SG History 101
The 1958 Couriers Quartet (fresh out of Bible school)
top, L-R: Don Baldwin, Dave Kyllonen
bottom, L-R: Duane Nicholson, Eddie Reece, Neil Enloe
SG History 101 - The Couriers Revisited
This particular article marks my fifth anniversary as writer of these SG History 101 articles for SoGospelNews.com. It’s hard to imagine that it’s now been exactly five years since I inherited this assignment from the esteemed John Crenshaw, but it is, and I must first express my deepest appreciation to a number of people. First and foremost to Deon and Susan Unthank, who chose me to carry these articles on when John decided to pursue other internet opportunities. I am humbly grateful to the Unthanks for showing faith and belief in me to carry on the work begun so expertly by John.
Second, I must thank the many subjects of my articles over these five years for not only giving me plenty of good material to write about, but those I spoke to personally were extremely solicitous and helpful in making my job so much more fun and enjoyable. Perhaps it’s not fair to single out individuals in this context, but I would especially like to thank Duane Nicholson, Neil Enloe, Roni Goss, L.D. Young, Cheri Baldwin, Darrell Toney, and Jim Hill for being particularly helpful, and befriending me in the process. I thank God for all of you.
And finally (but by no means least) , I want to thank the many readers I’ve had over the past five years for joining me on this wonderful journey down the annals of gospel music history. It is primarily for all of you that I write, and I am eternally grateful for all your input and comments during these past five years.
So to commemorate my fifth anniversary in this assignment, I will come full circle (so to speak) and write once more about the very first artist I wrote about when I started doing this five years ago, and there is arguably a reason to write about them anew for their story continues to this very day, even after over 50 years of blessing gospel music audiences with their unprecedented combination of first rate, memorable music and first rate, memorable evangelism and witness, the legendary Couriers of Harrisburg, PA.
Their story began in 1953 on the campus of what was then called Central Bible Institute (now Central Bible College) in Springfield, Missouri. At that time, gospel quartet music was becoming a fad among young Christians (hard to believe THAT today, hm?) , and there were a number of quartets forming on the campus to give the students an outlet for their budding evangelistic expression.
One such quartet that was formed at CBI that year called itself the Couriers (to denote themselves as urgent carriers of an urgent message) . This group consisted of Lemuel Boyles (tenor) , Dick Malone (lead) , Roger Kling (baritone and piano) , and Cliff King (bass) . This group was fairly popular, lasting a year and a half (most groups lasted no more than a semester) , and they even managed to make one 78 RPM recors together.
Alas, after a year and a half, they disbanded, and the Couriers name became history. But in 1955, a new student to CBI from Chicago by way of Las Vegas, became interested in starting up a new quartet.
Don Baldwin became a big fan of gospel quartets during the Second World War years. He maintained his love for that kind of music during his military stint in Korea, and was a big fan of the Blackwood Brothers Quartet in particular. When that illustrious group made an appearance at Springfield’s Shrine Mosque, and the concert was packed with a capacity crowd, among them Baldwin and a number of other CBI students.
The Blackwood Brothers’ appearance set off a huge interest in forming gospel quartets all over the CBI campus. Naturally, Baldwin was one of the many determined to start a quartet on the CBI campus. A vision was beginning to form in Baldwin’s mind, and since he was an acknowledged visionary and “go-getter”, it wasn’t long before Baldwin invited Boyles, Eddie Mosher, a pianist named Bob Casebeer, and a tall, shy, awkward student with a deep voice named Dave Kyllonen (from New Kendington, PA) to re-form the Couriers Quartet.
The young quartet was raw and inexperienced, but determined. With only occasional changes behind the piano bench, the group stayed together for nearly two years. Then, in 1956, a preacher’s kid from Iowa by way of Oklahoma with a big, powerful voice joined the quartet as lead singer upon Mosher’s graduation. Duane Nicholson was a real “find” for the quartet, and they began to attract more and more attention on campus as a result.
