The Anita Kerr Singers

During the 1950s and 1960s the Anita Kerr Singers ranked among the most sought-after backup vocal ensembles in country music, lending their harmonies to numerous sessions by leading Nashville performers. Anita Kerr directed the quartet, whose members included alto Dottie Dillard, tenor Gil Wright, and baritone Louis Nunley. Early notice arrived when the group performed on the NBC radio series Sunday Down South at the start of the decade, an exposure that produced a Decca recording contract. In 1956 the singers appeared on the New York–based Arthur Godfrey Talent Scouts television program, which generated additional broadcast opportunities even as their studio work for other artists continued without interruption. Chet Atkins, then heading RCA’s country division, soon took the ensemble under his guidance and thereby placed them on countless further recordings by established musicians. The Anita Kerr Singers sustained an active schedule of recording and touring throughout the 1960s, issuing their own albums that included Anita Kerr Singers Reflect on the Hits of Burt Bacharach & Hal David, Velvet Voices and Bold Brass, and Simon & Garfunkel Songbook. After relocating to Geneva, Switzerland in the 1970s, Anita Kerr died there on October 10, 2022, at the age of 94.