The Stamps-Baxter Music Company was an influential publishing company in the

shape note Shape notes are a musical notation designed to facilitate congregational and Sing-along, social singing. The notation became a popular teaching device in American singing schools during the 19th century. Shapes were added to the noteheads in ...

Southern gospel music field. The company issued several paperback publications each year with cheap binding and printed on cheap paper. Thus, the older books are now in delicate condition. These songbooks were used in church singing events, called "conventions," as well as at other church events, although they did not take the place of regular

hymnal A hymnal or hymnary is a collection of hymns, usually in the form of a book, called a hymnbook (or hymn book). They are used in congregational singing. A hymnal may contain only hymn texts (normal for most hymnals for most centuries of Christia ...

s. Among the

country music Country (also called country and western) is a popular music, music genre originating in the southern regions of the United States, both the American South and American southwest, the Southwest. First produced in the 1920s, country music is p ...

and bluegrass "

standards Standard may refer to: Symbols * Colours, standards and guidons, kinds of military signs * Standard (emblem), a type of a large symbol or emblem used for identification Norms, conventions or requirements * Standard (metrology), an object t ...

" that were first published by Stamps-Baxter are "Rank Strangers to Me", "

Just a Little Talk with Jesus "Just a Little Talk with Jesus" is a gospel music song published by Stamps-Baxter Music Company on January 1, 1937, written by Cleavant Derricks. In 1936, he sold the song to Stamps-Baxter in exchange for fifty songbooks, which he then sold for ...

", " Precious Memories", " Farther Along", "If We Never Meet Again", "Victory in Jesus", and "I Won't Have to Cross Jordan Alone". Stamps and Baxter operated a music school which was the primary source of the thousands of

gospel Gospel originally meant the Christianity, Christian message ("the gospel"), but in the second century Anno domino, AD the term (, from which the English word originated as a calque) came to be used also for the books in which the message w ...

songs they published. Another major part of the corporation was its sponsorship of gospel quartets who sang the company's music in churches throughout the southern United States. At the end of World War II they were sponsoring 35 such quartets. The company also had a quartet who sang on radio station KRLD in Dallas, beginning in 1936. This station would boost its transmitting power at midnight, so that it could be heard across the nation. An additional part of the Stamps-Baxter music empire was a magazine, ''Gospel Music News''. Each part of the corporation supported every other part, giving strength to the entire organization.

History

Virgil Oliver Stamps Virgil Oliver Stamps (1892–1940) was a shape note promoter, singer, composer, and singing school teacher. V. O. Stamps was born in and raised in the Stamps Community in Upshur County, Texas, and was a key individual in early gospel music publishi ...

founded the company in 1924 and J. R. Baxter Jr. joined him to form the Stamps-Baxter Music Company, which was based in Dallas, Texas, with offices in

Chattanooga, Tennessee Chattanooga ( ) is a city in Hamilton County, Tennessee, United States, and its county seat. It is located along the Tennessee River and borders Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the south. With a population of 181,099 in 2020, it is Tennessee ...

and

Pangburn, Arkansas Pangburn is a city in White County, Arkansas, United States. The population was 500 at the 2020 census. Geography According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , all land. Demographics At the 2000 census there w ...

. Stamps got his start working for the James D. Vaughan Publishing Company from which he got many of his business ideas. In 1945, Frank Stamps, younger brother of V. O. Stamps, left the organization to form the rival

Stamps Quartet John Daniel Sumner (November 19, 1924 – November 16, 1998) was an American gospel singer, songwriter, and music promoter noted for his bass voice, and his innovation in the Christian and Gospel music fields. Sumner sang in five quartets and w ...

