The Return Of The Vicksburg Quartet

Back in June, I wrote a somewhat snarky posting about a Vicksburg Quartet album I found at my favorite thrift yesterday. Yesterday, a very gracious comment was left by one of the group's members.

If you want to know about the Vicksburg Quartet, you should ask someone from the group - like me! I toured with them from 1991 - 1998 when the group stopped touring and recording albums/cassettes/cds. Yes, while a sextet is 6 people, that would mean that all 6 people are vocalists. However, only 4 members of the group sang - hence a quartet. One of the vocalists even doubled as the piano player. The other two members were the drummer and bass guitarist. And I can tell you that none of the guys in the group were handing out Watchtowers. Of the remaining members left in the group when we stopped touring - one is a doctor, two are music teachers, two are now prinicpals and I am in the US Air Force. The album "You'll Never Walk Alone" was recorded in 1972 - even before I was born! However, I do have a copy of the album! If there is anything else that you would like to know about the history of The Vicksburg Quartet, please feel free to ask me! God Bless.

Here is my original assessment of the group. (Note: one of the references in the comment was in response to a line written by a reader.)

Meet the Vicksburg Quartet! All six of them!

Now I know I'm not supposed to worry my pretty little head about math, but one of the few things I did retain from my schoolin' days is that a quartet has four members not six. Perhaps they didn't want to call themselves the Vicksburg Sextet because sextet has the word "sex" in it. They are religious, dontcha know.

Why didn't they just call themselves the Vicksburg Singers or the Vicksburg Brothers or, at the very least, The Jackson Five? (What the heck, if you're going to fudge the numbers, you might as well capitalize on confusion.)

The title of the album is "You'll Never Walk Alone." Yes, especially when the people walking with you can't count.

On the back of the cover is a note to their fans, "Dear Vicksburg Fan: Congratulations! You are now holding the best record the Vicksburg Quartet has ever recorded." Of course, that's because they added two more people! (I also like "Dear Vicksburg Fan" as if they know in their hearts that there can only be one.)

Nowhere on the album or cover does it state the year it was recorded. But, the wide-lapel, polyester, powder blue suits and satin-esque ties (why is the one guy wearing it like an ascot?) suggests a mid-1970's release. Of course, it could have been dropped in 2005. If they don't own a dictionary (how else do you explain the quartet debacle) they may not own a calendar either.