At this year’s National Quartet Convention, Mark Trammell was able to spare a half-hour for an interview. He is one of Southern Gospel’s all-time best-loved baritone singers, and with good reason: He was with the three most popular quartets and the most popular trio of his generation—the Kingsmen, the Cathedral Quartet, Gold City, and Greater Vision. Since 2002, he has led his own group, the Mark Trammell Trio. In this interview, he shares about his testimony, his call to the ministry, and how running his own group enables him to fulfill that call.
A formatted version of this interview is here. A plain text version is below.
DJM: I know many people have heard the story of how you became involved in Southern Gospel music, but for those who haven’t, could you start by saying what got you interested in Southern Gospel, as briefly or in depth as want?
Mark: I’m the youngest of four Baptist preacher’s kids. When I was a little boy, my dad would have regional groups from around the Little Rock, Arkansas area come in and sing for us during homecoming and things like that. And I just fell in love with this music.
By the time I was eight years old, I guess, I was going to the Robinson Auditorium in Little Rock, Arkansas, about once every six months, to hear groups like the Happy Goodman Family, the Florida Boys, and the Dixie Echoes.
When I got a little older, the Inspirations came to town. Mike Holcomb and I were just talking this week about the fact that the first time I met him was in 1972. He had just gone to the Inspirations. My dad was sponsoring a thirty minute radio program on Saturday mornings for nothing but Inspirations music at that time. So I got to meet Mike, and that was 1972. So this many years later, here we are. I don’t think neither he nor I realized that it had been thirty-seven years, but it has.
So I grew up in and around this industry. I sang in regional groups for a couple of years.
DJM: Which groups were they?
Mark: The New Horizons, the Masters Quartet (out of Little Rock), and the Arkansas Boys. The Arkansas Boys was comprised of myself, my brother Jerry (who sang with the Florida Boys just after that), and Vaughn Thacker. That was the original bunch.
Then I went from that to the Senators, when I was 15.
DJM: Now were you singing with these groups, playing bass guitar, or both?
Mark: Singing. Actually, with New Horizons, I played the bass. I sang with the Masters Quartet. I played the bass and sang in the Arkansas Boys. Those were the groups I was affiliated with around home, before going on the road.
‘Course, I took a Continental Trailways bus back and forth from Memphis to Little Rock every weekend, when I joined the Senators. We would be out every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. The short version of the long story is that I literally continued going to school every Monday through Thursday. Thursday night or Friday morning, I’d catch a bus to Memphis. I’d get on the Senators’ group bus, and we’d get out of town.
DJM: Now were you singing or playing bass for the Senators?
Mark: I sang for the Senators.
DJM: Baritone?
Mark: I sang lead, actually, with the Senators.
DJM: Did you sing baritone with the other local groups, or did you sing lead as well?
Mark: I sang baritone with the Masters and with the Arkansas Boys.
DJM: The Senators—was this the same group Coy Cook started?
Mark: Actually, this was just after Coy sold the group to Ray Shelton. And Ray is who I worked for. Ray kept it—in fact, he still owns that name, I’m sure.
Tim Shelby was the tenor singer; Ray sang baritone, I sang lead, and Rick Fair sang bass.
DJM: Really? The same who was with Palmetto State some years later.
Mark: Yes.
And Vaughn Thacker played the piano for them.
DJM: Did you do any recordings for them?
Mark: I did one called Stand By Me. And by that time, Big Jim Hamill had come into the picture, and I went to play guitar and singing, both.
Big Jim had left the Kingsmen. Foxy and Jim are in Heaven now, so we can tell the real story, because it’s actually funny. Big Jim had got mad because they weren’t taking vacation one summer. So Foxy said, “Go take one!”
And he said, “I think I will.”
And he just stayed gone for about a year before he went to the Kingsmen.
DJM: When Squire was with them?
Mark: Squire was still there. I think they did one or two albums without Big Jim.
DJM: Just in Time, I think?
Mark: Yes. That’s got Parrack, Parsons, Ray Dean, Foxy, and Nick Bruno.
Of course, I went from the Senators back to finish my senior year in high school. During my senior year, I would travel frequently with the Florida Boys. I wound up playing bass with the Florida Boys when I was on trips with them, when Les found out that I could, and it gave him a break. Many years later, I’m really grateful that he let me do that.
In fact, the first time I was on the Gospel Singing Jubilee, I was playing bass for the Florida Boys. During Thanksgiving break, I had a week off, and I went up there to be with my brother, who was still singing tenor for them at the time. I wound up having the opportunity to be on the Gospel Singing Jubilee. So that was a big thing for me, back in those days.
DJM: So did you just fill in here and there, or were you regularly with them for a while?
Mark: No, I just hung out with them, and I’d ride the bus periodically. But that was a lot of fun.
DJM: So you had already gotten to know Big Jim Hamill during your Senators days. Was that the connection that brought you on board the Kingsmen bus? (Continue Reading >>>)