Ernest Phipps (1900–1963) was an Old-time Country musician and

Southern Gospel Southern gospel music is a genre of Christian music. Its name comes from its origins in the southeastern United States. Its lyrics are written to express either personal or a communal faith regarding biblical teachings and Christian life, as ...

singer best known for his recordings at the Bristol Sessions in 1928.

Biography

Ernest Phipps was a singing preacher from Corbin, Kentucky who had also worked as a coal miner. From a Pentecostal Holiness Church, he had a singing group called The Holiness Quartet as well as a larger group called The Holiness Singers which included a stringband of various members. He took this larger group down to Bristol, Tennessee in response to advertisements put out by Ralph Peer looking for local artists to record on Victor Records. He recorded six sides in 1927 and six more in 1928. All were religious in subject matter. Although his records were all released by Victor he did not record again and returned to Corbin where he continued to preach for the rest of his life.

Musical style

The Pentecostal Holiness musical style encouraged a rousing, emotional approach with group singing and a call and response led by a leader. The material was based on traditional hymns which allowed a large number of singers to quickly learn the songs. Phipps led the quartet with a clear voice and a broad mountain accent which can be heard in his pronouncing of words like "where" and "there" as "whaar" and "thaar". The members of the singing quartet are unknown but they included at least one female voice which takes the lead on one song "A Little Talk With Jesus". Phipps' backing band was a stringband which included

fiddle A fiddle is a bowed string musical instrument, most often a violin. It is a colloquial term for the violin, used by players in all genres, including classical music. Although in many cases violins and fiddles are essentially synonymous, th ...

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

banjo The banjo is a stringed instrument with a thin membrane stretched over a frame or cavity to form a resonator. The membrane is typically circular, and usually made of plastic, or occasionally animal skin. Early forms of the instrument were fashi ...

mandolin A mandolin ( it, mandolino ; literally "small mandola") is a stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is generally plucked with a pick. It most commonly has four courses of doubled strings tuned in unison, thus giving a total of 8 ...

auto-harp An autoharp or chord zither is a string instrument belonging to the zither family. It uses a series of bars individually configured to mute all strings other than those needed for the intended chord. The term ''autoharp'' was once a trademark of ...

and sometimes piano. The exact identity of Phipps backing band and singers are unknown although it is believed that at Bristol they included

Alfred Karnes Alfred Grant Karnes (February 2, 1891 – May 18, 1958) was an old time musician and Southern Gospel singer best known for his recordings at the Bristol Sessions in 1927. Biography Born in Bedford County, Virginia, – Gravesite memorial later ...

and

B.F. Shelton Benjamin Frank Shelton (January 1, 1902 – February 28, 1963) was an American singer and banjoist who recorded a number of songs for Victor Records at the Bristol sessions in Bristol, Tennessee on July 29, 1927. Shelton traveled from Corbin, Ke ...

who had also come down to Bristol from Corbin to record. Karnes was a fellow singing preacher, albeit from a different denomination as he was a

Baptist Baptists form a major branch of Protestantism distinguished by baptizing professing Christian believers only (believer's baptism), and doing so by complete immersion. Baptist churches also generally subscribe to the doctrines of soul compete ...

, and should have been familiar with the songs which were at any rate simple enough in form being basic repeating riffs at mid-tempo. Noted songs recorded by Phipps included "Old Ship Of Zion", "I Want to Go Where Jesus Is" and "If The Light Has Gone Out Of Your Soul" which sold well enough to stay in print into the 1930s. "Shine On Me" had already been recorded by The Wiseman Quartet in 1923 and would later be recorded by Bryant's Jubilee Quartet (1920s),

Fisk Jubilee Singers The Fisk Jubilee Singers are an African-American ''a cappella'' ensemble, consisting of students at Fisk University. The first group was organized in 1871 to tour and raise funds for college. Their early repertoire consisted mostly of traditiona ...

(1930s),

Blind Willie Johnson Blind Willie Johnson (January 25, 1897 – September 18, 1945) was an American gospel blues singer, guitarist and evangelist. His landmark recordings completed between 1927 and 1930—thirty songs in total—display a combination of powerful "ch ...

(1929),

Lead Belly Huddie William Ledbetter (; January 20, 1888 – December 6, 1949), better known by the stage name Lead Belly, was an American folk music, folk and blues singer notable for his strong vocals, Virtuoso, virtuosity on the twelve-string guita ...

(1947),

Cliff Carlisle Cliff Carlisle (May 6, 1903 – April 5, 1983) was an American country and blues musician, singer and songwriter. Carlisle was a yodeler and was a pioneer in the use of the Hawaiian steel guitar in country music. He was a brother of country mu ...

Quintet (1930s), The Swan Silvertones (1950s), Kings of Harmony (1950s), The

Soul Stirrers The Soul Stirrers were an American gospel music group, whose career spans over eighty years. The group was a pioneer in the development of the quartet style of gospel, and a major influence on soul, doo wop, and Motown, some of the secular musi ...

(1950s) and

Reverend Gary Davis Reverend Gary Davis, also Blind Gary Davis (born Gary D. Davis, April 30, 1896 – May 5, 1972), was a blues and gospel singer who was also proficient on the banjo, guitar and harmonica. Born in Laurens, South Carolina and blind since infancy ...

(1954).

External links

* https://web.archive.org/web/20150527072953/http://www.encyclopediaofappalachia.com/entry.php?rec=170 * https://oldweirdamerica.wordpress.com/2011/05/06/54-shine-on-me-by-ernest-phipps-his-holiness-singers/ * http://www.theparisreview.org/blog/tag/ernest-phipps-and-his-holiness-singers/ * http://adp.library.ucsb.edu/index.php/talent/detail/11214/Karnes_Alfred_G._vocalist (discography, included with Alfred Karnes) {{DEFAULTSORT:Phipps, Ernest 1900 births 1963 deaths American gospel singers 20th-century American singers Southern gospel performers

Biography

Musical style

Further reading

External links