Austin Layne and the Layne Ensemble’s “Have Mercy, Lord” is a wonderful mixture of traditional and modern gospel music.
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Welcome to Shout! Black Gospel Music Moments. I’m Robert Darden.
Historically – like all popular music -- only a fraction of all gospel artists actually make a full-time living from their music. Most have one or more additional jobs... waitstaff, engineer, teacher, truck driver, carpenter, nurse – you name it. But it could well be that there’s only one gospel singer turned mortician – Avery A. Layne Jr. of St. Louis. He founded Austin A. Layne Mortuary, Inc. in 1979 – and it is still going strong.
Layne himself starting singing in the 1960s. Possessed with a warm, appealing baritone – he’s billed as the “man with the velvet voice” in some gospel circles – Layne toured and recorded for years, most notably for Savoy Records. His Layne Ensemble released a number of first-rate gospel songs, though none ever really cracked up the upper echelons of the charts.
Layne continues to perform at special concerts and services even today, splitting time between his funeral home and his position as director of sacred music for the Pentecostal Assemblies of the World. Here’s a great little 45 by Austin Layne and the Layne Ensemble, “Have Mercy, Lord” from 1969.
MUSIC: “Have Mercy, Lord,” Austin Layne and the Austin Layne Ensemble, 45
I’m Robert Darden … “Shout! Black Gospel Music Moments” is produced by KWBU, the Black Gospel Music Restoration Project at Baylor University Libraries and is funded by generous support from the Prichard Foundation.
