Biography
The Memphis Sanctified Singers, fronted by Bessie Johnson with Melinda Taylor and Sally Sumler rounding out the lineup, cut multiple tracks for Victor in the closing years of the 1920s. Although several of those recordings appeared under the billing Bessie Johnson & Her Sanctified Singers, Harry Smith’s 1952 Anthology of American Folk Music, his widely circulated folk-song anthology, credited the ensemble as the Memphis Sanctified Singers. All six sides the group produced are included in the Document release Memphis Gospel: Complete Works (1927-1929). The singers also contributed to various titles by the Elders McIntorsh and Edwards' Sanctified Singers, an act likewise represented on that same collection.