The Caravans was a female gospel group popular during the 1950s and 1960s that launched the careers of a number of artists: Albertina Walker , Bessie Griffin, Cassietta George , Dorothy Norwood , Inez Andrews and Shirley Caesar. While the group had gone through constant changes in personnel in its heyday, the group's popularity dimmed with departure of Caesar in 1966. The group disbanded in the 1970s, reforming occasionally for reunions with its last surving members: Albertina Walker, Shirley Caesar, and Inez Andrews.

Walker founded the group in 1952 with Ora Lee Hopkins, Elyse Yancey and Nellie Grace Daniels. Walker was the featured singer on the records that the first version of the Caravans made, which had the measured style typical of artists influenced by Roberta Martin.

That changed, however, as other singers joined the group, which retained the close harmonies and precise rhythms of the original group, but now allowed each member the opportunity to solo on alternating leads. At their height in the late 1950s the Caravans combined the energetic, agile alto of Shirley Caesar on songs such as "I'm Not Tired Yet" with the powerful contralto of Inez Andrews on "Mary Don't You Weep."

Bessie Griffin joined the group in 1953, but left after a year. Cassietta George joined in 1954 and likewise stayed only a year, but returned in 1960 for another five years. Norwood joined in 1955 and left in the late 1950s, forming her own group, the Norwood Singers. Inez Andrews joined, at the suggestion of James Cleveland, the pianist and arranger for the group, in 1957 and also left in 1962 to form her own group and then solo. Shirley Caesar joined the Caravans in 1958 and left to pursue a solo career in 1966.

Members

• Albertina Walker
• Shirley Caesar
• Inez Andrews
• Rev. James Cleveland
• Cassietta George
• Dorothy Norwood
• Bessie Griffin
• Delores Washington
• Loleatta Holloway

Hit songs

• Ain't Got Tired Yet
• Lord Keep Me Day by Day
• Mary Don't You Weep
• Remember Me

Further Reading

• Tony Heilbut, The Gospel Sound: Good News and Bad Times Limelight Editions, 1997, ISBN 0879100346.

• Horace Clarence Boyer, How Sweet the Sound: The Golden Age of Gospel Elliott and Clark, 1995, ISBN 0252068777.