An interview with Chris White, founder of Sonlite Records and a member of the Southern Gospel Hall of Fame.
Watch Chris singing a song in the 1970s with The Songmen, “When the Reapers Come.”
Transcript
Lightly edited for clarity.
Daniel Mount (00:03)
Thank you for listening to the Southern Gospel Journal podcast. My name is Daniel Mount, and I am joined today by Chris White. Good morning.
Chris (00:11)
Good morning, Daniel. How are you? Good.
Daniel Mount (00:13)
Pretty good. How about you?
So I’m looking forward to telling your story today. Can we start going all the way back with your background, where you’re from, and your testimony, and how you discovered gospel music?
Chris (00:24)
Sure. I’m from Merriville, Tennessee, which is a suburb of Knoxville, about 15 minutes away. Born and raised there, and really got started in gospel music as a kid at nine years old. When I was nine, I was in a church trio called the Hillcrest Trio.
And we actually performed on the Mull Singing Convention, which, in the Knoxville market, was a very well-known, heavily watched television show every Sunday morning. And I did that show from the time I was nine until about 12. There was three of us, three kids. And it was cool, because we got to work with all the big boys.
You know, back in that day, the big artists would come through town and they would stop and do the TV show on Sunday morning. And then a lot of times they could get to a date on Sunday morning as well if they were local enough. You know, we got to work with the major artists back in that time: the Blue Ridge Quartet, the Statesmen, on and on, really. Dixie Knights, some people know Dixie Knights, some don’t, but they were really strong back in that day.
And it was just a really, really fun way to start. Now, did I have an idea that my career would be there? No. You know, I’m nine years old. So I’m thinking about, you know, getting my cap pistol out and playing on the playground. Not thinking about being in the music business.
So as my childhood went on, of course, I was born and raised in a church. My dad was a pastor of the church for 63 years, the same church that he founded, and died there.
Daniel Mount (02:04)
Wow.
Chris (02:11)
So I was always in the middle of it. And when I was in high school, I got out there and got wild with everybody else. I went down the wrong road more than I went down the right. And it stayed that way until I was in my mid-20s. Life for me was, I was open to anything. You wouldn’t have known I was raised in the church, I’ll put it that way.
But what really got my attention one day and drew me back to the thought of music, which hadn’t been there in years, except I played in a Holiday Inn piano bar. And I would play and sing while people were drinking and partying or whatever. That was my music background at the time.
I was living in Memphis where I’d taken a job with a company. And like I said, I was really out there on a limb.
I was sitting on my front porch of my condo one day. I kept seeing this bus come in and out of the subdivision. Finally, one day, that particular day, I thought, I’m gonna go see what those guys do. Now, I gotta preface this by saying: God had been chasing me really hard.
And I just knew He was gonna catch me sooner rather than later. I could feel it. You know how you feel when He’s got your attention? He had my attention. And I walked across the street and I said, “I see this bus coming in and out here all the time, and you’re loading boxes.”
I said, “What is that all about?” And the guy said, “Well, we’re a gospel music group.” I said, “Really?” Well, my mind automatically went back as far as nine years old, you know, and all the years in between when I had started singing. And so I said, “Well, who are you?” And he said, “London Parris and the Apostles.”
Daniel Mount (04:07)
My. Yeah.
Chris (04:08)
And I just freaked out.
I freaked out and I went, “Boy, this is about as close as God’s going to get.” He’s telling me straight up, you know. And I went back across the street to my house, and I’m sitting there thinking, “I live across the street from London Parris and didn’t even know it,” you know.
So that became the moment that I knew something else was in store. So I called my brother and I said, “Randy, I’m getting ready to come home, I think.” And I’ve been gone for years. I said, “When I get home, can we start a quartet?” Because he’d been raised in the music family as well.
Daniel Mount (04:33)
Okay, wow.
Chris (04:51)
“No, no, you all won’t. And I said, “OK.” He said, “I’m not going to walk on any stage with you living the way you live.” And I said, “Man, I’m getting ready to fix that right now.” And I did.
I got on my kitchen floor that night for at least two hours and just begged God to forgive and to forget.
Daniel Mount (05:04)
Wow.
Chris (05:13)
When I finally felt like I had broken through and the Lord had accepted me, I think that’s when I was first saved. You know, we all get saved at 12 at Bible school, you know. But many times, that commitment doesn’t come until a little later in life. And that’s when mine came, and I knew that night I was saved.
So three days later, I ended up going home. No job, no place to live, no nothing. And when I got home, I went to my mom and dad’s house. They let me hang out there until I could keep my feet on the ground.
And I called my brother back and I said, “Randy, I’m home. Can we talk about starting that quartet?” He said, “Did you fix things?” I said, “Yes, sir, I did.” He said, “Come on over, let’s talk.”
