George Younce
George Wilson Younce ( born February 22, 1930 in Lenoir or Patterson Caldwell County / North Carolina, † 11 April 2005) was an American country music singer, composer and bandleader.
Like many musicians of his generation, he began his career in the tradition of shape -note music, faith-based songs that could be learned using simplified scores. His first group was called The Spirituals, in which he sang the lead vocals, before his pitch by the change of voice changed to bass, and he took these vocals. In 1950 he left the group, and completed his military service in the U.S. Army.
After his return, he was a member of several smaller groups of musicians, first the Watchmen Quartet and then The Weather Fords. There he met the musician Jim Hamill and Danny Koker, with whom he collaborated in the following years in other groups. Then he sang occasionally in Homeland Harmony Quartet, at the Florida Boys and from 1957 at the Blue Ridge Quartet. A career that was typical for the time and genre, alternating with the musicians and at times simultaneously were members of various projects. The distinctive bass voice of Younce easier for him while the selection of partners. In November 1964, the most important step was taken in his artistic career, he joined the singing group The Cathedral Quartet with Glen Payne, Bobby Clark, and Danny Kroker. This quartet he was a member until its dissolution in 1999, and was instrumental in the success and existence of the band. Only in 1987, he was temporarily replaced by Gerald Wolfe because of illness. He received general recognition, for example, the multiple award the Singing News Fan Awards for Favorite Bass in 14 of the 17 years 1981-1997. Use the Cathedrals, he was involved in the recording of over 150 songs, which are also presented to the public in several tours were appearances in various TV shows included.
Was his repertoire ranging beginning of his career in the very wide range country music, he later focused on the Southern Gospel. After the end of the Cathedrals, he and other older gospel musicians The Old Friends Quartet, where he appeared along with Jake Hess, Ernie Haase and Wesley Pritchard, and produced in 2001 and 2003 again two albums, one of which Encore 2001 Southern Gospel Music Award received. He also appeared frequently in productions by Bill Gaither, the Gaither Homecoming on DVD productions of concerts of the " Christian Music".
For his life's work, he was inducted into the Sothern Gospel Hall of Fame and in 1999 into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame in 1998.