

Archie does a great job as he sings the highly popular Milton Dodson penned tune, “Stroll Over Heaven”. The Inspirations likely heard the song from the Coffey Family from Tennessee, or even possibly the Singing Ledbetters, as both groups were singing the song at that time. Eventually, the Happy Goodmans recorded their own version of the song on their 1969 album, “This Happy House”, and enjoyed success with the song as well.

A couple of unique gems from this album include the invigorating “Oh What a Morning”, which the Inspirations likely borrowed from the Hardin Brothers Quartet out of Elizabethton, TN. Another song is “A Million Treasures in the Sky”, which was written by Dottie Rambo and Jimmie Davis, and Davis recorded it on his 1966 album, “My Altar”.

Closing out the album is the spirited up-tempo tune, “New Jerusalem”, which was actually a sugar stick for the early Kingsmen during the late 50’s and early 60’s, who originally recorded the song in 1959. Martin likely played the song during his brief tenure with the Kingsmen in 1957, and possibly suggested the song for the Inspirations to record for this album, albeit a little different from the Kingsmen’s version, as the Inspirations’ arrangement followed along at a much quicker pace than the Kingsmen’s rendition. The Inspirations re-recorded the song a few years later, on their 1971 album, “Our Inspiration”, which was more akin to the Kingsmen’s original spiritual feel of the song.

Their 5th album, “From the Heart of the Great Smokies”, is my favorite album by the Inspirations from this era. This was a very upbeat and joyful album filled with lots of up-tempo numbers. I listened to this album constantly as a kid, just relishing in those exciting, lively tunes. One interesting tid-bit about the cover shot is that it was taken along the “Road to Nowhere” near Bryson City. This was a roadway above Fontana Lake that began construction in the early 60’s but was halted a few years into construction, and ultimately dead ends with a tunnel. As the nickname suggests, the road is basically a “road to nowhere”, but it gives access to many hiking trails in the area.

As with their previous albums, this album features many popular songs from the day, including “Move Up a Little Closer”, “Is That the Lights of Home I See”, “Prisoner of Love”, “Palms of Victory”, “Homesick for Heaven” (aka-“I’ve Got a Longing”) and “Time Has Made a Change”. They are all given that unique “Inspirations” treatment and are very well done. As with most of these early albums by the Inspirations, these were my introduction to many of these songs when I was a kid, as I had not yet heard most of the popular renditions of these songs, and in many cases, I prefer the Inspirations’ versions over the more popular ones.

The album kicks off with one of my favorites, “Getting in the Fight”, which was a song written by Roy Carter of the Chuck Wagon Gang. In the early days of the Inspirations, they promoted concerts at Swain County High School, and the Chuck Wagon Gang were frequent guests at their events. The Chuck Wagon Gang originally recorded the song on their 1967 album, “The Glory Land Way”.

My favorite song on this album is the tune, “I’m Saved Forevermore”, which was originally recorded by the Harmonizing Four, but was originally titled, “Christian Testimony”. The Inspirations re-recorded the song 41 years later, on their 2008 recording, “How Great It Is”, but changed the title to “I’m Safe” and re-arranged the song as a bass feature. Another song the Inspirations adapted from the Harmonizing Four is the energetic, “Back to the Dust”. Both aforementioned songs were recorded by the Harmonizing Four on their 1963 album, “Golden Bells”, with the latter tune being a popular one for the Statesmen, who had recorded an outstanding version on their 1966 album, “The Happy Sound…”.

Speaking of the Statesmen, Jack Laws takes the lead on one of the Statesmen’s sugar sticks from the late 50’s/early 60’s titled, “Wade on Out”, which was written by Mosie Lister. The Dove Brothers Quartet recorded an outstanding rendition of the song many years later, on their 2004 recording, “A Tribute to Mosie Lister”.

The group also included a couple of early Bill Gaither penned tunes…the up-tempo, “He That Hath Ears” (which the Bill Gaither Trio originally recorded in 1964) and “Since Jesus Passed By”, which was a popular tune recorded by the Speer Family a couple of years earlier on their 1965 album, “A Singing Heritage”.