Daniel Mount (05:57)
Neat.
Chris (05:58)
That’s how the group started that you mentioned to me earlier, the Songmen. That’s how that started. And again, never realizing the night we started that in his basement, that it would be my life.
Daniel Mount (06:03)
That’s neat. I would like to go back to when you were nine for just a minute. I’m curious: In those interactions you had with the big groups as they came through Knoxville, were there any that were especially gracious or encouraging, or left a really good impression on you in those days? Left a really good impression in your interactions with them.
Chris (06:33)
Daniel, I can honestly say, all of them were. All of them were, and maybe part of that was because we were kids. We were not threatening in any way. But they encouraged us to, if we loved what we were doing, and they could tell we did, to keep doing it, you know? Just keep it as part of your life. They were all encouraging. I can’t think of one that was.
Daniel Mount (06:35)
That’s neat.
Chris (06:50)
Keep doing it, you know, just keep it as part of your life. They were all encouraging. I can’t think of one that was.
Daniel Mount (06:57)
Wonderful. There’s been so… Not that there’s never been a challenging personality once in while, but there have been so many good people in Southern Gospel through the generations. It’s really cool to hear those stories.
Chris (07:07)
There have been. We usually hear about the bad people, but there’s by far more good people.
Daniel Mount (07:13)
By far, yes. So, can you tell me a little more about what ended up transpiring with the Songmen? I know you did at least one or two records. Yeah.
Chris (07:24)
We did, yeah. I did, well, I had built a studio and we did a… In fact, I had three along the way in that time period of, I don’t know, maybe seven, eight years.
And we did a couple of custom records in the studio that I had. And then we signed with Windchime, which was a prominent label back in the day. They had Heaven Bound, the Paynes, some major artists back then. For that era, they were major.
And we signed with them and did two records there. And then that was about the wrap-up of the group. We did well, we had a couple of chart songs, but it just… was something missing for me. And I didn’t know what it was. I knew there was something that wasn’t quite where it was supposed to be yet.
And even my guys picked up on that. We traveled in Canada a whole lot. The majority of our tours were 17- and 21-day tours in Canada and did extremely well up there.
But they were around me a lot, and they could tell that, you know, there was somewhere my mind was wanting to go. And finally that transpired, and I just… when I lost Doyle Harper and Sammy Pifkin to the Dixie Echoes, and I lost them because they really felt like I was getting ready to do something different.
Daniel Mount (08:57)
Mm-hmm.
Chris (08:58)
Randy had some openings. Randy showed them, and they took them. When that happened, I said, “That’s it.” That’s my perfect out to look at the production side of the business, which is where my heart really was.
And Daniel, I didn’t know why it was, because I never expected anything to happen like what happened. So it wasn’t that I had a plan. When people ask me about my career like that, I say, “You know what? I didn’t have a plan.” I didn’t have visions. I didn’t have goals and dreams. All I wanted to do was be in the recording business, production business. Not a label. I didn’t even think about that.
And well, I thought about it, but not in a very serious way. So.
About the time that I closed the group down, we love each other. We still love each other today. All of us guys that traveled back then, we stay in touch all the time. We still love each other as much as we did then.
Daniel Mount (09:52)
Then if I could jump in for a second: you mentioned one or two of the guys. Who are some of the other guys you toured with in those days who you’re still in touch with and still friends with and all that?
Chris (10:01)
Well, my first cousin was the bass singer, Bethel White, and Cliff Robertson was the baritone singer. And we were all, all of us were from right here in the Knoxville market: Sevierville, Merriville, and Wayne Blackman, who was an Alabama boy. Tommy Johnson was an Alabama boy. He was the tenor singer on several of the TV videos we did.
And then Doyle Harper. A lot of people know Doyle, not only from his days with the Dixie Echoes, but he’s been in the middle of the business ever since. He knows everybody, and everybody knows him. I told him one day, said, “Doyle, I’m in the Hall of Fame, and I swear I think more people know you than know me.” He’s right in the middle of everything going on. And he pastors the church. So, and he’s been the pastor for many years.
But I’ll tell you a real quick story, you know. Tommy, the tenor singer, was leaving because his wife wanted him to come home and get off the road, which was normal back then. I mean, it wasn’t unusual for a guy to his wife say, “Baby, why don’t you come on home,” you know?
And so, Doyle called me. He found out that we were looking, and he called me and wanted to know if he could interview. And I said, “Sure.”
And he’d never been in a group. Him and his brothers, sort of like my little trio, had a Harper Brothers trio back then. But I said, “Come on down to Clinton, Tennessee, to a place called Miller’s Restaurant.” We were going to be singing there on a Saturday night. And he came down to interview and try out, audition.
