The Primitive Quartet and Mountain Home Music Company’s Through The Years series has been bringing the beloved gospel group’s music to new generations of listeners through streaming services and digital sales platforms for the first time. These releases continue the group’s half-century legacy as a bluegrass gospel artist — one that has now performed their last live show. The Quartet wrapped up their full time touring on May 20, with one final concert.
To commemorate this long career and to close the series, Mountain Home is releasing Through The Years Live, a collection that will allow listeners to continue to feel as though they’re enjoying a performance from the storied group. The collection stands as a great reminder of the energy and spirit the Primitive Quartet brought to the stage.
Through The Years Live features fan favorite songs like “My Hope Is In The Blood” and “Didn’t He Shine” as well as traditional songs like “He Will Set Your Fields On Fire” and “I’m Going There,” all from the several live albums the group has released over the years.
As a whole, the Through The Years series — curated by the Crossroads Label Group’s Greg Bentley and The Primitive Quartet’s Mike Riddle — encompasses eight volumes covering nearly 40 years of historic releases, including a Christmas collection. Rarely has such an archival exploration been directed exclusively at digital platforms, and the combination of historical interest and forward-looking accessibility serves to guarantee that not only will long-time fans of the storied group have their favorites close at hand, but that the vital musical ministry of the Primitive Quartet will be available for discovery by generations of fans yet to come.
Stream Through The Years Live HERE.
About The Primitive Quartet
The Primitive Quartet began in 1973, when two sets of Western North Carolina brothers, Reagan and Larry Riddle and Furman and Norman Wilson, carried a guitar and mandolin with them on a fishing trip, where they discovered a love and a gift for harmony singing. With the encouragement of their parents and pastor, they began to sing together at area churches as the Riddle-Wilson Quartet. In 1978, with the decision to devote themselves to a full-time musical ministry, the group said goodbye to Furman Wilson, welcomed Reagan and Larry’s brother, Mike, into the group and renamed themselves as The Primitive Quartet. As their career developed, the Quartet added Indiana-born singer and instrumentalist Randy Fox in 1986 and, a decade later, another North Carolinian, Jeff Tolbert — first as an instrumentalist and then, with the passing of Norman Wilson in 2014, as a singer. Over the years, The Primitive Quartet has toured across the United States and overseas, recorded scores of albums, released more than a dozen videos and DVDs, and made their “Hominy Valley Singing Grounds” in Candler, North Carolina, into a popular home for gospel singing events.
