Rejoice - Page 3

Through the prayer meetings of the rural churches that he knew as a child, Brown learned the unarranged hymns and sacred songs that had continued in worship services since the days of praise houses and spirituals. “Gospel, which is different from those spirituals, didn’t really take root in the parts of town I was raised up in until the 1960s,” he says. It took time for acceptance of the more secular-sounding instrumentation and vocals. It also took a more widespread distribution of pianos, organs, and other instruments in the rural churches as well as the influence of music teachers.

Brown credits Fox Music House, then located on King Street, with facilitating a proliferation of new musical talent in rural churches surrounding Charleston between the 1950s and ‘70s. “Maurice Fox worked with the ministers of those churches so they could put pianos out there,” he says. “Once those pianos were there, people sent their children to music lessons to learn how to play them. It was a great investment.”

“People come in here and say to me, ‘I just want to tell you something. I’m in music today because your parents were so kind to my parents and extended them credit,’” says Maurice Fox. Those kindnesses, now 50 to 60 years old, are still poignant because they continue to introduce people to music today. “And music has so much good and so much fulfillment in it,” he adds.

Another such contributor to music was Virginia Lemon. As the wife of a presiding elder of the AME church, she had the opportunity to visit many congregations as gospel music began to take root in the Lowcountry, passing her extensive knowledge of music on to others. “Rick Lemon was the elder of the Edisto district, which covered the churches in all the rural parts of Charleston,” says Brown.

Once the pianos, organs, and other instruments were in place in the churches, the music lessons in which the Lemon family were instrumental, laid the final foundation for an outpouring of new talent in the succeeding generations.

“She was an incredible person,” adds Fox. “Very refined and intelligent. She gave so much to music in the Lowcountry.”

Continued on page 4

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