The Fairfield Four

In the 1940s the Fairfield Four stood among the leading gospel quartets, sharing that status with the Dixie Hummingbirds, Five Blind Boys, and Soul Stirrers. A pastor at Nashville’s Fairfield Baptist Church had formed the ensemble in the early 1920s simply to give his sons Harry and Rufus Carrethers something to do; at first the pair performed as a duet. John Battle’s arrival turned the unit into a trio, and by the 1930s the group had evolved into a jubilee quartet that would undergo repeated changes in personnel. During that decade they cut sides for RCA Victor and Columbia, earning notice for their fresh treatments of familiar hymns delivered through bright, tightly woven baritone and tenor harmonies. When they performed, the singers employed every register at their command, shifting from resonant, rolling bass foundations to the sharp upper reaches of the tenor, all bound by exacting, complex chord work and constantly rotating lead voices.

Their widest exposure arrived when the Sunway Vitamin Company underwrote a daily WLAC broadcast from Nashville at 6:45 a.m. Even so, the members kept up an exhausting road schedule; the long drive back to the station frequently meant one or two voices were absent from the morning program. In 1942 the quartet laid down recordings for the Library of Congress. By 1950 the strain, mounting financial pressures, and shrinking radio listenership proved unsustainable, and the group disbanded, although Reverend Sam McCrary later revived the Fairfield Four name for appearances with other ensembles. Black gospel specialist Doug Seroff reassembled the 1940s lineup for a 1980 concert in Birmingham, Alabama. Nine years afterward the National Endowment for the Arts named them National Heritage Fellows. The members still appear in public, even though the original voices have either passed away or stepped back from active duty.