Just Arrived! - The Pilgrims

 

He Was My Brother

Just Arrived!

The Pilgrims

An Exciting New Group On The Folk Scene 

Produced by Tom Wilson

Musical Director: Jeff Chase

Cover Photo: Henry Parker

Columbia Special Products

Special Archives Series 

CSRP 9033

1964

From the back cover: Who are The Pilgrims? Where are they from? What have they done? The Pilgrims consist of Angeline Butler, soprano, Robert Guillaume, tenor, and Millard Williams, baritone.

Angeline Butler is the oldest daughter in a family of six girls. Her father is a "backwoods country" minister in East Over, S.C., where Miss Butler was raised. Angeline was graduated from Fisk University in Nashville and continued her studies at the Juilliard School of Music on a two-year scholarship.

She has been active on the civil rights movement for several years and was one of the first to demonstrate in Southern sit-down protests. Miss Butler has appeared on several important nationally televised news programs concerned with "the Movement." The past year she has appeared as a soloist with the Buster Davis Singers on the "Bell Telephone Hour."

Robert Guillaume is from St. Louis, Mo., and was graduated from St. Louis University. He joined the well-known Daramu Players in Cleveland and performed in musical comedies and opera. He toured the world in 1959 as a cast member of the Broadway musical "Free And Easy."

A year later he starred in Langston Hughes' "Tambourines To Glory." He has been featured in "Fly The Blackbird," "Dwamina," and in Katherine Dunham's "Bambouche." In May 1964, he portrayed the choice role of Sportin' Life in a revival of Gershwin's Porgy And Bess" at New York's City Center. He has been a member of the Robert de Cormier Singers and has performed with them in concerts and on television. He has soloed on the "Tonight" Show.

Millard Williams is a native of Bermuda, where he was reared and was a student of the violin. He attended the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto, Canada. Upon graduation he appeared on CBC radio shows and at the Canadian National Exhibition, an outdoor theater. He toured the United States and Canada as a member of the Leonard de Paur Infantry Chorus.

The Martha Baird Rockefeller Scholarship afforded him the opportunity to study music in Europe. He subsequently became a member of England's Birmingham Repertory Company, a legitimate theater group. He has had his own radio show featuring his own vocal quartet on the BBC in London.

Since his return to the United States he has soloed at Carnegie Hall and at Town Hall, and has performed frequently in City Center musicals. For the past two years he has been a member of the Metropolitan Opera Studio and of the Metropolitan's chorus. – Linda Solomon

From Billboard - November 7, 1964: Mark the Pilgrims as a folk group to watch. In a field already overcrowded, this young trio brings a fresh style to their work even though it's rooted in the old-fashion singing tradition. The songs are attractively arranged and run the gamut from gospel that's stepped with traditional religious feeling to topical material of the civil rights nature. With proper push and exposure The Pilgrims should go far.

Sunbeams In The Morning

He Was My Brother

In Tarrytown

Plenty Of Good Room

Honey Bee

Four Strong Winds

Don't You Wanna Hear

Three Little Worms

Cotton Fields 

Two Little Birds

Weep Mary, Weep

Erev Shel Shoshanim

Get Right Church 

Three Wise Men, Wise Men Three