When he got there, I said, “Uh-uh. Nah, this is not going to work.” I didn’t even have to hear him sing. I said, “This ain’t going to work.” His hair was down to halfway down to his back end, and he just looked nasty. He looked like he was, you know, he was not the element that you would put on stage with that long hair, and he might have had an earring too at that time. Anyway, I went ahead and auditioned to see if the boy could actually sing and do this.
He was not good that night because he’d been working in the coal mines. And all the coal dust had built up in his lungs. And he just didn’t, he didn’t have the quality. But I knew he had it. I knew I could hear it. I could tell it. I could feel it. It was there.
And I said, “Here’s what I want you to do. I want you to go home for a month, and I want you to clean yourself up. Get that hair up here about where everybody else is. Clean up, you know, just look like a normal person.” And I don’t mean he was dirty, you know. I mean, just, his appearance was just not very appealing.
So I said, “You come back and I’ll audition you again.” I said, “You got to get out of those mines, because if you don’t, you’re not ever going to clear your lungs.” And he did exactly what I asked him to do. He came back. He quit the job before he left. I knew this kid had it. And he did, you know. I don’t know if you’ve ever heard him sing.
Daniel Mount (13:11)
I have; on records and not in person, but through vinyl, yes.
Chris (13:14)
Yeah. Yeah. And he was even better back then, his young days, you know, when he was young. But he’s still good; still very good. But then Doyle joined the group, and he was there when it ended.
Daniel Mount (13:27)
Neat. Okay, so then moving on to the Sonlite days, almost. Did you mention, I think you mentioned, you did some studio work before that, right? Was the studio called something else, or was it like a Sonlite Studio that became Sonlite Records?
Chris (13:42)
It was a Sonlite Studio that became Sunlight Records.
Daniel Mount (13:46)
Okay.
Chris (13:47)
But I didn’t have any thought of it being “Sonlite Records” at time. It was just a recording studio.
Daniel Mount (13:55)
Mm-hmm.
So what was involved in setting up a studio in those days? I’m sure there was the equipment. Like, what kind of equipment did you have to get to set up a studio in the eighties?
Chris (14:05)
Well, you had to have your recording console, unless you bought one, which I did the first time, that was already equipped. You had to have your multitrack machine, which back then I started out with a 16-track two-inch. Actually, truth is, I started out with an eight-track [quarter-inch], but I graduated to the 16-track two-inch.
And then you had to have all the auxiliary parts to that: your mix machine, which is a quarter-inch machine that the tape ran through that you actually mix all of those tracks down to what we call a “2-mix.” And then you’ve got the dynamics of the studio itself besides the equipment and all the plugins.
And I’m not going to get into all that because most people wouldn’t know what I’m talking about or care. The atmosphere had to be warm. It needed to be a real mix of being warm and energetic at the same time, and that’s kind of hard to create.
We worked really hard to do that, to where you felt very at home, very warm, but very energized when that moment needed to be there. Of course, out in the studio area outside the control room here was your grand pianos and all your mics for your, and all your direct line inputs for your guitars, bass, a drum kit booth which housed the drum kit, and all the mics that went on the drum kit.
So it was pretty extensive to set one up, and expensive to set one up. So after I did that, and that was in Alcoa, Tennessee, which is, Merriville and Alcoa’s twin cities, so you don’t really know when you’re one and the other, just outside of Knoxville.
My studio was in Alcoa, and I was doing pretty well with it. Nobody really knew me except my singing days, you know, knew that I had a group. And I get this call from Kevin McManus.
Daniel Mount (16:05)
Mm-hmm.
Chris (16:05)
And Kevin called me home one night and he said, “Man, why don’t you come to Nashville and let’s start a studio.” Now, I had met Kevin back in my Windchime days. He was the engineer that did both of my Windchime records: one that was on Sugar Hill Records and the other one, Windchime Special Edition.
So we got to know each other fairly well through that process. He called me and said, “Come on. Move to Nashville and let’s take Henry Slaughter’s old studio, Oak Valley, and let’s turn the lights back on.” Because back then it had gone dark. When the studio closed, that was the terminology: it went dark.
So I said, “No, man. I’m doing great. My studio’s good; doing good business. I don’t want to take on that world. And I just like the comfort of where I’m at.” And two weeks later he called me back. He said, “Man, you got to come down here and let’s do this.” I said, “Kevin, I’m not coming. I’ve already told you.”
He said, “You got to.” I said, “No, I don’t have to.” And he bugged me for, I don’t know what it was, three or four months. Finally, one night when he called and he said, “You changed your mind yet? You need to come down here. Let’s relight Oak Valley and we can be successful with it.”
