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Artist
The Zion Travellers
12+ albums
about
The Zion Travelers were based in the Los Angeles, CA, area and featured L.C. Cohen and Bartha L. Watkins on leads. Other group members were L.W. Van (tenor), Garland Fate Mason (tenor), Wesley Sherman (baritone), and Felton Vernon (bass). The group formed in 1944 and first recorded in late 1947 and early 1948 on the Atlas label, issuing two singles: "I Can't See Mine" backed with "Good News," and "Prayin' Time" covered with "I'm Gonna Tell You." In 1949, they followed up with two more releases, this time on the Rex label: "Jesus" backed with "Golden Bells," and "I Have a Friend" sided with "God Leads His Children Along." The early '50s saw two more singles released by the group, this time on the Ruby label. The Ruby waxings were "Lord Jesus" paired with "Come Over Here," and "God's Blood" backed with "King Jesus Rolls All Burdens Away." As these were all relatively obscure labels, the earliest Zion Travelers releases are quite hard to find in their original 78 RPM formats. An article in a June 1950 Billboard magazine noted that Zion Travelers had recorded for the newly formed Sultan Records, based in Natchez, MS. The press release may have been premature, though, as the Hayes-Laughton gospel discography notes that no discs by Zion Travelers on Sultan have ever been uncovered. Another possibility, based on the location of Sultan Records, is that the reference was to the Zion Travelers Spiritual Singers, a group who was based in Baton Rouge, LA, which was fairly close to Natche