Biography
The Jubileers ranked among the earliest gospel ensembles to move substantial quantities of recorded sides, under the direction of the gifted Richard Huey, who would subsequently establish himself as a Broadway performer. Their strongest period fell during the years of the Second World War, when they shared bills with leading blues and jazz figures including Champion Jack Dupree and Coleman Hawkins. At the same time the group produced numbers that carried echoes of rockabilly and R&B, resulting in tracks that later surfaced on anthologies aimed at both Saturday-night dancers and Sunday-morning congregations.
Standout releases offered pointed counsel in “Keep Out of the Sinner’s Way,” the familiar plea of “Give Me That Old Time Religion,” the striking “Daniel Was a Witness for My Lord,” and the forthright “Jesus.” Awareness of the era’s popular secular vocal groups reached Huey throughout the ’40s, prompting him to steer the Jubileers toward comparable territory; for Bluebird they recorded plainly suggestive numbers such as “Boogie Woogie Johnson” and “The Right String But the Wrong Yo-Yo.”
Standout releases offered pointed counsel in “Keep Out of the Sinner’s Way,” the familiar plea of “Give Me That Old Time Religion,” the striking “Daniel Was a Witness for My Lord,” and the forthright “Jesus.” Awareness of the era’s popular secular vocal groups reached Huey throughout the ’40s, prompting him to steer the Jubileers toward comparable territory; for Bluebird they recorded plainly suggestive numbers such as “Boogie Woogie Johnson” and “The Right String But the Wrong Yo-Yo.”