I said, “No, Kevin, I’m not coming. I’ve told you a dozen times.” When I hung up the phone, Daniel, God entered the room. And you know me well enough, you know, I don’t go around saying “God said this” and “God said that,” you know. Although He does, I don’t wear that on my sleeves. But that night I knew. I knew that He spoke to me and said, “Go.”
So I thought about that for a little bit, and I just kept hearing this “go.” So I called Kevin back and I said, “I don’t know what I’m doing here, bud, but I’m on my way. I’m coming.”
And then I moved to Nashville, left my family in Knoxville, because I wasn’t going to take my family. I didn’t know if I’d last two weeks. So me and a friend, engineer of mine, Rick Salyer, who was an engineer up the road from me in Kingsport, we went together and we rented a trailer from a guy in Detroit to live in. It was furnished, and so we didn’t have to buy anything.
Daniel, I don’t mean we rented a mobile home. I mean we really had a trailer, a real trailer. So we thought, this will do. We’ll live here until we see if we can make it. And if we make it, then we’ll bring our families down and live kind of a normal life, you know.
But we didn’t do that for almost a year. And we both did it about the same time, because we wanted to make sure that what we were experiencing was good for the long haul. So Kevin and I opened up Oak Valley. Rick was an engineer for us for a good while. He was an independent engineer, but he did a lot of work for us. And we just took off with it. I mean, there’s a thousand stories I could tell you about that. I don’t remember one now that would be a good place to start.
About that same time was when the question of Sonlite came back to the table. And a group here in Knoxville did it, a group called Cedar Ridge.
Daniel Mount (19:33)
Okay. Yes.
Chris (19:39)
Not a lot of people remember them. Some people will. They did quite well, actually, for many years. Known them forever. They called me and said, “We want to do a record.” Well, I thought they were talking about here locally at home. And I said, “OK, let me look at the books here and see.” And they said, “No, no, no, no, we want to go to Nashville.”
And I said, “Well, you know, I don’t work in Nashville.” And they said, “You can; you know people down there.” So I said, “Yeah, I do.” I said, “Let me make a call or two and see what I can come up with.” So I called Kevin because I had that relationship with him. And I said, “I got a group that wants to come down, cut a record, and you want to engineer it?” And he said, “Sure.”
I said, “Who would you suggest for players?” And he said, “I’d call Gary Prim and get Gary to set up all the musicians you want for the session. Let him be the leader of it and you’ll have a band ready to go.” So I did that. First time I ever hired Gary, out of, seems like, a thousand times after that.
But we went to Nashville, and Kirk Talley produced the record. I didn’t produce it. Kirk produced it. Most people would think I did it because I was a producer for many years. But I hired Kirk to go do it because I wasn’t convinced at that point that I was good enough to produce at that level.
And that’s what I told Kevin: “Man, I don’t want to go try this. It’s too hard. It’s too big for me. I just don’t think I can make it.” But, not to retract, but I finally did decide to give it a shot, even at that level. But I’m telling you, I was scared. Scared to death. And that’s why I wanted Kirk to produce that record, because I didn’t want to come out of the gate and screw something up.
Kirk did a great job on it. Long story short, if I can, I’m not good at that. But we released the first single on that record, and it went to number 21 in the nation. And Daniel, here is a group that nobody’s ever heard of, a label nobody’s ever heard of, the owner of that label who nobody’s ever heard of.
The only familiarity the market would have had was the name Kirk Talley. And that was the only thing in that whole structure that would have been familiar to the public environment.
So we did that. It became successful. And all of a sudden my phone rings, and it’s Steve French with the Kingdom Heirs. Steve said, in his twang, “Golly, if you can do it for him, you can do it for me.”
I said, “Steve, I don’t even know what I did. We cut a record. I let Kirk produce it. I hired a little girl named Sonya Goff Nolan to do radio because I didn’t know anything about radio. I didn’t even know how to press a 45.” Sonya did all that for me. We released it to radio. She worked the single, promoted it, and voila, we have a hit.
I said, “That’s all I can tell you. I don’t even know.” So he said, “Well, let’s do that same thing over, just the way you did it for Cedar Ridge.” I said, “Okay, we’ll do it.” And we did, exactly the same way: “Test of Time” off that record.
Again, a label still nobody’s heard of but one record. And how many people heard that? Little to none. Artists, nobody’s heard of because the Kingdom Heirs at that point were just singing at Dollywood, which had just become Dollywood from Silver Dollar City. And I think it’s right at that point of transition.
And again, the owner of a record company that nobody’s ever heard of. But we did it again. The single off that record went to number two in the nation, “Test of Time.” And Daniel, when that happened, when that song went to number two, my phone came off the wall. And truthfully, I had no idea what I was doing. I really didn’t.
