Barber Shop Talk

Hello to all gospel music lovers, We thank you for taking the moment to listen to this podcast. I have contact some friends from South Carolina (Reggie Dyson), North Carolina (Wesley Johnson) and Virginia (Grace Rhodes) to talk about the Superstar Tommy Ellison.

He began his career singing background for gospel music great Madame Edna Gallmon Cooke. He sang with the world famous Harmonizing Four. He can be heard singing lead on the Harmonizing Four’s version of “I Found The Lord,” which was recorded during the early fifties.

Tommy later joined The Sensational Nightingales where he further enhanced and cultivated the vocal talent God had bestowed upon him. After spending three years with The Nightingales, Tommy journeyed to Los Angeles where he joined forces with The Chosen Gospel Singers. During his time with the group, they recorded the hit “When The Saints Go Marching In.”

Like James Brown, Aretha Franklin and Sam Cooke, Tommy Ellison got his start as a singer in church. But unlike them, he stayed there.

The Salley native was lead vocalist of the gospel quartet Tommy Ellison & The Singing Stars for decades. He died Saturday in Baltimore at age 75.

Part singer, part preacher and a full-time evangelist, the spiritual word would come out of Ellison’s mouth in pleading tones, harmonic vocal runs and, when the spirit really hit him, screeches.

“All of his performances were energetic and stimulating,” said I.S. Leevy Johnson, Ellison’s local attorney and close friend. “He had a distinct style that blended good music and a good message.”

A public viewing and musical tribute will be held Saturday at Brookland Baptist Church, 1066 Sunset Blvd. in West Columbia, and there will be plenty of gospel music, sung with soul.

The Canton Spirituals, The Blind Boys of Alabama, The Five Blind Boys of Mississippi, The Swanee Quintet, Keith “Wonderboy” Johnson and The Original Drifters are scheduled to perform.

“It wasn’t just his music. It’s the way he was,” she said. “He never met a stranger.

“When he got to shows, he didn’t sit on the bus. He would sit with the audience.”

For Coleman, it’s simple why Ellison didn’t follow Brown, Franklin and Cooke into pop music.

“He realized (gospel) was the ministry that God has given him to do,” she said.