Nashboro Records was an American

gospel Gospel originally meant the Christian message (" the gospel"), but in the 2nd century it came to be used also for the books in which the message was set out. In this sense a gospel can be defined as a loose-knit, episodic narrative of the words a ...

label principally active in the 1950s and 1960s.

History

Nashboro was founded in Nashville,

Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...

by Ernie Lafayette Young (1892-1977), who was the owner of a record store, Ernie's Record Mart, and sponsor of a weekly hit parade show on radio station

WLAC WLAC (1510 AM) – branded ''Talkradio 98.3 & 1510'' – is a commercial talk radio radio station licensed to serve Nashville, Tennessee. Owned by iHeartMedia, the station covers the Nashville metropolitan area. The WLAC studios are located ...

. In 1951, Young founded Nashboro to issue gospel records, and the following year also created

Excello Records Excello Records was an American blues independent record label, started by Ernie Young in Nashville, Tennessee, United States, in 1953 as a subsidiary of Nashboro, a gospel label. History It recorded such artists as Lonnie Brooks, Lightnin' Slim ...

to release secular music, especially R&B and blues acts.Robert Darden, "Nashboro Records". W.K. McNeil, ed. ''Encyclopedia of American Gospel Music''. Routledge, 2013, pp. 270-271. Nashboro became a prolific issuer of Southern gospel groups, and Young frequently signed gospel acts from competing labels after they had folded. Some of the groups were backed by the

Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section The Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section is a group of American session musicians based in the northern Alabama town of Muscle Shoals. One of the most prominent American studio house bands from the 1960s to the 1980s, these musicians, individually or a ...

in the studio. Young died in 1977, by which time Nashboro was increasingly reissuing out of its back catalogue rather than issuing new material. The label's catalogue was sold to AVI Entertainment in 1979,

MCA Records MCA Records was an American record label owned by MCA Inc., which later became part of Universal Music Group. Pre-history MCA Inc., a powerful talent agency and a television production company, entered the recorded music business in 1962 w ...

in 2000, and

Hip-O Hip-O Records is a record label that specializes in reissues and compilations. It is part of Universal Music Group. Established in 1996, the label has distributed releases from 'out of style' genres such as disco and early hip-hop music as wel ...

shortly thereafter. Relatively little of it has seen reissue, though in 2014

Tompkins Square Records Tompkins Square Records is an independent record label producing archival releases of gospel, blues, jazz, and country music. History In 2005, Josh Rosenthal launched Tompkins Square Records in New York City after working 15 years in a variety of ...

released a four-CD compilation of Nashboro artists. Nashboro was one of several labels to have its catalog of master recordings destroyed in the 2008 Universal fire.

Artists

* The Angelic Gospel Singers *

The Barrett Sisters The Barrett Sisters are an American gospel trio from Chicago, Illinois. The trio consisted of sisters DeLois Barrett Campbell (1926-2011), Billie Barrett GreenBey (1928-2020), and Rodessa Barrett Porter (born 1930). They sang together for more th ...

* The Famous Boyer Brothers *

Alex Bradford Alex Bradford (January 23, 1927 – February 15, 1978) (professionally known as Professor Alex Bradford) was a multi-talented Gospel music, gospel composer, singer, arranger and choir director, who was an influence on artists such as Little Rich ...

* J. Robert Bradley * Brother Joe May *

Dorothy Love Coates Dorothy Love Coates (January 30, 1928 – April 9, 2002) was an American gospel singer.

* The Consolers * Edna Gallmon Cooke * The Crescendos (" Oh Julie") * The Dixie Nightingales * Isaac Douglas *

The Fairfield Four The Fairfield Four is an American gospel group that has existed for over 100 years, starting as a trio in the Fairfield Baptist Church, Nashville, Tennessee, in 1921. They were designated as National Heritage Fellows in 1989 by the National End ...

* Five Singing Stars * The Gospel HarmonettesThe Gospel Harmonettes disco
Retrieved 29 October 2021 *

Bessie Griffin Bessie Griffin (née Arlette B. Broil; July 6, 1922 – April 10, 1989) was an American gospel singer. From junior high into the late 1940s, she sang with the Southern Harps, who were better known later as the Southern Revivalists Of New Orl ...

* Pilgrim Jubilees * The Radio Four *

Cleophus Robinson The Reverend Cleophus Robinson (March 18, 1932, Canton, MississippiJuly 2, 1998, Saint Louis, Missouri) was an American gospel singer and preacher. He hosted a gospel television series which ran for over 20 years. He was often referred to as "Th ...

* Silvertone Singers of Cincinnati *

Roscoe Shelton Roscoe Shelton (August 22, 1931 – July 27, 2002) was an American electric blues and R&B singer. He is best remembered for his 1965 hit single "Strain on My Heart" and for his working relationships with the Fairfield Four and with Bobby He ...

* The Skylarks * The Jewell Gospel Singers * Gloria Spencer * Candi Staton * Slim & the Supreme Angels * The Swanee Quintet *Sister Emma Tucker * Willie Neal Johnson & The Gospel Keynotes *

Marvin Yancy Marvin Jerome Yancy (May 31, 1950 – March 22, 1985) was an American gospel musician, pastor and Grammy-winning record producer, and former pastor of Fountain of Life Baptist Church. He started his music career, in 1971, with The Independents, w ...

* Sister Lucille Pope & the Pearly Gates *The Bright Stars *Oscar Bishop

History

Artists

References

See also