Daniel Mount (23:39)
You know, I think I’m just going to throw in here for context. I don’t think people necessarily understand: At that time, some of the big names were Heartwarming and they were part of Benson. And then there was Canaan, Marvin Norcross’s, part of Word. And those, like those were established as imprints of two… Benson and Word were just like, had been for decades major players in Christian music.
Chris (23:53)
Right. Yes.
Daniel Mount (24:02)
And then a couple of years later, after Sonlite started, a big part of the story in a couple of years is you have Eldridge Foxx starting Horizon, and he’s owner of one of the biggest quartets in the business. A lot of the other labels that were big became big. Even Eddie Crook, everybody knew him from his Happy Goodmans days. And he recorded albums with the Happy Goodmans band, and that was why some groups went to record with him.
Chris (24:02)
Right.
Daniel Mount (24:25)
You were just starting from a different place. You were starting from the ground level in a way that you didn’t have a big brand and a big organization behind you.
Chris (24:32)
Daniel, I didn’t have anything. I had me. That’s all I had was me. And you know, there was another label back in that era: Calvary Records, who was the home to the Hinsons. And of course they had a lot of other artists, but the Hinsons were there, that was their gun, you know. But you’re right: Word and Benson, they totally dominated the market.
And I will never forget that Eddie Crook. There was a guild meeting that took place before I joined the guild, because I was fresh.
Daniel Mount (25:06)
And we’re speaking of the Southern Gospel Music Guild here, right? Okay, yeah.
Chris (25:11)
So at that meeting, I was told by a couple of people that Eddie Crook stood up and said, “Does anybody know this guy named Chris White?” Everybody was going, “No, I heard his name the other day, but I don’t know that much about him,” you know? And then he started a label and… “That’s all I know.”
And Eddie was worried. He’s like, “Where’d this guy come from?” And he saw me getting into some of the custom business, and I guess he was concerned about his. I don’t blame him. I would have been too. Where did this guy come from? Because he was making a lot of noise all of a sudden.
There’s one thing I forgot to tell you on Sonlite. I gotta tell you this.
Daniel Mount (25:52)
Okay.
Chris (25:53)
You asked me how the Sonlite Records label came to be. When Cedar Ridge asked me about doing radio after that very first record, and I said, “I don’t know anything about that. You got to have a label to ship something to radio, and I don’t have a label.” And they said, “Well, can we create one?”
Daniel Mount (25:56)
Yeah.
Chris (26:12)
And I said, “Well, you can probably come up with something. I don’t know what it is. It’s up to you guys.” And then it hit me one day. I said, “Wait a minute. I’ve got this little label in the drawer. Doesn’t mean anything to anybody that I’ve used on a couple of our custom records in my group.” It didn’t mean anything to anybody.
I said, “If you guys want that label, Sonlite, you can have it. We’ll use that on your record.” That’s how it, just out of nowhere. And that’s what I did.
I did the same thing on the Kingdom Heirs.
I got one more story. Can I tell you? I don’t want to backtrack, but this is too good. Or at least I think it is.
Daniel Mount (26:46)
Go for it.
Chris (26:52)
Steve French came to me one day and he said, “Man, we gotta have a contract.” That’s after the record was done. And so you’re supposed to do contracts before the record is cut. And he said, “We gotta have a contract.” I said, “Steve, I don’t have a contract. I told you when we started this, I didn’t know what I was doing, and we’re just lucky to have a record.”
He said, “No, man, we gotta have a contract.”
Well, at that time, at that very time, the Kingsmen were in Oak Valley doing their new Heartwarming record. And Foxy came to me and he said, “Would you mind if I use your office for a few minutes? I’ve got a little work I need to do.” Because they had let him go from the studio, somebody else was working on their part or whatever. And I said, “Sure, you can have it. Just work from my desk over there.”
So he set his stuff up. He set his briefcase up and opened the briefcase. And about that time, they called him and said, “Fox, we need you to come back into studio and do something on one of the verses of, don’t remember what it was, but we need you to come back in the studio.”
Well, I walked back into my office at that point and walked over to my desk, and sitting right on top of Foxy’s briefcase was a brand new Heartwarming contract.
I thought, “Huh, that’s a contract. I need a contract.” So I kind of looked around like, “I wonder if I could get this thing to the copying machine and get me a copy of it before he gets back.” That way I would know what a contract says, because I didn’t know.
I had known years ago that Windchime had a little two-page thing. This is a real contract. And I took it to the copier, made a copy of it, took that contract back to Foxy’s briefcase, laid it right where it was at. I was very careful about that and walked away with the contract.
