Their ability to innovate set The Soul Stirrers apart. This latest lineup of The Soul Stirrers would pioneer the use of double lead vocals. So, The New Pleasant Green Singers became The Soul Stirrers.
The group had to change their name to The Soul Stirrers. While Senior Roy Crain was happy to accept the invitation, there was a but. Before long, he was asked to join another gospel group, The New Pleasant Green Singers. By 1933, Senior Roy Crain had moved to Houston. Sadly, the original lineup didn’t last long. Then one night, after a performance, a member of the congregation congratulated Senior Roy Crain on a “stirring performance.” That night, The Soul Stirrers were born. This new group soon became a popular draw. That had been the case since 1926, when Senior Roy Crain and some of his friends formed his own gospel group, at Mount Pilgrim Baptist Church, Trinity, Texas. Harris, the other lead tenor were determined that that The Soul Stirrers remained one of gospel’s top groups. A lesser man that Johnnie, might have crumbled under such pressure. These were big shoes he was being asked to fill. Johnnie Taylor filled the gap left by Sam Cooke. Recordings, which was recently released by Ace Records. This could’ve spelt the end for The Soul Stirrers, whose music is celebrated on Joy In My Soul-The Complete S.A.R. Johnnie Taylor was drafted in to replace Sam Cooke, who had decided now, was the time to pursue a career in soul music. Despite the loss of Sam Cooke in 1957, it was business as usual for The Soul Stirrers. The loss of a lead singer can prove fatal to even the most successful groups. THE SOUL STIRRERS-JOY IN MY SOUL-THE COMPLETE S.A.R. A highlight of the presentation was Rogers’ duet with Spencer Taylor on the perennial gospel favorite, When the Gates Swing Open.THE SOUL STIRRERS-JOY IN MY SOUL-THE COMPLETE S.A.R. RECORDINGS. Rogers joined some of his contemporaries for the 2015 Malaco CD and DVD, An Evening with the Legends of Quartet Live. The Soul Stirrers Reunion for Malaco (2008) teamed Rogers with Stirrers alumni Arthur and LeRoy Crume, Eddie Huffman and the Reverend Luther Gamble. Willie Rogers and the Soul Stirrers continue to perform, albeit with new personnel. The 1980s also saw Rogers and the Stirrers perform in The Gospel at Colonus, a musical reworking of Oedipus at Colonus. He was present when the quartet was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988.
Rogers has spent the rest of his career with the Soul Stirrers. Rogers returned to his gospel roots by rejoining the Soul Stirrers, where he and Martin Jacox traded lead vocal responsibilities with the same electricity that marked Paul Foster and Sam Cooke’s exchanges with the Stirrers in the early 1950s. “I didn’t have the feeling for it,” he admitted. Despite the fact that some of his records on Ronn, a subsidiary of Jewel Records, were produced and arranged by the legendary Johnny Pate, Rogers never saw his pop career take off. In the early 1970s, Rogers tried his hand as a soul music vocalist. Rogers joined the Stirrers around 1965 and recorded for the first time with the group that same year, leading I Know I’ll Be Free.
Farley of the Soul Stirrers invited Rogers to replace Johnnie Taylor, who had left the Stirrers to pursue a solo career in R&B. By the time of his 1964 discharge, Rogers felt he had outgrown the QCs so he returned to Norfolk to consider his next move.
FREE AT LAST SOUL STERRIS PROFESSIONAL
Like an apprentice, Rogers learned the craft of professional singing while traveling with the QCs.ĭrafted into the army in 1962, Rogers served his country while winning army singing contests. Rogers eagerly accepted-while the Floodgates were regionally popular, the QCs were nationally recognized recording artists. Impressed with Rogers’ singing, the QCs invited him to join their group. He had a chance to sing alongside many of the era’s most respected quartets, such as the Soul Stirrers, whose lead singer, Sam Cooke, was an inspiration to the young Rogers.Īround 1957 or 1958, Spencer Taylor and the Highway QCs participated in a Norfolk gospel program with the Floodgates. “People called in from everywhere wanting to know who was this little boy singing.” Thereafter, Rogers traveled throughout Virginia singing with the Floodgates and participating in the gospel programs the quartet organized in Norfolk. One Sunday, seven-year-old Willie was invited to sing with the Floodgates on the broadcast. His father was a member of Norfolk’s Floodgates Quartet, a group that had a 15-minute radio broadcast every Sunday. Rogers was born in Norfolk, Virginia, on February 3, 1938. With a voice that evokes the soulful crooning of Sam Cooke and Johnnie Taylor, Willie Rogers is the last of a long legacy of lead singers for the Soul Stirrers.
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