Then, also in 1956, a new student from Memphis, Tennessee named Eddie Reece joined the group as pianist. Reece had experience with a well-known quartet in he South, the Songfellows, the group that spawned singers like Jim Hamill and Cecil Blackwood, and even once auditioned a young man named Elvis Presley, who would go on to worldwide recognition in the secular entertainment field.
One more ingredient needed to be added to the mix, and in 1957, that ingredient came along in the form of a shy but musically gifted 19-year old named Neil Enloe of Wood River, IL. Enloe replaced the graduating Boyles, but instead of taking Boyles’ place as first tenor, Enloe was given the lead part and Nicholson (who was a natural classic first tenor) moved up to the first tenor part.
Now graduation was nearing for Baldwin and Kyllonen. Would the Couriers Quartet break up again? They were beginning to get paid appearances off campus on weekends, and people seemed to enjoy their singing. Clearly, it was decision time for the energetic young men.
Since forming the quartet, Baldwin had always had the vision that the Couriers could take gospel quartet singing to a new dimension, an evangelistic one. But back in 1958, the notion of a gospel quartet becoming involved in a kind of full-time, traveling musical ministry was as farfetched a notion at that time as was the idea of a man landing on the moon. It was just not done. Gospel quartets were entertainers, not ministers. They were there to make people happy, not necessarily to influence people to consider a relationship with Jesus Christ, even though most all the songs gospel quartets sang stressed that necessity in life. But the young men who made up the Couriers Quartet were trained to be ministers, and gradually determined that their calling would be to using their gift for song to proclaim the gospel message to one and all, thus living up to their name, the Couriers.
So in 1958, even though Nicholson and Enloe had not yet graduated, the young Couriers Quartet chose to become a full-time, traveling gospel quartet. They used the studios where the famous “Revivaltime” radio program was broadcast on the CBI campus to record a full-length album, then had the discs made in Los Angeles, then assembled the jackets themselves and sold the album at their first concerts. Today, that first album, “Beyonf The Sunset”, although the singing there is relatively raw and unpolished by later Couriers’ standards, remains a collector’s item today.
Couriers Quartet, ca. 1964, on the set of the Gospel Singing Jubilee.
L-R: Duane Nicholson, Neil Enloe. "Little" David Young", Don Baldwin, Dave Kyllonen
The Couriers needed a home base. And through connections Kyllonen had in the Assembly of God churches in his home state of Pennsylvania, they were able to get early exposure singing at church events there even before they left school. And when Baldwin was deciding where to base the group, he took a look at the gospel quartet scene and determined that the Couriers would have more success if they started singing primarily in the Northeastern United States, since there was no competition for audience with the more accomplished (at that time) Southern quartets. And since most of the country’s population was within a 500-mile radius of it, it was decided that the Couriers would be based in Pennsylvania’s capital, Harrisburg. This proved to be a very fortuitous choice for the young men, for from there they were able to branch off into Canada as well, and they soon became the first group to pioneer gospel quartet singing in Canada on a regular basis.
Couriers Quartet, on stage ca. 1964
L-R: Duane Nicholson, Neil Enloe, Don Baldwin, Dave Kyllonen, "Little" David Young(at piano)
Early Couriers concerts were mostly in small churches for love offerings. Although there was no doubt a lot of love extended to the polite and enthusiastic young men, the offerings were not that large at first. Soon the group began to pursue the idea of paid concerts. After developing a bit of a following in the Harrisburg area, they finally chose to promote and plan their first concert. They rented the Penbrook Community Building in Harrisburg, and invited noted Assembly of God pastor and noted songwriter Ira Stanphill to join them. They sang 35 songs to some 350 people and were overjoyed, at last they were on the concert circuit.
)Couriers Quartet, ca. 1965.
L-R: Duane Nicholson, Neil Enloe, Don Baldwin, "Little" David Young, and Dave Kyllonen
The Couriers’ first paid concert was soon after that event, with a crowd of some 800 watching “their” Couriers sing with the famed Sunshine Boys. Soon, they would invite other top southern groups to Harrisburg, and by the early 1960s, they were doing regular concerts with top groups from the South in venues such as the Zembo Temple and the Scottish Rite Auditorium. Eventually those concerts moved to the Farm Show Arena, which could hold 9000 people. The Couriers started to do twice annual shows there with major gospel groups in 1964, and those events continued into the 1970s. It was as a result of those concerts that the Couriers got the attention of the bigger groups in the South, and they would get in return good concert exposure down South as well. This was one of the key elements in the development of the Couriers as a major group in the gospel music world.
