Stater brothers5/27/2023 ![]() They would remain with Cash’s troupe for more than eight years and were key members of his ABC network television show from 1969 to 1971.Ī Columbia Records hitmaker, Cash insisted that the label add the Statlers to its roster, and they had their first Columbia recording session in April 1964. ![]() Early that year they joined Johnny Cash’s road show. The year 1964 marked a turning point for the four young men. To avoid confusion with a popular North Carolina-based gospel group also named the Kingsmen, they changed their name to the Statler Brothers (after Statler Tissues).īreakthrough Success and a String of Hits The act featured a variety of country, pop, and gospel material, but crafted their harmonies along the lines of influential white gospel quartets such as the Statesmen and the Blackwood Brothers. By 1961, when Harold reorganized the act as the Kingsmen, Harold’s younger brother, Don, had replaced McDorman. Balsey, DeWitt, Harold Reid, and Joe McDorman had worked in a Staunton, Virginia, high school group called the Four Star Quartet, making their first appearance in 1955. In the early 1960s, the Statler Brothers coalesced around the talents of four Virginians: Phil Balsley, Lew DeWitt, Don Reid, and Harold Reid. All the while, they kept alive country’s venerable tradition of quartet singing, a tradition that reaches back to the genre’s early roots in gospel music. For more than thirty years, they maintained one of country music’s top-grossing road shows, while enjoying great success as recording artists and television performers. The Statler Brothers grew from gospel quartet roots to enjoy a long, successful career as recording, touring, and television stars.
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