Biography
An amateur ensemble devoted to shape-note singing, Smith's Sacred Singers operated under the leadership of J. Frank Smith, a Methodist educator located in Braselton, Georgia. Information about the ensemble stays limited, since frequent membership shifts marked its ten-year recording period, leaving Smith as the sole enduring member.
Their opening session occurred in Atlanta on April 23, 1926, and produced the Columbia 15090-D coupling of "Picture from Life's Other Side" with "Where We'll Never Grow Old." That disc became the top-selling gospel release in the Columbia 15000-D series and prompted major labels to begin documenting rural gospel music for the first time. The singers remained with Columbia until 1929, after which they recorded for Bluebird in 1934 and 1935. Across their career they cut slightly more than one hundred sides, many of which sold strongly and placed sacred pieces into the catalog that later generations of Southern gospel performers would revisit.
Their opening session occurred in Atlanta on April 23, 1926, and produced the Columbia 15090-D coupling of "Picture from Life's Other Side" with "Where We'll Never Grow Old." That disc became the top-selling gospel release in the Columbia 15000-D series and prompted major labels to begin documenting rural gospel music for the first time. The singers remained with Columbia until 1929, after which they recorded for Bluebird in 1934 and 1935. Across their career they cut slightly more than one hundred sides, many of which sold strongly and placed sacred pieces into the catalog that later generations of Southern gospel performers would revisit.