Another key was their development as recording artists. The Couriers’ third album, “Answers Your Requests”, released in 1960, showed them as more confident and polished singers than ever before. That album contained the first big original song by the group, the Eddie Reece-penned “His Face”, a song that showed the power of Nicholson’s operatic styled tenor voice. The Couriers still struggled at times financially, but they were getting better and better as a quartet, and they were becoming a force to be reckoned with in the bigger world of gospel quartet music.
It was also in 1960 that Reece decided to leave the quartet. He moved on into church work overseas, then began a church in California years later. He died in 2006 after suffering a heart attack while in the Holy Land.
What would the Couriers do for a pianist with Reece gone? Even though they were becming better known and respected in the gospel quartet field, they couldn’t afford at that time to hire a new pianist. As would often be the case when it came to matters of music, lead singer Enloe took charge in this instance. He had had limited training on the piano, and he realized that the quartet needed him to step out in faith a bit. So Enloe assured them after a few months of intense practice that he would be ready to take on the quartet’s piano duties as well. He did just that for nearly two full years, and would do so again in 1966, and again on stage in subsequent years anytime the Couriers needed a piano player and couldn’t find one readily available. In time Enloe would develop a distinctive style of piano accompaniment as well, but back in 1960, he was merely showing what a worthy “quartet man” he was.
Meanwhile, the Couriers would continue to make fine quartet albums, improving markedly with each new release. Their fifth album, 1961’s “I Believe”, is noteworthy for being the first gospel quartet album with a “gatefold” jacket, and their first recorded in stereo. To further illustrate how resourceful the Couriers were, it was recorded in the basement of Harrisburg;s “Dutch Pantry” restaurant, whose parking lot the Couriers used to park their bus when not on the road. Further illustrating said resourcefulness, they used towels draped over the piano to control the sound quality of the instrument, a far cry from the technology used to create today’s music.
Also in 1961, the Couriers began to appear at gospel music’s biggest annual event, the National Quartet Convention. They were regulars up through 1979, then returned in the 1980s and remained staples there until the NQC finally left Nashville and moved to Louisville.
By 1962, the Couriers Quartet had become one of the industry’s most polished groups, recording a fine album of straightforward hymns, “Dedicated To The Hymns”, for which they borrowed pianist Bryan Jones, who had been with the Toney Brothers Quartet up until 1961.
Since the Couriers established themselves in a part of the country relatively unexposed to the nuances of southern gospel quartet concerts, they found that their combination of music and evangelistic preaching in concerts (done by either ordained minister Kyllonen or Baldwin) went over much better in the Northeast and Canada than in the South, where audiences were not as used to that sort of thing from their singers. This led to some occasional comments from some of the singers that the Couriers were the “holy boys” of the gospel circuit, when in fact they were only being true to the calling they felt they received when they decided to leave CBI. There was no real personal resentment toward the Couriers by any of the groups though, and they were always respected and admired for the Christian witness they exhibited at most all times.
In the fall of 1962, the Couriers finally hired a pianist again, a talented Californian named Jerry Evans. Unfortunately, Evans would only stay with the group through two albums (albeit two of their best, “The Lord’s Prayer” and “You Will Never Have To Journey Alone”, the latter Don Baldwin’s favorite album of the ones he did with the group, both recorded at the RCA Studios in Nashville) , before accepting an offer to join the Weatherford Quartet.