Their next album, “He’s Our Guide” was a bit more slower paced than “From the Heart of the Great Smokies”, but still featured some exciting up-tempo tunes. Recorded at Mark V Studios, the album features 6 musicians with Jack Clark playing piano, Bill and Joe Huffman playing bass and rhythm guitar respectively, Buster Phillips on drums, Mike Burnette picking the guitar and the steel guitar is being played by Larry Orr (who would go on to play steel guitar for such notable groups as the Blue Ridge Quartet and the Happy Goodman Family). The cover shot was taken at the Deep Creek Campground, which is the same place the Inspirations take their tubing rides during the Singing in the Smokies.

Like all their previous albums, “He’s Our Guide” features quite a few popular tunes from the day including “I Need No Mansions”, “I Shall Be At Home with Jesus”, “Precious Lord, Take my Hand”, “He Looked Beyond My Fault” and “Must I Go Empty Handed”. Another popular tune they included is “Where Will I Shelter My Sheep”, which has been recorded by numerous groups and artists, including the Florida Boys, Jimmie Davis, Wendy Bagwell & the Sunliters, Wally Fowler & the Oak Ridge Quartet, Sego Brothers & Naomi, LeFevres and others. Of all the versions out there, the Inspirations’ rendition is probably my favorite.

The exciting tune, “I’m Gonna Tell It”, kicks off the album and is one of my all-time favorite Inspirations tunes, which was written by Leon Mikles, who was the pastor of Fall Creek Baptist Church in Elkin, NC at the time. As a kid, I would listen to this song constantly, and I was thrilled when the Inspirations re-recorded it on their 2022 “A Pioneer Legacy” recording.

One of my favorite Ronnie Hutchins features is the title song, “He’s My Guide”, which no one seems to remember exactly where they found the song, other than possibly in one of the many songbooks they used in their early years. Nonetheless, it’s a very soothing performance by the Inspirations with its comforting message, “He walks along with me through the fields and the vale, up the mountains through the meadows, down the valleys wide, I do not fear the shadows…anywhere, everywhere He’s my guide”.

Speaking of Ronnie, “I See Home” is a song that he wrote and is featured on. Ronnie didn’t write a lot of songs, but the Inspirations recorded a few over the years, and this appears to be his first recorded tune. This is my favorite song from this album, and as a kid I would try my hardest to spit out the words right along with Ronnie, and I truly wish the current Inspirations would tackle this song…it sure would be a lot of fun hearing them all try to spit out the lyrics!

“I’ll Meet You in the Morning” was a popular song for the Inspirations, but their rendition is a little different from most versions, as they use the verses of another song titled, “Will You Truly Promise Me”, written by Ira B. Dykes, before they jump into the chorus of the Albert E. Brumley classic. This was the version of the song I grew up knowing and it remains one of my personal favorites from this album.

The album finishes out with a couple of up-tempo classics…“I’ll Have a New Life” (featuring some really cool guitar work) and “Unclouded Day”. Interesting fact, the Inspirations recorded “I’ll Have a New Life” before it became the true classic that it would eventually become. Though Tennessee Ernie Ford recorded the song in 1964, it wasn’t until the early 70’s when the Cathedrals, Florida Boys and JD Sumner & the Stamps recorded the song, making it a huge concert favorite and bona fide quartet standard.

With the Inspirations’ first 3 albums, you heard the infancy of their sound and the early stages of their style, but with these next 3 albums, you hear the Inspirations really coming into their own, setting them apart from the typical male quartet of the day. The average fan typically fawns over the music during a group’s heyday, but there is just something special about listening to a group before they hit “stardom”. The music of the Inspirations was almost “magical” during the 60’s. They definitely had their own unique blend, which featured 4 very distinct voices, culminating into one fantastic sound. After the release of these 3 albums, the Inspirations were on the cusp of becoming the biggest thing in gospel music, which wouldn’t actually happen for another couple of years or so, but success was right at their back door and was just getting ready to knock at the door. We’ll take a look at that “knock” in our next article coming up, so stay tuned!

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