# Nashboro Records

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**Nashboro Records** was an American [gospel](/source/Gospel_music) label principally active in the 1950s and 1960s.

## History

Nashboro was founded in [Nashville](/source/Nashville), [Tennessee](/source/Tennessee) by Ernie Lafayette Young (1892-1977), who was the owner of a record store, Ernie's Record Mart, and sponsor of a weekly hit parade show on radio station [WLAC](/source/WLAC). In 1951, Young founded Nashboro to issue gospel records, and the following year also created [Excello Records](/source/Excello_Records) to release secular music, especially R&B and blues acts.[1]

Nashboro became a prolific issuer of Southern gospel groups, and Young frequently signed gospel acts from competing labels after they had folded. Some of the groups were backed by the [Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section](/source/Muscle_Shoals_Rhythm_Section) in the studio.[1]

Young died in 1977, by which time Nashboro was increasingly reissuing out of its back catalogue rather than issuing new material. The label's catalogue was sold to [AVI Entertainment](/source/AVI_Records) in 1994,[2] [MCA Records](/source/MCA_Records) in 1997, and [Hip-O](/source/Hip-O) shortly thereafter.[1] Relatively little of it has seen reissue, though in December 2013 [Tompkins Square Records](/source/Tompkins_Square_Records) released a 4-CD compilation of Nashboro artists titled *I HEARD THE ANGELS SINGING: Electrifying Black Gospel from the Nashboro Label, 1951-1983* (894807002981).[3]

Nashboro was one of several labels to have its catalog of master recordings destroyed in the [2008 Universal fire](/source/2008_Universal_fire).[4]

## Artists

The Angelic Gospel Singers The Barrett Sisters The Famous Boyer Brothers Alex Bradford J. Robert Bradley Brother Joe May Dorothy Love Coates The Consolers Edna Gallmon Cooke The Crescendos ("Oh Julie") The Dixie Nightingales Isaac Douglas The Fairfield Four Five Singing Stars The Gospel Harmonettes[5] Bessie Griffin Pilgrim Jubilees The Radio Four Cleophus Robinson Silvertone Singers of Cincinnati Roscoe Shelton The Skylarks The Jewell Gospel Singers Gloria Spencer Earlston Ford Candi Staton Slim & the Supreme Angels The Swanee Quintet Sister Emma Tucker Willie Neal Johnson & The Gospel Keynotes Marvin Yancy Sister Lucille Pope & the Pearly Gates The Bright Stars Oscar Bishop

## References

1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-encyc_1-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-encyc_1-1) [***c***](#cite_ref-encyc_1-2) Robert Darden, "Nashboro Records". W.K. McNeil, ed. *Encyclopedia of American Gospel Music*. Routledge, 2013, pp. 270-271.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-2)** Lichtman, Irv (September 1, 1979). ["American Variety Acquires Nashboro"](https://books.google.com/books?id=DyQEAAAAMBAJ&dq=%22AVI+Records%22&pg=PT2). *Billboard*. p. 3. Retrieved June 11, 2015.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-3)** *I Heard the Angels Singing: Electrifying Black Gospel from the Nashboro Label, 1951-1983.* Tompkins Square Records, 2014. Includes essay about label by Opal Louis Nations.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-4)** Rosen, Jody (2019-06-11). ["The Day the Music Burned"](https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/11/magazine/universal-fire-master-recordings.html). *The New York Times*. [ISSN](/source/ISSN_(identifier)) [0362-4331](https://search.worldcat.org/issn/0362-4331). Retrieved 2019-07-02.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-5)** [The Gospel Harmonettes disco](https://www.allmusic.com/artist/the-gospel-harmonettes-mn0001357069/discography) Retrieved 29 October 2021

## See also

- [Excello Records](/source/Excello_Records)

Authority control databases International VIAF National United States

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Nashboro Records](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nashboro_Records) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nashboro_Records?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.