I called Steve and I said, “Dude, I got us a contract.” So I just went in there and I changed all the headings, you know. Instead of “Heartwarming Records Agreement,” it was “Sonlite Records Agreement,” you know. Changed the addresses, the labels, et cetera. It’s just basically delete and type in, you know. That’s how I got a contract, without knowing it.
Daniel Mount (29:07)
What were you doing for distribution in the early days? Getting records at bookstores in the region or anything like that? And how did you get into the distribution side of things with Cedar Ridge and Kingdom Heirs and all?
Chris (29:14)
Yeah. Well. Well, that’s an interesting question because I did it through Dottie Leonard and New Day, because at that time, that’s all they were was distribution. They didn’t have a record label.
Well, that went on for a little over a year, year and a half, that she was representing all of our product in the distribution market. And mostly at that time, it was all CBA bookstores. Yeah. Now, general market came later, which is the Wal-Mart and K-Mart’s of the world.
Daniel Mount (29:48)
Yeah. Christian Booksellers Association.
Chris (29:57)
Then it was just the bookstores. Now, when I saw what she was doing, because she did it at Oak Valley. She did her soundtrack series at Oak Valley. We did that series, yeah. We did that series for years.
And when I saw her start to bring in an artist or two, I’m going, “Okay, what’s going on here?” Because the first one she brought in was a brass group out of Georgia, Georgia Gospel Brass or something like that. And second was the Cumberland Boys, who was Opryland’s artist, just like Kingdom Heirs was Dollywood’s.
And I thought, “Okay, now this is not what she’s supposed to be doing.” Because I was almost like Eddie. I’m thinking, “What’s going on here?” when he was asking about me. I was like that with Dottie. I was going, “What’s going on?”
“Oh, I am just helping some artists that nobody wants anything to do with and just seeing if I can help them a little bit.” And I said, “Okay.” Because, you know, you have my distribution. And yeah, I just had to ask that question. “What are you doing? I’m not doing anything that’s going to affect you.”
How’d that work out? One of the largest labels in the business today, even. So yeah, through the course of time there were several outlets that we used for distribution purposes. But our goal was to cover every, we had our own sales team, and we did distribution deals with distributors.
And that’s pretty much what we covered the first few years until Crossroads was formed.
Daniel Mount (31:36)
Mm-hmm, which we’ll get to that a little more in a little bit. We’ll get to the Crossroads side of things a little bit later chronologically, but yes.
Chris (31:41)
Yeah. Right.
Daniel Mount (31:43)
So, Sonlite, do I have it right that Sonlite started in 1986? Is that about right, with the first release of Cedar Ridge? Cool. Yeah.
Chris (31:49)
That’s correct.
Go ahead, I’m sorry.
Daniel Mount (31:55)
I was just gonna say it’s probably worth mentioning: Cedar Ridge – Jeff Treece is a name, even if people don’t remember the name Cedar Ridge, there definitely will be some more recent events. You remember Jeff Treece and the Jeff Treece Band; he was part of Cedar Ridge. I think it’s worth mentioning that for anybody who might not make that connection. Now it’s Sunday Drive. He’s still out there still singing.
Chris (32:00)
Yeah. Now it’s Sunday Drive. And they’ve been doing well for a good while. He’s with StowTown Records. I had him for years and years and years. We finally decided for both of us, we’d been together since we were babies, you know. Or I’d had him since he was a baby. And it might be time to do something fresh, which we did. Yeah, I love Jeff.
Daniel Mount (32:23)
Okay. Yeah.
Chris (32:39)
Long-time buddies.
Daniel Mount (32:47)
I think before we move on and talk about other artists, if there are any other stories that come to mind about the rise of Cedar Ridge, or how the Kingdom Heirs went from being known locally and regionally to their national prominence, any other stories for those two artists that come to mind maybe before we move on to other artists.
Chris (33:15)
Well, there are, but I can’t tell them on here. No, there’s always stories you can tell on artists, especially the Kingdom Heirs with their Dollywood connection.
But really, I think what happened was, like when I told you that my phone came off the wall, that started a run with some artists that were major and mid-major in that day. And one of those artists was the Hoppers. Now the Hoppers, yeah, Claude reached out to me.
And in that day, the Hoppers were known. It wasn’t like they were an unknown, but they never had gone down the label road. They’d always have been just like an independent artist.
And Claude called me one day and he said, you know, in his North Carolina drawl…
He’d been watching me. “I’ve been watching you, boy. You’re doing pretty good.” I said, “Yes, sir. It’s working. It’s working fairly well.” And he said, “Well, I’d like to come talk to you.” So I said, “OK, great.” Well, he did. He came. Came to Oak Valley International.
