"Glad That Trouble Don't Last Alsways" is a lasting tribute to one of gospel's least-known - but always listenable - labels: Designer Records from Memphis, Tennessee.
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Welcome to Shout! Black Gospel Music Moments. I’m Robert Darden.
Let’s take a moment and pay tribute to one of the best gospel labels that not even most gospel music fans are aware of – Designer Records out of Memphis. Designer was the classic, small, cash-poor, talent-rich gospel label, lasting from 1968 to 1978. In the beginning, it was primarily one of those so-called “vanity” recording studios – an artist would pay for a certain amount of studio time and pre-purchase 50, 100, 500 45s to sell or give away.
Eventually, however, the talent pool in Memphis was such at Designer began signing and releasing gospel artists – some of whom would make a stir on gospel radio, including the Jubilee Hummingbirds, the Union Gospel Singers, Madam Andrews and the Heavenly Echoes.
Probably neither of the two known 45s by the L&S Singers of Yazoo City, Mississippi, ever garnered much airplay. But “Glad That Trouble Don’t Last Always” certainly should have! Released in 1971, it’s a snapshot of that brief era when gospel and soul and the beginnings of funk were all coming together to create something altogether new and wonderful.
MUSIC: “Glad That Trouble Don’t Last Always,” 45 by the L&S Singers of Yazoo City, Mississippi
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.
