Help: Any Info on the Gateway Singers Pre 1960

Subject: Any Info on the Gateway Singers Pre 1960
From: GUEST,"Riverboat John" Ferguson
Date: 14 Aug 00 - 06:27 AM

Any info on Gateway Singers from the 50's? 40's? Folk group similar to the Weavers.

Subject: RE: Help: Any Info on the Gateway Singers Pre 196
From: Joe Offer
Date: 15 Aug 00 - 04:38 AM

Click here for a little bit of information and a discography from All-Music Guide. I see Lou Gottlieb (later of the the Limeliters) was a member of this group. There's a bit more of a discography here (click).
-Joe Offer-

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There's a very nice Website honoring the Gateway Singers here:

http://www.starbeams.com/index.htm

Subject: RE: Help: Any Info on the Gateway Singers Pre 196
From: JedMarum
Date: 15 Aug 00 - 08:26 AM

didn't they go on to start a computer business??

;-)

Subject: RE: Help: Any Info on the Gateway Singers Pre 196
From: Joe Offer
Date: 15 Aug 00 - 07:45 PM

Norm Cohen wrote the excellent little book that comes with the Smithsonian collection called Folk Song America. Here's what he says about the Gateway Singers:

During the early 1950's in San Francisco, Barbara Dane helped to organize various singing groups; among them were the Gateway Singers, composed of Elmerlee Thomas, Jerry Walter, Lou Gottlieb, and Travis Edmondson. With their Decca recordings in June, 1956, the quartet became one of the first singing groups to emulate the folk music approach of the Weavers (three men, one woman, a guitar, and a banjo - but the Gateway Singers' woman was black)....Gottlieb and Edmondson had left (in 1956)and been replaced by Ernie Sheldon and Marc Richards (Sheldon was Ernie Lieberman, associated with People's Songs and People's Artists in the 1940's and 1950's, early editor of Sing Out! and first artist to record on the Hootenanny label). The group disbanded in 1961.

-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Help: Any Info on the Gateway Singers Pre 196
From: GUEST,Doug Greenberg
Date: 17 Jun 10 - 02:33 PM

There remains some dispute about whether the Gateway Singers were "original and creative," as opposed to "derivative." Certainly they followed the lead established by the Weavers, but to my ears they were far more musically creative than were the more commercially popular Kingston Trio. The group was clearly handicapped commercially by its biracial nature. I spoke with Elmerlee Thomas' son some years ago, and he recounted that the group was tentatively slated to appear on "The Ed Sullivan Show" but the gig was canceled because of concerns over the biracial makeup of the group. Also significant is the fact that their excellent recorded material has never been commercially transformed into digital form. This is a real shame, as they were truly excellent artists.

Subject: RE: Help: Any Info on the Gateway Singers Pre 196
From: GUEST,Tinker in Chicago
Date: 17 Jun 10 - 03:59 PM

Lou Gottlieb later brought Ernie Sheldon into the Limeliters to replace Glenn Yarbrough, but something must have gone sour there because after Ernie left, the Limeliters dropped his name from their recollections and told the audience that Glenn was replaced by Red Grammer, which wasn't true. Travis, of course, joined Bud Dashiel and the Kinsmen, which later became Bud and Travis.

Subject: RE: Help: Any Info on the Gateway Singers Pre 1960
From: Joe Offer
Date: 17 Jun 10 - 04:34 PM

I know of only one Gateway Singers recording available on CD: Live at Stanford, 1957. It's a very nice recording. I'd say that the music is about half-Weavers, half-Limeliters in style.
-Joe-

Here's the track listing:

Disc 1
1. Puttin on the Style
2. Positive Sensation
3. Colorado Trail
4. Long Live Altecs
5. Buddy Won't You Roll Down the Line
6. Not Enough Smoke
7. Ballad of Sigmund Freud
8. Time for Audience Participation
9. Down by the Riverside
10. It's Not the "Green Door"
11. Malaguena Salerosa
12. Losing Crispness
13. Sinking of the Reuben James
14. Southern Love Song
15. True Love
16. Getting in Tune
17. Run Come See Jerusalem
18. Seventh Inning Stretch
19. Come to the Dance