And we had a pretty good conversation. I had always been told with Claude, you got to be careful because he is one of the best businessmen in the business, and he’ll get you before you know what happened. And I was very aware of that. He was a great negotiator. That didn’t mean he’d cheat you, but he would negotiate you right into a hole.
So we talked for a while and he left. And I got a call and he said, “I could come back and let’s talk about an agreement. Can you send me something to look at?” I said, “Sure.” So I did. I fixed up a contract, sent it to North Carolina, let him read through it. He came back to Nashville, the group did, and he sat down in my office that day and he had the contract in his hand.
And he was looking down at it and he was just reading through some of it and got to the price point of the cassette units. At that point, cassettes, all we had. I don’t think we had CDs on that first one. I don’t think we did. That’s been a long time ago.
Daniel Mount (35:26)
I think several of the early ones were at least reissued on CD, but that’s not to say they were CD on day one, because I have like dual, a two-for-one, two albums on one CD of a couple of the earliest Sonlite Hoppers releases, but that’s not to say they’re CDs on day one. Yeah.
Chris (35:33)
Right. Yeah, we did. We did some of that. So, I’m talking about cassettes in this particular case.
And he said, “Son, is that the best you can do?” He was talking about the price point. So I looked down at Daniel and I said, “You know what? I’m either gonna stand my ground now, or I’m gonna be backing up all my life. If I let him get me now, he’s gonna get me the next time and the next time.”
So I looked at him and I said, “Yes, sir, that’s the best I can do.” Didn’t say a word. He just looked back down at the contract.
About 30 or 40 seconds goes by, he looked back up at me, staring me straight in the eye. He said, “I want to ask you one more time… is that the best you can do?”
I said, “Yes, sir, it is.” He said, “Add a nickel to it.”
Daniel Mount (36:27)
Wow.
Chris (36:27)
I said, “What?” What? He said, “Add a nickel to it.” He said, “I want to be fair to you.” And I thought, man, if I’d have known that, I’d have gone in a lot higher than I did. So anyway, that was some of the storylines in getting the label up and going and running and being in the beginning.
Daniel Mount (36:38)
Yeah.
Chris (36:49)
Turned into for the next 35, 40 years.
Daniel Mount (36:51)
So were you exclusively based out of Nashville until things started merging together with Horizon to form Crossroads in the 90s? Or did you have a period being back in Knoxville first?
Chris (37:00)
Yeah. Yeah. No, I was strictly Nashville. I had sold the studio here in Knoxville and I was totally out of that. So I was committed to Oak Valley and building those labels.
There was an artist that got a lot of attention from a lot of people, called The McGruders, back in that day.
Daniel Mount (37:06)
Cool. Yes.
Chris (37:25)
Back in that day. And they were a United Pentecostal artist, UPC is what we call it. And I’d never worked with a real Pentecostal group at that point. It’s a different world, and I had to learn that fast.
Daniel Mount (37:30)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Bit of a different world.
Chris (37:47)
So we did, and we had a lot of success, Carrol’s writing, the group’s performance, but that didn’t happen. The performance didn’t happen until later on. And I’ll tell you how it happened, if you want to hear it.
Daniel Mount (38:01)
I do.
Chris (38:01)
We’ve done about two records on them, I guess, and had good chart success. Caerol was writing some good songs, and Kevin and I decided to take them to Jonesboro, Arkansas, to the forum out there and do a live video.
Now, again, something you may or may not know is we had our own video audio truck back in that day. It’s called Mobile One. And Kevin was behind the creating of that truck, an old guy in North Carolina that loved the music industry, and he had a concert hall up on a mountain over there. He wanted a video truck and Kevin built it. So we took that truck and did that McGruder concert that night. First time they’d ever been on video.
Well, I’m sitting there halfway through the rehearsals, because we’re set, just going through the rehearsal part now, and I noticed Priscilla. She was on stage in rehearsals, and she was holding that mic stand just like this right here. And you could almost sense in her that she was wanting to let go, but didn’t. She held on for security. It was her security blanket.
And I just stopped right in the middle. They told this story at her funeral, by the way. I stopped right in middle of the rehearsal and I said, “Wait a minute. I want to talk to Priscilla about making a change.” So I went up on stage and started talking to her. Of course, she was scared to death anyway. She didn’t know if I was upset or something, you know. “No, I just want us to try something.”
And I said, “I want you to take that mic off that stand and set it way back there behind you. And don’t you touch that mic stand the whole night.” So I said, “When you come on stage tonight, when it’s live and real, you take that mic off that stand, get it behind you, and don’t put it back on. You command this stage. It’s yours.”
And I knew it was going to be her and Carrol’s, you know, because I knew he was going to command pieces of it for sure. But I said, “You’ve got command as well. And the audience is going to love the spirit that comes out of you in this performance today.”
Daniel Mount (40:05)
Mm-hmm.
