The Southlander's Quartet

The Southlanders have made 6 recording Projects. (listed below with a bit of "historical" background) And, thanks to Delores Watson, we also offer Don Watson's one and only instrumental project, "Heavenly Music". Don Watson remains one of the most respected names and talents that this area will have ever known. Don had been asked for many years to do an instrumental project and with the forming (or reforming) of the Southlanders, it seemed natural to go ahead and make that a reality. He called it "Heavenly Music" and it features some wonderful and well-known Gospel Songs as well as original music written by Don.

OUR FIRST PROJECT: The “Re-birth” of The Southlanders came about because of Don Watson and Jerry Bradshaw.  Both had extensive backgrounds in SGM and both had been with successful groups (The Southlanders and The Bradshaw Brothers and Don) that had performed from the early 60s into the 90s.  Both had been out of quartet singing for a while but now God had placed on their hearts a renewed desire to start again.  The “new’ Southlanders were eventually made up from former members of the Conquerors, The Nobleman, Bradshaw Brothers, and the original Southlanders.  All were starting over again with a renewed desire to  sing in the classic quartet style of southern gospel.  We also decided that we were to old to worry about taking chances anymore.  So, we decided we wanted to make a rough recording with our own musicians and no producer to get things off to a good start.  The result was out first CD entitled “New Beginnings”.   It was rough to be sure, but the spirit was strong and the message was clear and that was what was important to us.

SECOND TIME AROUND: The members of the group that performed for the first year were Don Watson (piano and vocals), Jerry Bradshaw (lead vocal), Jeff Bradshaw (bass vocal), Randy Yonts (baritone), Dave Luttrell (tenor), Tim Gerbig (Bass guitar), and Tommy Walker (Drums)  As much as you would like to keep everything consistent, change is inevitable.  In our second year there were 2 changes;  Jeff Bradshaw stepped down and we were blessed to have Cecil Raymond (former bass with The Nobleman) to step in.  We were equally blessed to welcome Rob Klauss (formerly of the Conquerors) on the drums to replace Tommy Walker.  Regardless of changes in personnel, we wanted to be consistent in one area; our message.  We had started singing a song by the Kingsmen called "You're Not Alone" and the message of this song seemed to have a powerful impact on people wherever we sang.  When we began working on our second project with Whitehorse Christian Recording in Greenville KY, we felt that this should be our title song, and it was.  There are many familiar quartet tunes on this project, but the  most important message contained here is the affirmtion that the love, comfort, and forgiveness of Christ is as close as the mention of His name.  We were pleased with our second effort and once again, we used our own musicians in addition to some local studio musicians from the Greenville Area

3rd TIME IS A CHARM: For our next recording, we felt the time was right to put our project in the hands of a professional; Donnie Sumner. Donnie was the former lead singer for JD and the Stamps, has appeared on many of the Gaither Homecoming programs, and has operated his own production company for many years in the Nashville area. Donnie's meticulous “ear” for detail and God's great blessings resulted in "Glory Road". With a blend of original music from Don Watson and Tim Gerbig and classic songs such as “Where could I go” and “This world is not my home” , we felt God had given us our best recording to date.  Both the title song and Rodney Griffin’s “With all the many miracles” still tend to be some of our most requested songs.

FOURTH AND GOAL: For fourth recording, we went back to Nashville to work with Donnie Sumner again and we were not disappointed.  Although we had always determined that we wanted to stick to straight southern gospel music, there was a song that was on our hearts that we could not put aside.  After our 3rd project we had started singing Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the USA” and with a country that had just gone to war, it seemed to be seemed to have a powerful affect on many who attended our services and we ended nearly every program with this song for quite some time.  “God Bless the USA” became the title song for our fourth CD.  The CD also contained classics such as “He Touched Me” and “Oh What a Savior”.

THE LATEST: In 2006, there were some significant changes; Cecil Raymond stepped down and once again, we were proud to welcome Jeff Bradshaw back as our Bass Vocalist.  Tim Gerbig had stepped down to make time for his new role as an Associate Pastor at his church and we welcomed Tim Cooper (formerly of God Sent) as our new bassist.  The most unexpected change came on the morning of August 1st when we were informed that Don Watson had been called home to be with the Lord.  We miss him dearly but we rejoice in the knowledge that he has received the reward that he sang about for so many years.  Before Don passed on, we had already begun the work on a new project and Don had even laid down some piano tracks that appear on this recording.  The title of our fifth recording is a song that not many people have heard of (other than those that have heard The Southlanders.  We were on the bus one evening heading for a concert in Illinois and Jerry was playing some of the old Bradshaw Brothers tunes; One particular tune caught our ear.  It was a song written by a gentleman from Tennessee and it may have never been recorded before the Bradshaws found it.  The song is relatively simple both in its construction and its lyrics.  However, it is a powerful and passionate song that we could not help but want to share.  "Hold Back the Sea"  became the title song for our 5th project and has fast become a favorite with folks wherever we go and more importantly, the message it contains has touched many lives.              *********************************************************** Our 6th project is called "Trying to get a Glimpse".  Most folks remember this a classic Cathedrals tune but it was in fact an old Statesmen song written by "The Big Chief", Jim Wetherington.  We revisited a couple of songs we had previously recorded on earlier projects and sang with newer tracks and of course, we added some classic southern gospel tunes as well.  At the same time, we recorded a solo project for Jerry Bradshaw entitled "The Call"  which is a song about being on the road and why we sing the music we do.  We are already starting to work on new songs and hope to have enough together to start working on a new project by the end of the year