So Enloe was back behind the piano bench again, while the group looked for a replacement for Evans. In 1963, promoter and Dixie Echoes manager J.G. Whitfield invited the Couriers to appear at a concert in New York City’s famous Carnegie Hall, where they would appear with the Florida Boys, the Dixie Echoes, Wally Fowler, and the Chuck Wagon Gang. The Couriers were invited because they were a proven “hit” in the Northeast, and Whitfield felt that they would help draw fans to the event. As it turned out, the Couriers were the only group most people in the area had heard of, and their always devoted fans came in buses to New Yoek just to see them. As it turned out, the Couriers did most of the singing that night. Since the Couriers had not replaced Evans yet, they convinced Bryan Jones to play piano for them on that concert. It was a memorable evening for them and their fans, at least.
But prior to that concert, the Couriers attracted a lot of attention from other groups and gospel fans because of an album they’d recorded in May of 1963.
Again Baldwin was thinking, and he had been impressed with an album the Oak Ridge Boys had made in late 1962 for Warner Brothers Records. “Sounds of Nashville” had three cuts that used a string section. Baldwin felt that the Couriers could break new musical ground in gospel music if they could feature orchestration on an album. At that time, quartets were still primarily piano-based, or either used a guitar or two now and then. Baldwin enlisted the help of Brock Speer to put together an orchestra to use on a new album. Speer managed to get students from Bowling Green State University in Kentucky, and there were 16 string and brass players assembled. Enloe worked on new vocal arrangements, and the Couriers again recorded their album at the RCA Studions in Nashville.
Because of the presence of the orchestra, this album was the most expensive one the Couriers had ever recorded, costing around $5,000, which at the time was a lot of money to spend on a record. Because of the price, the Couriers could only afford to do half the album with the orchestra, they only appear on Side One of the record. But the result was a resounding critical success for the Couriers, and the orange-colored cover of “Nothing…But The Gospel Truth” made it one of the most famous gospel quartet albums ever recorded. It was also released on Warner Brothers Records, and is probably the most sought after Couriers album by collectors. Though tame by today’s standards, in its’ time the album sounded incredibly progressive. It predated the Cathedral Quartet’s albums with strings and brass by a good two years. The Couriers thus earned a reputation among the groups of being one of the most musically adept.
Soon piano help was on the way, in a BIG way, or should I say, a “little” way. L.D. Young would join the quartet as pianist, kicking off probably the most popular period the Couriers as a quartet ever experienced. The 5’1” Young, nicknamed “Little” David by Wally Fowler, was a spectacularly talented pianist, as well as a fine writer, arranger, and singer as well. Young had been with the Kingsmen, the Ambassadors, Fowler, the Prophets, and the Sons of Song, and brought with him a charismatic onstage persona that energized the Couriers Quartet on stage as they never had been to that point. Young’s diminutive stature and little-boy looks, plus his piano wizardry and his authentic Southern drawl (Young hails from North Carolina) made him an audience favorite when the Couriers appeared in the South especially.
In addition, Young’s Christian faith was deep and committed, so he fit like a glove with his Courier teammates. His debut album with the group was their second and final Warner Brothers release, “We’ve Gotta Sing”, not as daring musically as its’ predecessor, but the presence of eight songs written by Young helped give the album a fresh, distinctive sound in a more traditional quartet vein.
The group then recorded a Christmas album for Scripture Records, and their subsequent album, “The Love of God”, was the closest thing the Couriers ever cane to a straight southern quartet sound, with Young no small reason (no pun intended) for that. That album was recorded in the living room of the house than Nicholson and Enloe shared at the time, proving that whether it be a living room, the basement of a restaurant, or the best recording studio in the nation, the Couriers could make great music anywhere.
This was not lost on the producers of a brand new syndicated television show that would feature gospel quartet music. The Couriers were chosen to be one of the four regular groups on the brand new “Gospel Singing Jubilee” TV show, set to premiere in the fall of 1964. They would join the Florida Boys, the Dixie Echoes, and the Happy Goodman Family on the show each week, and on concert package tours in the Southeast as well. The Couriers were only regulars on the show’s first year, then were dropped from the cast. Regardless, the exposure did them good with the industry and the gospel fans.
“Honoring Jesus” was another top-notch album recorded at RCA in 1964, but once more, change was looming on the horizon for the Couriers.
