Ramblin' Rhodes

Popular group created by Smoke on the Mountain

By Don Rhodes
Morris News Service

One of the most popular bluegrass-gospel groups in America is the Sanders Family Singers of Mount Pleasant, N.C., which especially is interesting considering the family really doesn't exist.

Rather, the family is the creation of native Georgian Alan Bailey and North Carolina-born writer Connie Ray.

The family first made its appearance at the McCarter Theater in Princeton, N.J., in 1988 with the first performance of Bailey and Ray's folk musical Smoke on the Mountain.

Two years later, reviewer Stephen Holden wrote in The New York Times of the show's debut at the Lamb's Theatre in Manhattan that the musical "is a charming and funny celebration of Americana and white rural church music that also pokes gentle fun at the pious provincialism of an all-but-vanished world."

Smoke on the Mountain, directed by Bailey, ran for more than 500 performances at the Lamb's Theatre. It is set in 1938 at the Mount Pleasant Baptist Church in North Carolina and contains traditional hymns and new and old bluegrass songs performed by the Sanders Family Singers with acoustic instruments.

Reportedly, it has become the second most-produced musical in regional theatres following behind Pump Boys and Dinettes.

Bailey, who grew up in Macon, Ga. and now lives in Los Angeles, and Ray, born in Orange County, N.C., capitalized on the success and popularity of the Sanders Family Singers by building their equally successful sequel Sanders Family Christmas around them.

It takes place on Christmas Eve of 1941 at the Mount Pleasant Baptist Church as many local young men, including Sanders Family son Dennis is heading off to serve during World War II. It contains more than 24 traditional and new Christmas songs.

As if the popularity of those two shows are not enough, Bailey and Ray have combined their talents to create another installment of the Sanders Family Singers.

This one, Smoke on the Mountain Homecoming, takes place in October of 1945 at the Mountain Pleasant Baptist Church as Dennis Sanders, back from the war, is about to become the church's new preacher.

The show had its debut in November (2006) at the Piedmont Players Theatre in Salisbury, N.C. Its professional premiere will in the Cumberland County Playhouse in Crossville, Tenn., in February 2007.

One song in the new production is called Children Talk To Angels, and it was recorded originally in 1971 for Canaan Records by The Lewis Family, a nationally famous bluegrass-gospel group, who live around Lincolnton, Ga. It was written by Cleo Kirby of Edgefield, S.C.

Janis Lewis Phillips, who sings lead on the recording of that song, said it was the only song the family recorded of Kirby's.

"We still get requests to do it on our shows," Phillips said. "It was inspired by the painting of the children crossing a footbridge while a guardian angel watches them."

Although Bailey, the co-creator of Smoke on the Mountain Homecoming, was born and reared in Macon, he never has seen The Lewis Family in person.

"I'm just an eager fan who buys a lot of bluegrass and Southern gospel music," Bailey e-mailed me from California. "I ran across Children Talk to Angels on an old Lewis Family tape I've had for I don't know how long.

"I count The Inspirations, The Lewis Family, The Chuck Wagon Gang, The Easter Brothers and Rhonda Vincent among my favorites," he added.

"We're excited to include The Lewis Family's song Children Talk To Angels in our score. I had the privilege of talking with Miggie Lewis (another vocalist with the group) while I was researching songs for the show. It was very exciting to be in touch with her."

Bailey, who also is a five-time undefeated Jeopardy game show champion, said no New York City production is yet in the works for Smoke on the Mountain Homecoming.

He added, however, "Many regional theatres have contacted the publisher Samuel French, Inc. about licensing the show. So we're expecting the show to have a healthy, long life just as Smoke on the Mountain and Sanders Family Christmas has had --- nearly 20 years and still going strong."

Don Rhodes has written about country music for 36 years. He can be reached at (706) 823-3214 or at don.rhodes@morris.com.