Thurman Elliot

This artist’s name or that of his group, the Starlight Four Quartette, will come up throughout research on gospel music in the us aswell as the search for long-lost indie record labels. The solid in cases like this will be the Melford label, go out of Philadelphia regarding for some and NEW YORK regarding to others. Melford had not been around a lot longer than a calendar year in either area but throughout that period released a pile of edges in the blues, R&B, and gospel styles, credit scoring at least one strike with “Sparrow’s Air travel” by Johnny Sparrow. The feeble A&R power as of this label responded favorably towards the letter Thurman Elliot was sending out in the past due ’40s relating to his group, that was structured out of Claremont, VA. “We certainly are a performing group (shaded),” the written text of Elliot’s promotional crusade started. “Five guys and a electric guitar doing spiritual quantities, heard every week over place WHYV, Newport Information, Virginia. Getting possessed using a desire to produce a record for publication, we demand details of you regarding the same.” Although some brands were still persuaded there is no cash to be produced in gospel, Medford evidently wound up support the group, also launching similar material with the Angel Voices. Elliot’s group, whose name was ultimately trimmed of redundancy to simply ordinary Starlight Four, may also be confused using the very much previously Richmond Starlight Quartet, that was not really only not really a gospel group but didn’t also record in Richmond. While materials with the last mentioned group continues to be reissued, copies from the Medford edges remain extremely uncommon, the finding of 1 reported with all the current enthusiasm of the next coming.