Baldwin, who was becoming an industry mogul (he was on the intial GMA board when it was formed in 1964) , was again having visions and dreaming dreams. His virile baritone and smooth MC and preaching style had made him a key face and voice of the Couriers, was making plans to make his Hymntone Records (founded initially in 1958 to issue Couriers’ records) a force in the industry (he was already discovering and mentoring new gospel talent for it) , and he had plans to make Harrisburg a sort of Northeast version of Nashville in terms of a recording center. He felt it was time to leave the road, and he made plans to leave the quartet in 1965. Baldwin continued to be active and creative in mentoring and ministering positions, until health problems overcame him in recent years, he passed away in March 2006.
Meanwhile, Young was building a family, and he yearned to spend more time with his children as they were growing up.
So it was decided that both Young and Baldwin would resign from the Couriers on the very same day. Their last album as part of the group was one of the best the Couriers made. Called “The Sensational Sounding Couriers Quartet” and issued on the brand new Canaan label, the album featured the classic “The Smile On His Face”, featuring great vocal work from Baldwin and Nicholson. The album’s penultimate song, “When I Come To The End Of The Road” seemed appropriate. Without their founder, had the Couriers come to the end of the road?
Quickly, the group found able replacements. Enloe’s younger brother Phil was hired from the Junior Blackwood Brothers to replace Baldwin on baritone, while a 17-year old from West Virginia with very little experience (but PLENTY of ability) was hired to replace Young on the piano. Eddie Hawks was also a writer and arranger who added his own special touch to the Couriers as well.
Hawks stayed for a little less than a year, through the 1966 album “Cross Country Concert” (produced by Baldwin) . Then he left the quartet, eventually to settle in Florida, where he remains music director for a large church in Lakeland there.
Phil Enloe stayed through the next album (the underrated “Down Memory Lane”) , then left the quartet to gather himself after much traveling with the Couriers, then soon began a music ministry of his own, which he still does today with his wife, Jan.
“Down Memory Lane” was a bittersweet album for the Couriers. It would prove to be the final album they would make as a quartet. For the remaining members of the group, Enloe, Nicholson, and Kyllonen, who had been with the group through thick and thin since they’d made the decision to go full-time out of Bible school, had a private meeting where they decided for practical purposes to close ranks, and stop the revolving door of members by continuing the Couriers, but as a trio, no longer as a quartet.
The year before, the group had begun doing overseas mission work, and they found it was much-more cost effective to do that with three members than four. And since ministry was an important cornerstone of their identity and calling, this was a key consideration to them.
And musically, they still had Enloe to provide piano accompaniment. In addition, they began to use instrumental tracks on stage to compensate for the lack of a backup band, and since financial considerations and resourcefulness had always been Courier virtues, and since the sound was essentially the same as their recordings, few seemed to mind them using the tracks. The Couriers became one of the very first major gospel music groups to use tracks extensively in concert appearances.
And musically, the Couriers seemed to drift away from a straight southern gospel approach. They were never really a straight gospel quartet in that sense anyway, but Enloe’s musical direction had begun veering the group away from a straight gospel quartet sound even during the waning days of the Couriers Quartet.
The vocal arrangements on songs like “Patiently” and “He’s Life” (a couple of latet quartet recordings) were much more jazz and pop-based than most standard gospel quartet fare. But by this point in their careers, the Couriers had become so musically versatile that they could sing any kind of arrangement that Enloe would give them. This trait helped make the Couriers a hugely influential group musically to a lot of gospel singers who grew up in the 1960s and 1970s.
Enloe’s original songs did even more in that regard. Enloe had been writing since the early 1960s, and his songs were becoming more and more a staple of Couriers albums. Their high quality musically and lyrically got the attention of many other groups, and Enloe’s songs (“The Statue of Liberty”, “He’s More Than Just A Swear Word”, “The Joy Of Knowing Jesus”, “Lost, Searching, Found”, “Give Me Jesus”) became hits for many artists. The Cathedral Quartet’s career was saved when they hit with “Statue of Liberty”, the Oak Ridge Boys had a hit with “The Joy Of Knowing Jesus”, and the Downings did well with “He’s More Than Just A Swear Word” (as have the Collingsworth Family recently) .