Music Company. At the same time a number of quartets left Stamps-Baxter resulting in the end of the company's quartet sponsorship coinciding with the end of the war. Frank's defection did not hurt the Stamps-Baxter company in the long run, although it did lead to some confusion among the public. The Stamps-Baxter School of Music declined after World War II, but its successor continues to this day as an annual two-week

singing school A singing school is a school in which students are taught to sightread vocal music. Singing schools are a long-standing cultural institution in the Southern United States. While some singing schools are offered for credit, most are informal progr ...

under the leadership of

Ben Speer Ben Lacy Speer (June 26, 1930 – April 7, 2017) was a singer, musician, music publisher, and record company executive. He sang for The Speer Family for most of his career. Speer later became the music director of the Gaither Homecoming programs ...

. Stamps died in 1940, leaving the company to J. R. Baxter. After Baxter died in 1960, his widow, Clarice Howard "Ma" Baxter, ran the company until her death in 1972. In 1974, the company was sold to

Zondervan Zondervan is an international Christian media and publishing company located in Grand Rapids, Michigan, United States. Zondervan is a founding member of the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association (ECPA). It is a part of HarperCollins, Ha ...

, which became part of the Benson Company in 1986, and is now part of

Universal Music Group Universal Music Group N.V. (often abbreviated as UMG and referred to as Universal Music Group or Universal Music) is a Netherlands, Dutch–United States, American multinational Music industry, music corporation under Law of the Netherlands, ...

. The choral publishing arm was subsequently sold to the

Cooperative Baptist Fellowship The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship (CBF) is a Baptist Christian denomination in United States, established after the conservative resurgence within the Southern Baptist Convention. It is affiliated with the Baptist World Alliance, and headquarte ...

-associated Celebrating Grace, Inc. in 2023.

Songbooks

The "convention" song books typically included 140 songs. The first song would be on the inside front cover, numbered 00 with the first song inside the book being numbered 1-A, and the rest of the songs were numbered 1 through 138. Each book included four or five older public domain songs such as

John Newton John Newton (; – 21 December 1807) was an English evangelical Anglican cleric and slavery Abolitionism, abolitionist. He had previously been a captain of slave ships and an investor in the slave trade. He served as a sailor in the Royal Nav ...

's "

Amazing Grace "Amazing Grace" is a Christian hymn written in 1772 and published in 1779 by English Anglican clergyman and poet John Newton (1725–1807). It is possibly the most sung and most recorded hymn in the world, and especially popular in the Unit ...

", Mackay's "Revive Us Again", Stennett's "I Am Bound for the Promised Land", and Smith's "America". In addition, one or two songs from earlier Stamps-Baxter publications might be included. The other 134 songs would consist of new material that had never been published before. The authors and composers of these songs were paid as much as $7.00 for each song, which would be the only monetary compensation that they would get.

Copyrights

The Stamps-Baxter company was careful to renew its copyrights under

United States copyright law The copyright law of the United States grants monopoly A monopoly (from Greek language, Greek and ) is a market in which one person or company is the only supplier of a particular good or service. A monopoly is characterized by a lack ...

. The collections, not the individual songs, were copyrighted, so that anyone looking up records for the songs must know in which collection it was first published. Under current U. S. copyright law, works published between 1922 and 1963 will not enter public domain until 95 years after their initial year of copyright if the copyright was renewed. Thus, a Stamps-Baxter song last copyrighted in 1929 will enter public domain in 2024. There is also a claim to copyright on these songs. On October 16, 1998, three corporations, Brentwood-Benson Music Publishing, Inc., Stamps-Baxter Music, and Bridge Building Music, Inc., filed for copyright on "Glory Special" & 19,618 other titles. This large collection includes all of the Stamps-Baxter convention songs. Universal Music Publishing International MGB Limited now owns Stamps-Baxter Music and Bridge Building Music. Therefore, the copyright is maintained by Universal Music Publishing International MGB Limited.

Titles

References

{{Reflist

External links

University of Central Arkansas The University of Central Arkansas (Central Arkansas or UCA) is a public university in Conway, Arkansas, United States. Founded in 1907, the university is one of the oldest in the state. As the state's only normal school at the time, UCA has hist ...

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Luther Presley Collection
University of Central Arkansas Music publishing companies of the United States Publishing companies established in 1924 Shape note Southern gospel Defunct music companies