Hovie Lister is a progenitor of southern gospel music. Born in Greenville in 1926, the Lister family performed onstage with a fourteen year old Hovie on piano. He attended the Stamps-Baxter School of Music, where gospel quartet singing was invented, then worked as a pianist for the Lefevres, Homeland Harmony Quartet, and the Rangers, who are all fondly remembered groups.
Lister formed the Statesmen in 1948. Hovie Lister and The Statesmen are the defining group of southern gospel music, the Big Bang. Their rigid but swinging harmonics propelled by Lister’s driving stride piano set a standard that many southern gospel fans think has yet to be surpassed.