I remember the cold Rockford, Illinois, Sunday afternoon just a few days before Christmas in 1963 when my uncle R.V. Baxter came excitedly into the living room of Cona and Harry Blaylock, his sister and brother-in-law, toting a reel-to-reel tape recorder the size of a suitcase. I, Roger Baxter, was there visiting with my parents, Johnie and Marie Baxter, R.V.'s older brother and his wife. Until that moment it had just been a usual Baxter family Sunday afternoon when the siblings would gather together in the home of one family or another so the adults could just visit and talk over the news of the week with one another while all the cousins (such as myself) played together in various groups from the teenagers to toddlers usually dividing ourselves by age to play around the yard or throughout the house.

R.V. was all excited about what was recorded on the 7” reel of recording tape he carried along with the recorder which he had borrowed from a friend to bring for his family to be able to listen. He told everyone about the recordings which he, his wife Betty, and their children had made. As he set up the machine and threaded the tape through the mechanism he told of the trials of getting recording rights for the songs selected for the vinyl records which were at that time being made from the master tape of which this was a copy. He explained about the cost of $300 (if I recall correctly) to get 100 copies made and how he could sell them to people wherever his family group might go to sing.

Once he had the tape player set up we all sat back and listened as some of the first people to ever enjoy the sounds of the Gospel Singing Baxter Family's first record album: The Baxter Family … at Home – We Sing Because We're Happy. And now those sounds from nearly 50 years ago can be heard once again right here on this web page. I hope that you will enjoy the musical experience and tell others about what you have heard … and invite them to come visit us as well.

You can now read the online PDF version of the CD information booklet that contains the full text originally on the back cover of the vinyl album. By default this will open in a new tab or window so that you can continue to listen to The Baxter Family singing in this window.

These recordings were originally made about 50 years ago by the R.V. and Betty Baxter family in Rockford, Illinois, in December 1963 ... and so these digital reproductions have been made from a vinyl record that has seen many years of use. While great care has been taken to attempt to restore them to their original lustre you will still be able to detect some of the pops and scratchiness inherent on these old recordings.

Rick Baxter, the eldest son in this family group, says of these digital audio reproductions:

"So many memories flood my mind as I listen. Memories of the music, the times, and the people involved!
I would love for all the people who experienced this music with us then to be able to listen again."

So here they are! We hope that you enjoy listening to them and that good memories will come flooding back to you ... and that while you listen to these beautiful young voices from long ago the messages of the songs will touch your heart as well!

Enjoy all of the Baxter Family albums now available online.

You can also choose individually from any of these vintage Baxter Family albums:
And these recordings - one album and one single - are of secular songs featuring the three Baxter boys (Rick, Mark, and Duncan) which, although were more limited in their original release, are well worth a listen.
You can also listen to some of the forgotten and never before released early recordings of LIVE performances.

* For those of you who are familiar with these recordings we apologize for the ending of Whispering Hope which we were forced to cut short due to a major defect in the copy of this record which we were using ... everyone else will probably never notice the change we had to make.

* NOTE: To make the audio playback on this webpage as universal as possible it utilizes
to play generic MP3 audio files which should work on the following web browsers:

• Windows: Firefox, Chrome, Opera, Safari, IE6, IE7, IE8, IE9
• OSX: Safari, Firefox, Chrome, Opera
• iOS: Mobile Safari: iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch
• Android: Android 2.3 Browser
• Blackberry: OS 7 Phone Browser, PlayBook Browser