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Transcription: [00:19:44]

{SILENCE}
[[People moving around on stage]]
[00:19:48]

{SPEAKER name="Fairfield Four"}
[[Singing, Harmonizing together]]
If you don't want, you don't have to get in trouble
If you don't want, you don't have to get in trouble
If you don't want, you don't have to get in trouble
Brother, you better leave it
Lie alone
[00:20:09]

{SPEAKER name="Fairfield Four"}
[[Singing, Harmonizing together]]
If you don't want, you don't have to get in trouble
If you don't want, you don't have to get in trouble
If you don't want, you don't have to get in trouble
Brother, you better leave it
Lie alone
[00:20:30]

{SPEAKER name="Fairfield Four"}
[[Singing, Harmonizing together]]
Well, soon in the morning, before you get up
Well, you see that light a comin' to your house?
Well, the next thing she'll do is tell a lie
Brother, you better let that lie just pass on by

[00:20:47]

{SPEAKER name="Fairfield Four"}
[[Singing, Harmonizing together]]
If you don't want, you don't have to get in trouble
If you don't want, you don't have to get in trouble
If you don't want, you don't have to get in trouble
Brother, you better leave it
Lie alone
[00:21:08]

[Clapping and yells]]
[00:21:16]

{SPEAKER name="Mr. Hinson"}
The Fairfield Four represent a tradition of quartet singing within the African American church that dates back to the nineteen teens and twenties.
[00:21:26]

{SPEAKER name="Mr. Hinson"}
The tradition itself only entered the church in the mid teens, and we're fortunate enough to have the Fairfield Four here because this group started very shortly thereafter.
[00:21:40]

{SPEAKER name="Mr. Hinson"}
The Fairfield Four was founded in Nashville Tennessee, in 1921. One of the original members is with the group still.
[00:21:50]

{SPEAKER name="Mr. Hinson"}
Reverend Samuel McCrary, now a preacher, and the second one in here, has been singing with the group from the very beginning,
[00:21:57]

{SPEAKER name="Mr. Hinson"}
when he was a mere child, singing with three other kids in the local church.
[00:22:02]

{SPEAKER name="Mr. Hinson"}
Well, in the years to come, those four children made quite a name for themselves, first in Nashville, then in the state of Tennessee.
[00:22:10]

{SPEAKER name="Mr. Hinson"}
And as the group changed and evolved, by the late thirties, when they secured a show on Nashville's very large radio station, WLAC,
[00:22:19]

{SPEAKER name="Mr. Hinson"}
an AM station of 50,000 watts which broadcast all through the south, into the west and high up into the Midwest.
[00:22:28]

{SPEAKER name="Mr. Hinson"}
They built a national reputation as one of the nation's finest and most influential gospel quartet. A quartet known for the breadth of their repertoire, for their very distinct voices, and for their very very precise vocal harmonies.
[00:22:42]

{SPEAKER name="Mr. Hinson"}
But where did quartet song come from? Where did it all begin? When folks think about the nature of song within the African American church,
[00:22:52]

{SPEAKER name="Mr. Hinson"}
I think the first thing that comes to mind is not the featured performance of a group before the congregation,
[00:23:00]

{SPEAKER name="Mr. Hinson"}
but rather, that of the congregation singing together as a whole; the sort of song performance and dynamic that was most common in the 1800's and early 1900's, before the advent of solo gospel and quartet song.
[00:23:16]

{SPEAKER name="Mr. Hinson"}
One of the types of song- Actually, two of the types of song that were common in the congregation are the straight out hymn singing in a call and response fashion, and the Doctor Watts hymns.
[00:23:30]

{SPEAKER name="Mr. Hinson"}
I would like to ask Elder Richardson, next to me, who periodically preaches on his own now, and sings not only the quartet style but some of the older styles,
[00:23:41]

{SPEAKER name="Mr. Hinson"}
to maybe describe the old congregational style of singing, and perhaps give us a brief example of what that long meter, what is called, "Doctor Watts", hymn singing was like.
[00:23:53]

Transcription Notes:
The Fairfield Four - group singing, harmonizing. Mr. Hinson is the moderator. He introduced "Elder" Richardson near the end. He starts speaking on the next tape.