Today I transferred the album “Introducing the Gospel Chords” (Chalice LP 1001) to the digital format. It’s available as a CD-r and as a download (see For Sale and then CD-r’s from the menu). This female group featured Emiley Harris, Marva Harris, Wilma Dunlap and Martha Rowena Smith, and this was probably their only release, from 1965-66. The Chalice label was owned/operated by Bill Justis in Nashville, TN. Bill Justis had a couple of instrumental hits as a saxophone player on Phillips (a Sun sub label, run by Sam Phillips) in the late 1950’s (“Raunchy” being his most famous recording), and was also known as a composer and arranger. He moved to Nashville in 1961 where he became a successful record producer and music arranger for Monument, Mercury and other labels. During these years he also started his own label, Chalice Records, not to be confused with the Chalice label from Memphis (which was a Stax subsidiary). Justis’ label was only short-lived but featured a few gospel acts; apart from the Gospel Chords, Lucille Barbee also recorded for the label (a 45 was released). I guess it was a bold action to release a black gospel LP on the Chalice label, but Justis probably saw the potential of this group. I don’t think it brought him any financial success and both the group and the album vanished in obscurity.
In the last week I’ve been adding several images to the website: Peacock 1857 and 3089, Specialty 876 and 894, all Myrl issues, plus several Nashboro’s (591, 603, 627, 634, 656, 672, 681) – and this is just the beginning. The Nashboro label will keep me busy for some time to come…
