The Davis Sisters
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The Davis Sisters was a gospel group founded by Ruth ("Baby Sis") Davis and featuring her sisters Thelma, Audrey and Alfreda. Imogene Greene joined the group in 1950, and was later replaced by Jackie Verdell when Greene left to join the Caravans. They are not to be confused with the 1950s country music act also known as The Davis Sisters (country), which launched the career of Skeeter Davis.
Raised in the Fire-Baptized Holiness Church in Philadelphia, the Davis Sisters were one of the first female groups to sing "hard gospel" of the sort being pioneered by the Dixie Hummingbirds and other male quartets of the day. They achieved a big sound, managing to sound like a choir behind the lead singer by positioning themselves several steps behind the microphone.
Their fellow artists typically praised their singing as spirit-filled. Ruth Davis' solos were also overpowering in their own way; her recordings of songs such as "Jesus Steps Right In" and "Too Close to Heaven" disclose the glory of her instrument, a huge,wide ranging metallic contralto of great beauty and extraordinary power and force in squalling. The Davis Sisters attracted two great singers in their most fruitful periods to help fill out their sound: Imogene Green, who possessed a husky alto of great sensuous beauty and the phenomenal Jackie Verdell who replaced Green in 1955. She brought a mezzo-soprano of intense brightness and clarity to the group; few singers could match her in the mournful "gospel blues" genre; she would demolish churches with her renditions of "Lord Don't Leave Me" and "Following Him". The Davis Sisters also accompanied their singing with the sort of "acting out" that other singers, such as Dorothy Love Coates and the Ward Singers later made famous; the Davis Sisters were heavily influenced at this time by Gertrude Ward, the organizing spirit behind the Ward Singers. Ray Charles also modeled the sound of his backup group, the Raelettes, on groups such as the Davis Sisters and the Caravans.
The group organized in 1945, when Ruth was seventeen years old, her sister Thelma was fifteen, Audrey was fourteen and Alfreda was only ten. They began recording on Gotham Records in 1949, then moved to Savoy Records in 1955. After achieving success in the 1950s, the group was rocked by the death of Thelma Davis in 1956, then the passing of their exceptional piano accompanist Curtis Dublin in 1965, followed by Ruth Davis' death in 1970. The group never recovered from Ruth's death but recorded several more albums together sporadically into the 1980's.
[edit] Further reading
- Boyer, Horace Clarence,How Sweet the Sound: The Golden Age of Gospel Elliott and Clark, 1995, ISBN 0-252-06877-7.
- Heilbut, Tony, The Gospel Sound: Good News and Bad Times Limelight Editions, 1997, ISBN 0-87910-034-6.
