Before there were The Whitsuntide Singers there was The Lowland Three. Both groups had one (un)commonality, that being songstress Marssie Bernard. And I'm presently inspired to share what I know about this talented folk trio. It was during the height of the "Great Folk Scare" in 1964 I first heard them in Des Plaines Il. It was in a nifty old club converted from a church, called The Loft. I was a senior in high school at the time and as I mentioned in this blog many posts ago, I was inspired by this group to learn to play guitar.
The Lowland Three were Marssie Bernard, Lou Witsiepe, and Roy Rankin. The photo above of the group is a publicity shot for a show they did at the Gibson County Fair in Southern Indiana in August of 1964.
Towards the end of that year they won the Grand Prize in the WLS Radio (Chicago) talent contest, and soon were whisked off to Hollywood to perform on the Danny Thomas Television Special in February of 1965! That Spring they released their first recording on the Phillips Label, a 45 RPM titled Three Brave Lads/Pick A Bale O Cotton. Billboard Magazine (April 24, 1965) gave the record a "4 Star " rating that week along with Donavon's "Try To Catch The Wind". Good company indeed!
The Phillips label at the same time was releasing songs by Dusty Springfield, The Serendipity Singers, The Four Seasons, Joe Cocker and of course the Lowland Three. A couple years later The Whitsuntide Singers met Lowlander Lou, who become our manager and introduced us to Marssie. And that turn of events produced one of the times of my life, and the basis for my blog.
5 comments:
It was Roy Rankin.
And I was indeed sorry to learn from Marssie of Roy's passing...
Thanks for keeping the memory of The Lowland Three alive. Roy Rankin was my Dad and he was very fond of these days. They were a great sound together.
Came across an old broadcast copy of Three Brave Lads / Pick a Bale O' Cotton in a box of 45 while cleaning out my basement.
WOW, would Marssie love to hear that!
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