Chris (40:11)
And now I’m telling you what: that building, there was not a brick left standing. I mean, she tore the place up. And Carol did, and the whole group did. Because I tell you, that band, the McGruder band, in my opinion, was the best that’s ever been in this business.
I’m telling you, I don’t think there’s anybody, and I had some good bands. The Kingdom Heirs won the band for years. There was good bands in the business, but nobody was as good as The McGruders.
And so that night just, the band was on it, the group was on it. Priscilla became a whole new person. She was somebody she’d never been. And the people didn’t know what they got, you know? Because they’d never seen her do that, because a lot of that audience was their people. They had a big following of the UPC audience. And so they’d never seen her like that either.
And I think that’s why they told the story at her funeral, was that she really changed the direction of that group and became a real partner with Carrol from the platform. So it wasn’t just Carol carrying The McGruders anymore. It was Priscilla as well.
Daniel Mount (41:28)
Yes. I would like … I think we’re pretty near an hour. So I think we might wrap up fairly soon and just pick up the story next time we have a chance to talk again.
But I do want to follow up on one of the artists we were already talking about, because it’ll make more sense as part of this conversation than tying it into something else. And that is, I believe you are still working with the Hoppers at the point that Greg Bentley left and Kim, Dean’s wife, left the Greenes to join the Hoppers. And that was kind of a big thing. And then they started having some big radio success too. Not that they didn’t have any in the 80s, but they had some real big songs with Kim pretty quickly.
I’m just curious if you could kind of speak to that transition a little bit while we’re still talking Sunlight in the ’80s and finishing up the ’80s/’90s.
Chris (42:14)
Yeah. You’re going to lead me into it?
Daniel Mount (42:19)
Sure. Well, however you’d like to tell the story, I’d love to hear the story from your perspective, working with them from a record company at the point that their career was climbing. But my understanding is that when Kim joined, it was like a rocket ship. Just things really changed, and I’d love to hear the story from your perspective because I don’t think I ever asked you about that before.
Chris (42:36)
That’s true.
This happened in the transition of the Hoppers coming on board to the label. That really was a major, major change. At the time I signed the group, Greg Bentley, who has now worked with me for something like 30 years was singing the high part, the lead part.
And a little girl had just come on the scene with the family that had been very well known with the Greenes, Kim. Now, Kim and Dean got married.
And when we got into the studio and Claude and the group were trying to use both of them, Kim and Greg. I took Claude aside and I said, “Claude, I don’t think this is going to work,” because we got two parts here just banging against each other. Same parts.
Just feel better if you choose one or the other. You know, if you want to keep Greg, then Kim needs to go back to the Greenes or do whatever. So you need to make a choice. And he said, “Okay, let me, I’m gonna have to think about that.”
So he come back to me and he said, “Well, we’re going to keep Kim.” And he said, “I’ll tell you why.” He said, “Dean came to me and said, ‘Well, Dad, now that I’m married to Kim, she’s part of the family. Do you think we could keep her and fire Greg?’” I said, “Well, that makes sense. That makes sense.” And that’s what they did.
I don’t know that they fired him, but they had to lay him off, so to speak, because he wasn’t doing anything wrong. There was just too many people, you know.
But it didn’t hurt him because he went down the road and took the tenor position for the Down East Boys, who I’d already signed. They were already in the company. And so he didn’t miss a lick either, you know. And he stayed with them for several years until he went with Squire.
Along the way, he started working with us and still is today. He’s the new A&R director today.
Daniel Mount (44:53)
Neat. That was very interesting to hear from your perspective. I hadn’t heard about the time in the studio, and I don’t guess I’d have ever heard that in the slightest unless you told me. So thank you.
All right. I think we’re about at an hour. So if it’s all right with you, maybe we’ll wrap up about here, and hopefully we’ll pick the story back up sometime soon.
Chris (45:06)
Good? Sure, love to.
Daniel Mount (45:11)
Thank you so much for your time. I’ve really enjoyed this conversation.
Chris (45:14)
Daniel, I’ve really enjoyed it. I hope I didn’t drive you nuts with backing up and going forward. But you know, 40 years is not all right in your mind to begin with. Things pop up in your brain and you go, “Wow, I forgot that.” So I apologize if I got on your nerves anywhere, but I hope the viewers enjoyed it.
Daniel Mount (45:18)
No. It’s all good. It’s all good. I’m confident – this is a good episode. I’ve enjoyed it. Thank you.
Chris (45:39)
Thank you. Appreciate it. See you next time.
Daniel Mount
And to the listener, thank you for listening to Southern Gospel Journal. Keep up with the latest episodes on YouTube, your favorite podcast platform, or on southerngospeljournal.com.