During the great boom of indie labels in the years following World War II, one of gospel’s most enduring—and endearing—underdogs began in a record store in Nashville. Ernie’s Record Mart had generated a bustling business for years through its sponsorship of Ernie’s Record Parade, hosted by the legendary deejay John R. (Richbourg) on WLAC and by heavily advertising records to rural America on the great clear-channel stations of Memphis and Nashville.
In 1951, Ernie Lafayette Young (