The Christian Troubadours

In the late 1960's, our church at Junction Hill was quite primitive to today's standard.  We had no air conditioning, no PA system and outside toilets.  I guess that was the reason that it made such an impression when we came into church one night and found the "The Christian Troubadours" all set up and ready for a concert.  I can still picture the big speakers on stands, the microphones, the sound board and then,... the music!

I don't know what possessed our Pastor, Brother Harold Essary, to have them come but I told him before he passed that their coming had a profound effect on my life.  It was in this "concert" that my life-long love of music was born.  My Dad bought the record shown above, without us even having a record player to play it on!  My Grandma, Alma Riggs (Momo) gave me an old box record player and I nearly wore out the record playing it.  It was the only one I had!  Then Momo gave me some old gospel records that she had by the Blackwood Brothers and Don & Earl,  Dad bought me some Happy Goodmans and Spear Family records and I kept the ole record player hot!  God has given me a great memory for remembering words to songs and to this day these song come to me and I can sing almost all of the words.  I sang all the time as a boy and now Tami says I have a song for every occasion!  Dad, Ralph and myself would be riding down the road in the truck (I had to sit in the middle cause I was the littlest). Dad didn't talk much so I would sing.  It didn't take long for Ralph to get tired of that so he would start pinching and poking me and whispering for me to "shut up"...so...I would stop singing...and start humming!!!  We came through the 8-track era, into the cassette era, then the CD and now I keep Grooveshark or Pandora on most of the time.  I consider myself an eclectic gospel music listener because I love lots of styles of music (excluding rock and some of the contemporary stuff).

Brother Harold told me he caught some flak for having them come but I assured him that it was in the plan of God.  I thank God for my Mom who encouraged me to sing and Sister Maurine Essary who stood a backward little boy on the piano bench and played for me to sing...And my Brother Ralph that played the banjo while I sang "Old G Chord"!

If you would like to hear a sample of the Christian Troubadours songs you can find them here.