June Wade & The Country Congregation "Pick Hits" (Calvary Records, 1974-?) (LP)
(Produced by Tracy Dartt, Hugh Davies, Don Lee & Nelson Parkerson)
A remarkable mid-'Seventies gospel album, packed with full-on, very up-to-date, genuinely twangy country-pop arrangements -- way twangier than you'd hear from many of their southern gospel contemporaries. This album came out on an independent gospel label in Fresno, although the sessions were recorded at the Capitol studios in LA, with J. D. Maness playing pedal steel, along with guitarist Don Lee and Curtis Stone (Cliffie Stone's son) on bass. (Heck, they even got Pat Boone to write their liner notes!) The country/countrypolitan vibe is pretty strong on here, with some great musicianship from the studio crew, particularly the pedal steel. A cool record, although it ping-pongs back and forth between June Wade's excellent, Donna Fargo-esque country-gal vocals and Tracy Dartt's leaden half-recitations. He was initially the group's principal songwriter, and his songs tended to have a fairly clunky, prosaic approach, often lacking subtlety or poetic flow, but when she sang 'em, they soared. When he was at the microphone, though, it's far less magical and way more corny. I for one would have preferred to have her as the sole vocalist. Oh, well. A card laid is a card played. On later albums she was almost entirely the only solo singer, so it worked out in the end. Still, if you're looking for country gospel that really sounds country, this album has several fine songs on it, mostly concentrated on the first side.
June Wade & The Country Congregation "Think On These..." (Manna Records, 1977) (LP)
(Produced by Hugh Davies, Hal Spencer & Dale Wade)
The Country Congregation traveled to Oklahoma for this one, to record with some of the full-time professional southern gospel studio musicians working in the orbit of Cam Records, which also released this album under its banner. Though Tracy Dartt is still on board as the album's producer, he no longer seems to be performing with the band -- the members pictured on the back cover are guitarist Larry Brown, Dale Wade and June Wade, and a new backup singer named Autumn Porter, who proves to be an excellent match for Wade's vocal tone. They are backed by several well-known Oklahoma City pickers, including bassist Stan Bonham, pianist Haskell Cooley (of the Weatherfords), steel player Jerry Hall, and guitarists Richard Hudson and Ray Owens. Generally speaking, the group still sounds surprisingly twangy, skillfully employing the sounds of contemporary sunshine country-pop to frame their evangelical message. They also largely resist slipping into the Oklahoma gospel sound, which tended to be a bit more syrupy and sentimental, keeping a fair amount of West Coast bounce in their arrangements. Side Two of the album kicks off with a trio of slow, dreary gospel power ballads, but they pick up the pace for the last two numbers, closing the album with a funky, go-go-delic rock-twang number, "Sinnerman," one of three originals contributed by Tracy Dartt. Also noteworthy are four songs composed by Mary L. Doornbos, a gospel songwriter who had been copyrighting material at least as far back as the late 1960s, and seems to have been under contract to Manna Records when this album was made.
June Wade & The Country Congregation "Rise Again" (Manna Records, 1978) (LP)
(Produced by Hugh Davies, Hal Spencer & Dale Wade)
By the late 'Seventies, the Country Congregation had gelled into a five-piece band, with Larry Brown on lead guitar, Dale Wade on bass, June Wade as the lead singer, with warm vocal backing by a gal named Autumn Porter, and a young fella named Mark Goodell on piano. Though the album opens with a couple of dreary southern gospel hymns, there's also some prime pop-countrypolitan material on here, notably their version of the Kris Kristofferson/Marijohn Wilkin standard, "One Day At A Time," and the bright, uptempo "In A Little While," one of two songs penned by Bobbie Shoemake. The album's second side is more solidly country-sounding, making this another noteworthy June Wade album worth tracking down if you're into Jesus-y twang. Larry Brown contributes three songs, with the group also covering one by Dottie Rambo (and another -- one of the snoozers -- by Dallas Holm.) This album takes a while to ramp up, but it does have several true-country tunes on it: June Wade's legacy might really benefit from a good, country-oriented best-of collection someday...
June Wade & The Country Congregation "Meetin' Time At Calvary" (Manna Records, 1978) (LP)
(Produced by Paul Elmore & Dale Wade)
June Wade (Country Congregation Records, 1980) (# SOO-01) (7")
A: "Ayatollah, Let 'Em Go" (c: Larry Brown & Dale Wade)
B: "Wings To Fly" (c: A. K. Riley & J. C. Riley)
(Produced by Jay Maynard)
June Wade & The Country Congregation "Live Thru Love" (Foxfire Records, 1981) (LP)
(Produced by Dale Wade & Terry Dwyer)
This album was recorded live in Victorville, California, at the "Western Desert Gospel Sing," an event founded by the Wades in 1979 which was both an annual festival and an ongoing local gospel jam session... The band's lineup included lead singer Jude Wade, Dale Wade on bass, and harmony vocals from their daughter Dawn, who was now married to guitarist Larry Brown and listed as Dawn Brown... The band was rounded out with Tracy Heaston (piano), Kevin Ownbey (drums), and Matt Starner on guitar and pedal steel. This may have been Country Congregation's last album -- so far it's the last one I've found -- so this is probably the place to fill in the rest of Larry Brown's story. Originally from Georgia, Larry "Grizz" Brown was a Native American of Creek, Cree and Cherokee descent, and as a kid he dreamed of becoming a secular country musician, plans that were derailed at age seventeen when he was jumped by several other kids, and nearly beaten to death. He survived and was nursed back to health, though the incident led to his religious conversion, a pathway that was cemented when he met June and Dale Wade at one of their revival shows, eventually joined their band, and later married their daughter. Although Brown was part of the Congregation for most of the 'Seventies and helped define their unusually twangy sound, he did leave (and briefly rejoin) the band in order to pursue his own musical career. Beginning in 2002, Larry and Dawn Brown set up their own ministry, a nondenominational pastorship that primarily served a Native American congregation; parallel to this, Larry Brown started a band called Rain Shadow, which recorded a couple of albums. Dawn Brown passed away in 2014 and after spending most of his life in California's high desert, Larry Brown returned to Georgia where he was building a new ministry at the time of his death in 2022, following a failed heart surgery. The contours of June Wade's later career are a bit obscure: as far as I can tell, she didn't make more albums, though the Country Congregation continued to perform at their own gospel sing-outs and at churches and other venues in Southern California, well into the 2010s. A Facebook post mentioned June Wade having some health problems in 2022, though I don't have the details. Also worth noting: back in 1980, her band released the topical single, "Ayatollah, Let Them Go," with a B-side called "Wings To Fly" -- I don't think either song made it onto an album, but if we ever do put together a June Wade best-of, we might want to track those tunes down as well.
This Southern California country-gospel combo started in the early 1970s, with guitarist Larry Brown backing two married couples -- Dale and June Wade, and Sharon and Tracy Dartt -- who had an evangelical musical ministry based in Apple Valley, California, a tiny desert town near San Bernardino. The star of the show was June Wade, originally a Tennessee gal, and formerly a secular country singer who had performed on the Buck Owens television show once upon a time, singing alongside Freddie Hart, and others. At some point she got religion and became an evangelical performer, and the group really gelled in the early 1970s, when guitarist Larry Brown, recently born again, met Wade and joined her band. Though they only released a handful of albums, the Country Congregation cut a wide swath on the California gospel scene, performing well into the 21st Century... Here's a quick look at their work...
