The Williams Brothers

Southern gospel outfit the Williams Brothers—also billed at times as the Little Williams Brothers and the Sensational Williams Brothers—came together in 1960 in the family’s hometown of Smithdale, Mississippi. Drawing early motivation from acts such as the Dixie Hummingbirds and the Mighty Clouds of Joy, the siblings had already logged years of stage experience before issuing their debut LP, 1974’s What’s Wrong with People Today, on ABC Songbird. Through the balance of the 1970s and across the entire 1980s they continued to record for Savoy, Myrrh, and Malaco, with most of those projects either reaching or approaching the summit of Billboard’s gospel albums chart; among them was 1985’s Blessed, which attained the top spot.

In 1992 the group established its own Blackberry imprint, after which their output surged; between the early 1990s and the mid-2010s more than two dozen albums appeared, keeping them on the gospel charts via titles that included 1994’s chart-topping, Grammy Award-nominated In This Place, 2003’s Grammy Award-nominated Still Here, and 2009’s Grammy Award-nominated The Journey Continues. Nearly twenty Stellar Awards plus repeated Dove Award nominations have further recognized their work. Both collectively and as solo artists they have joined forces with the Winans, Stevie Wonder, Rance Allen, and John P. Kee. Their next studio effort, Timeless, arrived in 2017 and spotlighted the single “What God Does.”