Golden Echoes

Among the initial gospel groupings signed to the legendary Area of expertise label, the Los Angeles-based Golden Echoes were led by brothers William “Big Axe” and Willmer “Small Axe” Broadnax, Houston natives who all after relocating towards the Western world Coast through the mid-1940s joined the rates from the Southern Gospel Performers, an action led by onetime Spirit Stirrers member A.L. Johnson. The group was mainly a weekends-only concern, nevertheless, and shortly the Broadnax brothers’ restlessness prompted them to create their very own full-time automobile, the Golden Echoes; some lineup changes implemented as the decade drew to an in depth, and finally William exited to stay in Atlanta, where he became a member of the Five Trumpets. During the group’s only Area of expertise session, documented in Hollywood on Apr 5, 1949, their roster included co-leads Wilmer Broadnax and Paul Foster, tenor Eldridge Bostic, baritone Jimmy Copeland, and bass Adam Ricks, a longtime veteran from the gospel circuit whose profession included tenures using the Birmingham Jubilees, the Famous Blue Jays as well as the Traveling Clouds of Detroit. The program yielded the Golden Echoes’ lone Area of expertise one, “When the Saints Move Marching In”; for factors unknown, label key Art Rupe slipped the group immediately after, and despite an evergrowing reputation in the live circuit they disbanded a couple of months afterwards. While Foster continued to become listed on the Spirit Stirrers, Broadnax afterwards agreed upon on with famous brands the Heart of Memphis, the Fairfield Four as well as the Five Blind Guys of Mississippi; through the mid-1960s, he also led a short-lived brand-new group dubbed Small Ax as well as the Golden Echoes.