Enloe’s songs musically are eloquent and sophisticated by gospel standards, his arrangements are unique and striking (“Joy, Joy” from 1968 is probably the best example) , and lyrically, he has a strong gift for practical Christian perspective and ingenious analogy (“Statue of Liberty”, “You Won’t Scare God Away”) .
And as a trio. The Couriers continued to make excellent albums(1968’s “Coming and Going” with “Joy, Joy”, and 1970’s “Sweet and Shouting Spirituals”, with the London Symphony Orchestra used on the backup[the first gospel group to use them, too]) .
The Couriers Trio, 1972.
L-R: Dave Kyllonen, Neil Enloe, Duane Nicholson.
By 1972, the Couriers had signed with Jesse Peterson’s Tempo Records, where they had their most commercial success. It was during these years that songs like “Swear Word” were introduced, along with “Statue of Liberty” in 1974 (and winner of a Dove Award for song of the year in 1976) , and their album “Ovation”, a two-record live album in 1977, won them another Dove for Inspirational Album of the Year that year.
The Couriers Trio, 1974.
L-R: Duane Nicholson, Neil Enloe, Dave Kyllonen
The Couriers were regulars on TV by this time (of course, they had been in Pennsylvania for a number of years in the 1960s as well as the 1970s) , they had hit records, they had Dove Awards, AND they had the respect and admiration of just about everyone in gospel music due to their consistent Christian witness and commitment to evangelism through music, what could possibly go wrong for them?
Well, in 1978, Nicholson began to develop nodules on his vocal cords which hampered his ability to use his characteristic ringing tenor voice to fashion the sound that had come to distinguish the Couriers vocally for many years, the problems worsened in 1979, and it became difficult for the Couriers to do on stage what they had done so magnificently for so many years.
In addition, Kyllonen (who had become MC, manager, and spokesman for the group since Baldwin retired, was feeling an increasing desire to move on to other ministries. Once more, the three had a private meeting, where they reached a bittersweet decision to retire by April of 1980.
Paradoxically, in those remaining months of touring, the Couriers drew bigger crowds than ever before. No one wanted to see them go, but the decision had been made, and such are Couriers fans that they couldn’t help but honor it, and keep their favorite singers in prayer.
So on April 19, 1980, the Couriers did their final concert (or so we thought) with the Hopper Brothers and Connie at the Forum in Harrisburg. The ticket sales were so great that two buildings were filled, and fans were shuttled back and forth all evening.
So was this really the end of the Couriers?
As it turned out, it was more like an extended sabbatical. Nicholson continued to do TV work and promote gospel concerts, while working hard on regaining his singing voice. Enloe began a slo music ministry, still writing songs and eventually including his family (his wife, son, and two daughters) in his personal appearances.
Kyllonen indeed moved on to other ministries, he was involved in overseas work in Barbados for a time, he formed another singing group with his wife and three daughters (eventually including their spouses, too) and calling it the Dave Kyllonen Family Affair. Later, he would fulfill a lifelong dream of finally pasturing his own church (Westside Assembly of God in Davenport, Iowa for seven years) , and starting Homefire Ministries (again with his family) for some years after that) .
But Nicholson and Enloe (still in Pennsylvania) would get requests from people wanting to hear the Couriers sing again, and at times they would team up for old times sake and occasionally add a third voice to mske it “sort of” complete. When it became apparent that Duane’s voice had been restored, he and Enloe began doing limited engagements with various third voices.
Sometimes the third voice was Nicholson’s daughter Meredith (still the only female Courier in group history) . Sometimes it would be former ViCount Ron Hensley. Sometimes it would be Enloe’s son, Tim, and sometimes it would be Phil Enloe. By 1983, it was decided that the Courier name would be revived again. Phil moved back to Pennsylvania, and the Couriers were a “power trio” again.
This version of the group made a number of recordings, snd while they didn’t have the commercial success they had in the 1970s, Courier fans were glad the group was back. But then, the realization came that Nicholson and Enloe were getting up in years, and it might be time to anoint new Couriers to carry on the name.
