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The Southlanders
have A TOTAL OF 10* recording Projects available including our latest "Look for Me" .
*We did a Christmas CD last year as well as a solo CD for Jerry Bradshaw.
Here is a little information about each one...
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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.
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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
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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.
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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”.
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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 ************************************************************ "Under Control" was
our 7th effort and our first with Steve as Tenor. The feature song, sang by Jeff Bradshaw, was one of the first songs
we had learned early on when the group first started. We never recorded it and it sort of got left by the wayside.
Since revisiting the song it has become one of our favorites and the favorite of many others who come to our services. We
did this one "In House" as well so we decided to do a "Southlander's Christmas" CD at the same time with some individual
favorites of each group member. ************************************************************ We just completed our 8th project at the end of October, 2009 and it is called "Look For Me" which is a great Rusty Goodman tune. We also
decided to do this project in-house and are pleased with the overall results. We were already doing a lot of the songs
from this CD in our concerts but did not have them recorded yet so this one was more for the folks who attend and wanted to
have these for their collection. ************************************************************ We cannot say "Thank you" enough for all of the great and gracious
people who have come our way over the years and supported this music. God has truly blessed us through your support
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