Blue Ridge Quartet
The Blue Ridge Quartet (1946 – 1985) was a Southern gospel music group founded in 1946. History The Blue Ridge Quartet was organized by Frank Stamps's Stamps Quartet Music Company of Texas. They started in Raleigh, North Carolina, but ultimately settled in Spartanburg, South Carolina. When they began in Raleigh at the beginning of 1946 they operated out of radio station WRAL. Among the original members of the group in 1946 were Leonard "Red" Mathis, tenor; James Smith, lead; Wayne Roseberry, baritone; Shaw Eiland, bass; and William Cunningham, pianist. Eiland and Roseberry were former members of the Stamps-Baxter Lone Star Quartet, also headquartered in Raleigh. After a short time, J. Elmo Fagg and Jack Taylor, both from the Lone Star Quartet, joined them. It wasn't long before Wayne Roseberry left and Everett Payne became the baritone singer. Burl Strevel joined the quartet in 1947 to sing bass, and they moved over to WDBB radio in Burlington, NC. In 1948 they moved to WSPA radio Spartanburg, SC and dropped the "Stamps" name. Former Lone Star Quartet lead and baritone Clarence Turbyfill joined to sing tenor. In 1949, Kenny Gates became the Blue Ridge Quartet's pianist. When Turbyfill left in 1950, Ed