Essential Gospel – Classic Recordings: Week 125

“Just Over the River”
Joyful Travelers
Avant 053
ca. 1957
[also on Pewburner CD 574; www.pewburner.com]

Unfortunately, all I know about the Joyful Travelers is that this male quartet made two delightful sides for Jimmie Dora’s Dallas-based Avant label. Avant’s catalog of gospel recordings — at least the few I’ve heard — are superb, fully deserving of reissue, and “Just Over the River” is no exception.

“Just Over the River” is distinctive in that the Joyful Travelers’ lead sings in falsetto, or head voice, from the beginning to the end of the performance. If I didn’t know better, I’d think this group was really Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes (“My Hero” Val-ue, 1960). The lead is backed by a quartet that is so rich in texture that the record sounds as if it contains more instruments than just a drum, which bangs the beat like musket fire. The melody and singing style are much closer to the doo-wop sound of the late 1950s than to gospel, which by then was dominated by harder singing quartets, such as the Blind Boys (both Alabama and Mississippi). But the Joyful Travelers’ more melodic, less formulaic sound is what makes up much of the record’s charm.

The flip side, “Lord Lift Me Up,” is more traditional quartet gospel singing. “Just Over the River,” however, is a recording that will excite lovers of gospel quartet as well as doo-wop or proto-soul. It’s a shame that more information about this group is not readily available, and that they didn’t make other recordings…or did they? Joyful Travelers, if any or all of you are still of this world, make yourselves known to TBGB!