History
Roy Howard, the group's original lead singer, had a heart attack in 1951 and died shortly thereafter. Doyle Wiggins sang lead for about a year. When he left in 1953, he was replaced by Les Beasley. Beasley remained at the lead position through 1999, when he stepped aside and hired Josh Garner to fill the position. Beasley continued to play bass guitar and act as the group's master of ceremonies.
Glen Allred joined as baritone in 1952; Derrell Stewart became the group's pianist in 1956. Allred, Stewart, and Les Beasley remained at their respective positions for over four decades. During this time, various tenors and basses sang with the group. Billy Todd joined the group as bass singer in the late 1950s, and stayed with the group until 1972. He was replaced by Buddy Liles, who had sung with The Orrell Quartet, The Rhythm Masters Quartet, The Landmark Quartet, and The Rebels Quartet. Liles stayed with the group for over two decades.
Their final two albums, "Sing Your Blues Away" (2005) and "Keep On Singing" (2006), were received well by Southern Gospel fans, labeled by many as their best recordings.
In 2007, the Florida Boys had two personnel changes at relatively the same time, as long-time bass singer Gene McDonald left to work for a bus company, and tenor Harold Reed left to join the Kingsmen Quartet. McDonald was replaced by Butch Owens, and lead singer Josh Garner moved up to the tenor position, with Les once again singing lead for the group.
Then, in June 2007, Les Beasley announced that the legendary quartet would be disbanding the following month. However, he also announced that they would come back together once more for a farewell appearance at the National Quartet Convention in September 2007.
At the "farewell concert" it was announced that, with the blessing of Les, Glen, and Derrell, the Florida Boys name would be continuing. The “new” Florida Boys will be Dustin Bearden - Tenor, Charlie Waller - Lead, Buddy Burton - Baritone, Chip Cooper - Bass, and Joshua Pope - Piano.
Read more about this topic: Florida Boys
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“Boys forget what their country means by just reading “the land of the free” in history books. Then they get to be men, they forget even more. Liberty’s too precious a thing to be buried in books.”
—Sidney Buchman (1902–1975)
“We don’t know when our name came into being or how some distant ancestor acquired it. We don’t understand our name at all, we don’t know its history and yet we bear it with exalted fidelity, we merge with it, we like it, we are ridiculously proud of it as if we had thought it up ourselves in a moment of brilliant inspiration.”
—Milan Kundera (b. 1929)
“What you don’t understand is that it is possible to be an atheist, it is possible not to know if God exists or why He should, and yet to believe that man does not live in a state of nature but in history, and that history as we know it now began with Christ, it was founded by Him on the Gospels.”
—Boris Pasternak (1890–1960)