The New Christy Minstrels, A Realy Unique Folk Group

The start of the New Christy Minstrels

(info. gleaned from Wikipedia)

• 1in the late 1950s, Randy Sparks was a solo musician mixing folk music with Broadway.
• 2In 1960, Sparks formed the Randy Sparks trio with his wife, Jackie Miller, and Nick Woods
• 3Sparks soon realized he wanted a larger group.
• 4Folk music was very popular then, and choral groups started to incorporate it into their repertoires.
• 5Sparks created The New Christy Minstrels, a 14 voice ensemble, by combining his trio with another trio, The Inn Group, a quartet, The Fairmount Singers, folk singer Dolan Ellis, folk-blues singer Terry Cudmore, singer/guitarist Art Podell, and banjo player Billy Cudmore.
• 6The New Christy Minstrels burst onto the folk scene in 1961.
• 71n 1962, The Fairmount singers left the group.
• 8In April 1962, they recorded their debut album, "Presenting The New Christy Minstrels." It won a Grammy for Best Performance by a Chorus.
  
  Read the Wikipedia article.

The New Christy Minstrels 2nd album:

(info. gleaned from Wikipedia)

• 1The success of "Presenting The New Christy Minstrels" resulted in their being booked on The Andy Williams Show for its 1962-63 season.
• 2During this time, Forsha, Dugan and Yester left to pursue their own careers
• 3Singer/guitarists Barry McGuire and Barry Kane of Barry & Barry, vocalist Peggy Connelly, singer/banjoist Larry Ramos, and Clarence Treat on upright bass joined the group
• 4Soon Connelly was replaced by Gayle Caldwell
• 5Sparks stayed at the helm as both director and arranger.
• 6in mid-1962, they began playing regularly at The Troubadour in Los-Angeles. Some songs were performed by the full group and others by duos and trios within it.
• 7in February 1963, they released their second album, "The New Christy Minstrels In Person" from a recording of a live performance at The Troubadour in September 1962.
  
  Read the Wikipedia article.

The Career of The New Christy Minstrels I:

(info. gleaned from Wikipedia)

• 1Following their appearances on The Andy Williams Show, The New Christy Minstrels received many enthusiastic reviews.
• 2In January 1963 they made their first studio album, "The New Christy Minstrels Tell Tall Tales! (Legends and Nonsense)"
• 3In April 1963 they recorded another studio album called "Ramblin' "which featured "Green, Green", a McGuire/Sparks composition that became the group's first hit single. It peaked at number 3 on the Adult Contemporary Charts. In 1963, "Green, Green" sold over a million copies and was awarded a gold disc." To be continued...
  
  Read the Wikipedia article.

The career of The New Christy Minstrels continued:

(info. gleaned from Wikipedia)

• 1After singing on their hit, "Green, Green," Barry McGuire become the "star" of the group.
• 2In May 1963, Randy Sparks stopped touring with the group to focus on a club he had established... and a new group he had formed, passing the role of director and arranger of live performances for The Minstrels's onto Barry McGuire. Sparks continued to run The Minstrels along with the group's managers, Sid Garris and George Greif.
• 3Soon after McGuire's promotion, Ellis left. He was replaced by Gene Clark. Clark was featured prominently on the group's next few records.
• 4Early in 1964 Clark left. He was replaced by Paul Potash.
• 5Also in 1964, the group's two female singers, Miller (Sparks's wife), and Caldwell also left. They were replaced by Karen Gunderson and Ann White.
• 6Early in 1964 Sparks was contracted to create a film score for a civil war comedy, Advance to the Rear.
• 7The film's soundtrack by The New Christy Minstrels was released in May 1964 as "Today." It was the first complete soundtrack ever made using only folk music. The score is notable for the hit standard "Today", written by Sparks. "Today" reached number 17 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number 4 on the Adult Contemporary Charts.]
  
  Read the Wikipedia article.

The decline of The New Christy Minstrels:

(info. gleaned from Wikipedia)

• 1In the mid-1960s, folk music became more morally and politically reflective, but, Sparks insisted that The New Christy Minstrels should entertain and make music that made people forget their problems.
• 2The Minstrel's ensemble singing of folk music was becoming less relevant to the newer, 'activist' folk music.
• 3Late in 1964, Randy Sparks sold his share of The New Christy Minstrels to Greif and Garris for $2.5 million...
• 4Early in 1965 the group toured Europe.
• 5Right after the European tour, Barry McGuire left the group to embark on a solo career. This spelt the end of the original New Christy Minstrels.
• 6The group, now under the direction of Greif and Garris morphed to a variety act, doing "novelty and pop tunes" and a little comedy. Later in 1965, reflecting this shift, they had a Billboard Top 100 hit with a cover of "Chim Chim Cher-ee."
  
  Read the Wikipedia article.

Were the New Christy Minstrels Christians?

1. On their live album "Live at Ledbetters." they opened with "Walk the road to that land" followed after two more songs by "Elijah Rock, " followed after 7 more songs by "Glory Glory Halulah, when I lay my burden down." 3 Spiritual songs about going to heaven in the same live performance.
2. The album "The New Christy Minstrels In Person" has a song about a dying convict who wants to work in heaven, followed 5 songs later by an upbeat version of the hymn "When They Ring Those Golden Bells," followed 2 songs later (after a humorous bit) by "saint's Train." 3 songs which speak about going to heaven.
3. In "Land of Giants," an album about legendary folk heroes of American, they included a song called "He's got Mighty Big Ways," A song referring to God as creator.
4. In the song, "Jump Down, Turn around, Pick a bail of cotton, " which is a cotton picking song, they added a verse about the last judgement.
5. In the song "Shenandoah," which is a song about crossing the Shenandoah river when going West, they added a verse that says "This world is not my home, I am bound across the river...there's a better land over Jordon" (Jordon being a typological representation of death [crossing over to heaven])