The Jellisons-Family Favorites

Last month, I ended the look at female singers in the United Pentecostal Church by cheating a tad and sharing a "solo" record by Gayla Bibb that was actually a Bible Singing Bibb Family record.

Picking up on that cue, this month I am featuring some of my favorite "family" records! First up is the exceptional music ministry of The Jellisons.

Before I knew what Southern Gospel music was, I was listening to the to this family's incredible music.

Under the leadership of Rev. Wendell Jellison, their music ministry spans three decades and planted seeds of many music minsters in the church. It is untold how many albums they have released or influenced. I found two, plus a compilation put out by their church.

I know there are more because I know this album is a "greatest hits" record. Two tracks on this album come from the aforementioned compilation and I know one comes from "Shoutin' Sounds." I do not have the latter, but somebody posted a video of "Already Been to the Water" on You Tube and they show their vinyl copy.

So the search continues for more of their records!

One more thing to mention: Like the McCools and the Pentecostal Elders records I shared in the past, I found many records that had the same cover art as this one, with some variations. I even found another Pentecostal record with the same cover art, which I will share later.

It always amuses me a bit when I find records like this. I guess these were royalty free images record labels could use, and given the lack of money going into these productions it was easier to pick a public domain image than pay an artist/photographer to create new album art.

Is there any other genre where this happened? That's not a rhetorical question... I genuinely wonder.

Here is a sample of the other records I found with similar covers: