Robbie, Don, and Mack: Listen to the Hammer Ring

The Old Time Gospel Hour Trio (Robbie Hiner, Don Norman, and Mack Evans) was a Southern Gospel trio that shared stage time with Jerry Falwell in the late Seventies and early-to-mid Eighties. The above “video” is a poorly-produced clip of a rip of a track from one of their albums with some stills of cover art, etc. It’s hard to believe now, but when Jerry Falwell was at the height of his power items like a OTGH Trio album contributed substantially to creating and sustaining his mailing list. These albums would have gone out as mailings to first-time and faithful contributors.

Hiner was a mainstay of the ministry from the LBC Chorale days until recently and was briefly a member of the Gaither Vocal Band. Norman left (allegedly under a cloud) in the late Eighties or early Nineties; I have no idea what become of him. I have absolutely no idea what became of Mack Evans; he was a Southern Gospel utility man of sorts and contributed to several quartets, and he left almost no trail on the Web. He is evidently dead, but I don’t know where or when.

This is a tough way to make a living, and I appreciate the work these gentlemen did for the ministry over the years. I believe they produced a bunch of albums (as did Hiner and Norman, solo and in various groups; so did Doug Oldham and Kendra Cook), but they’re really hard to find, even online. I don’t know if it was understood at the time that what they were doing was necessarily disposable, or if the people they were marketing to just didn’t leave a trace. Robbie Hiner produced albums fairly regularly from about 1975 to about 2005, but if there’s even an approximation of a complete discography online I haven’t found it.