The Sullivan Family

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THE SULLIVAN FAMILY BLUEGRASS GOSPEL
"OLD BRUSH ARBOR"

MUSICS OF ALABAMA:
A COMPILATION

The Sullivan Family began performing as a band when it was invited to have a regular program on the first radio station in Jackson, Alabama, in 1949. But long before that its members had been playing traditional music. The family had settled near St. Stephens when it was the capital of the Alabama Territory.

Through the decades, many family members played fiddles and provided music for frolics or country dances in the area. In 1939, when Arthur Sullivan converted to the Pentecostal faith and became a preacher, his family gave up "worldly" music and dedicated their musical talents to the Lord. His son Enoch still honors this commitment with bluegrass gospel music.

Similarly Margie Brewster, who became Enoch's wife, was the daughter of a Pentecostal evangelist. After her father's death, she traveled the South with evangelist Hazel Chain, playing guitar and singing gospel music in her resonant alto voice.

Throughout their long career the Sullivans have had two long-lasting and popular radio shows in Jackson and Thomasville, plus a highly-rated television program in Jackson, Mississippi. They have recorded scores of albums and performed at thousands of small churches around the world as well as at major bluegrass festivals in the United States, Canada, and the Netherlands. Yet their delight in pleasing and inspiring audiences is still evident in their performances.

The song "Old Brush Arbor" by George Jones is one of Margie Sullivan's signature songs depicting a once common practice in Alabama of holding Christian revival services in the rural countryside under structures made out of tree branches to shade the worshipers at a "camp meeting" site.

"Old Brush Arbor"
Recorded Steve Grauberger with sound mixing by Dan Gainey 5-13-1995 at the Gadsden, Alabama Amphitheater.

REFERENCES

The Sullivan Family: Fifty Years in Bluegrass Gospel Music by Enoch and Margie Sullivan with Robert Gentry edited by Patricia Martinez (you can order from Sullivan web site)