Let's Have Church: The Jewel Gospel Singers

The Jewel Gospel Singers have been a solid rock in the Virginia gospel scene for nearly 70 years, and are still performing.

With three longtime (60-plus years) members, this soulful singing group -- revamped in later years as Henrietta Doswell Gattison & the New Jewels -- have specialized in a passionate style of church singing that is both traditional and harmonically complex, a unique sound honed through years of performing in Hanover County churches. 

My recent Richmond Magazine feature on this captivating gospel group -- who recorded three hard-to-find albums for Savoy Records in the '60's -- can now be found online right here, complete with a link to a rousing "TV Gospel Time" appearance by the Jewels in their prime. 

Pictured: The Jewel Gospel Singers of the 1960s: Henrietta Gattison, Ellen Jefferson, pianist Vivian Owens, Ann Cunningham, Ernestine Jackson and songwriter Doris Ann Allen (Photo courtesy Henrietta Doswell Gattison)