Disc 2        
1. Rovin' Gambler
2. Ethnic Compromise        
3. Poor Boy
4. Dollar a Year Position
5. Erie Canal
6. Ribbon Bow
7. Wailing Wall of Stanford
8. This Little Light of Mine
9. Supply & Demand
10. Monaco
11. Will to Fail
12. Fox
13. What's the Address for East Virginia
14. East Virginia
15. Group Therapy
16. Rock Island Line
17. Kisses Sweeter Than Wine
18. Let's All Room Together
19. Midnight Special

Subject: RE: Help: Any Info on the Gateway Singers Pre 1960
From: pdq
Date: 17 Jun 10 - 06:09 PM

It may be possible to get all the old Gateway Singers albums on CD, as well as all of the Travis Edmonson and Bud & Travis albums, I can't say for sure because I have never personally tried, but here is...

                                                            Gateway Singers, et al, on CD

Subject: RE: Help: Any Info on the Gateway Singers Pre 1960
From: Stringsinger
Date: 17 Jun 10 - 07:05 PM

I knew them all. Jerry Walter was probably more the organizer for them then anyone else.
They had some of the feel of the Weavers but they were not what you'd call a copy group.

Not sure that anything ever went wrong with Ernie in the Limelighters. He left probably because he wanted to go into songwriting. He became a successful lyricist.

Lou really defined the two groups with his intelligent raconteur style. He was wonderfully clever which ticked off Lee Hays who thought Lou was a "smart ass". Lou had a dry and satirical approach to folk music whereas Lee was coming from a Will Rogers P.O.V.
Lou had a PHD in musicology.   

Jerry Walter was an important catalyst for the group. He was the banjo player.
Barbara wasn't with them as I recall when they were at the hungry i. Trav, ElmerLee, Jerry and Lou as I recall. They put on a good show.

Jerry's banjo style was like Pete's, mostly up-picking and basic accompaniments. He had a baritone voice. Trav had a tenor voice. ElmerLee could really belt it out.

Frank

Subject: RE: Help: Any Info on the Gateway Singers Pre 1960
From: GUEST,pepechango
Date: 29 Nov 10 - 01:59 PM

there are recordings of the original gateway singers for sale on musicstack.com jerry walter- mrs.elmerlee thomas-ernie sheldon and travis edmonson on decca 1958 "the gateway singers in hi-fi

Subject: RE: Help: Any Info on the Gateway Singers Pre 1960
From: GUEST
Date: 30 Nov 10 - 12:07 PM

GEMM.com is a good source too.

Subject: RE: Help: Any Info on the Gateway Singers Pre 1960
From: GUEST,Dave Samuelson
Date: 22 Nov 11 - 08:24 PM

Lou Gottlieb told me the Gateway Singers was formed as an homage to the Weavers. In fact, the quartet's original name was "The Reweavers."

Ernie Sheldon Lieberman never appeared on stage as a member of the Limeliters. Gottlieb recruited him to replace Glenn Yarborough for the trio's final three albums for RCA Victor. At this point the Limeliters was strictly a recording act, essentially disbanding following Yarborough's departure.

Subject: RE: Help: Any Info on the Gateway Singers Pre 1960
From: GUEST
Date: 14 Jul 12 - 01:54 PM

Does anyone know the history of Jerry Walter's Vega longneck on the hungry i album? It seems to have two additional frets rather than the usual three. I know Pete had two additional frets at the beginning, but later changed it to three. The neck looks to be factory, or was it a copy? I know later Jerry had a stock Vega PS banjo, but was always curious about the one from the hungry i album cover. Jerry at one time had a Paramount or Bacon five string made into a longneck. Would like some info on Jerry's banjos if anyone out there can help me. Thanks. Arkansas Red-Ozark Troubadour, Ozark Mountains, Arkansas [e-mail]