By the end of the 1990s, Larry More, Kristian Walker (Nicholson’s son-in-law) and Scot Womble (Phil Enloe’s son-in-law) had been incorporated into the Couriers, and the group traveled as a sextet for a couple more years. Plans were made for Nicholson and the Enloes to retire on the last day of 2000, and hand the group over to the younger men.
The "new" Couriers, ca. 2002.
L-R: Larry More, Tim Beitzel, Scot Womble.
So a new group of Couriers was born in the new millennium. They remained intact until 2002, when Walker left to pursueother ministry opportunities. He was replaced by a Pennsylvainan, Tim Beitzel, who like More grew up a big fan of the original Couriers.
In 2005, Womble departed and was replaced by Brett Scarem. Also in 2005, Tom Keel joined on as vocalist and keyboard player.
Both Scarem and Keel left last year, and the Couriers are now a duo of More and Beitzel. But they retain the resourcefulness of their predecessors, dubbing in extra vocal and instrumental sounds where needed, and that long famous Courier sound remains intact today.
It would seem that the Couriers will go on as long as there are true “couriers” that feel the urgency of getting that urgent message out there urgently.
But is THAT the end of the Courier story?
Well, no. For in 2003, Neil Enloe, Duane Nicholson, and Dave Kyllonen reunited for an impromptu concert at a church, and the response to their reappearance was so great, and the chemistry between the three was so apparent, that they discussed getting together on a part-time basis and singing together again, and once promoters and churches heard about this, the response was so overwhelming that in 2004, the three returned to the road on a part-time basis. Because they had given the Couriers name to their successors, they now appear in concerts as simply Dave, Duane, and Neil, although many still refer to them as the “original” Couriers. Although they try to keep their number of dates to a limited amount, they still sing on many weekends out of the year.
Dave, Duane, and Neil, ca. 2004.
L-R: Duane Nicholson, Neil Enloe, Dave Kyllonen.
And maybe that’s as it should be, for as their 2004 CD “One Nation Over God” amply proves, the three can still sing powerfully, .and it’s clear that they are enjoying these latter days of their lives.
And the plaudits keep coming in for these living legends, in 2007, they were given the highest honor that the Assembly of God denomination gives, the General Superintendent’s Medal of Honor, given to all three men. It is not unprecedented for a gospel singer to win that award, James Blackwood also is a recipient of that honor.
Neil Enloe will be inducted into the Southern Gospel Music Association Hall of Fame in October of 2009, a most deserving honor for one of the finest musicians ever to be a part of gospel music. And later this month, in Louisville, for the first time since 1979, Dave, Duane, and Neil will sing on the main stage of the National Quartet Convention.
The current Couriers, 2009.
L-R: Larry More, Tim Beitzel.
And in 2008, the definitive story of the original Couriers was finally published. It is the autobiography of Dave Kyllonen, Duane Nicholson, and Neil Enloe, with portions written by each man. It is the best place to go for those who want the story of the original Couriers told best, by the men themselves whom God used so faithfully in this special calling, It is called "Our Final Quarter", self-published, and available for purchase at their website at
http://www.daveduaneandneil.com. I used the book as a key reference tool in the writing of this article. If you want the story of the Couriers told best, I heartily recommend "Our Final Quarter" to you.
And for more information on the current Couriers, you can view it at their website,
http://www.thecouriers.com .
The Couriers’ impact on gospel music has been overlooked for too long. Not only were they responsible for some of the greatest music in the history of the genre, their focus on evangelism and ministry has been a major influence on the direction gospel music has taken in recent years. Their story epitomizes what it takes to be a success in a life of ministry through good music, and true Christian witness in everyday life. Perhaps they are best summarized in these words from fellow gospel music legend Bill Gaither
"The thing I appreciate most has been their consistency down through the years. One of the best examples the Couriers have left behind is to get a focus on what you want to do, where you want to go and what you want to be, and stay faithful to that calling. God honors that type of commitment."
I would like to thank Duane Nicholson, Neil Enloe, and Tim Beitzel for their help in preparing this article on the Couriers. See you again next month.
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Written: 09/02/2009
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Category: SG History 101
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