Carl Rains (1911-1997)

Biography

Joseph Carl Rains, from Alabama, was a gospel quartet bass singer. He began singing professionally with the John Daniel Quartet in the mid-1930s. While with the Daniel Quartet, he also performed comedy routines as Joe Squashhead, a country bumpkin character he would continue to portray throughout much of his career.

In 1940, Rains became a member of the Stamps-Baxter Dixie Four in Memphis which sang on WMC radio. After the owner of the Dixie Four temporarily terminated the quartet’s operation in the spring of 1941, Rains and others from the group left Memphis and joined WDZ radio in Tuscola, Illinois as the Stamps-Baxter Dixie Quartet. Rains took on the additional duties as the group’s manager. After two more moves, wartime rationing limited their ability to travel and they disbanded around mid-1942.

Soon after the Stamps-Baxter Dixie Quartet disbanded, Rains joined the Lone Star Quartet in Raleigh, NC. Aside from a few months away in 1944-45, he remained with the Lone Star Quartet until late 1946.

In 1947 Rains organized a short-lived All-Star Quartet based in Winston-Salem, North Carolina and later in Raleigh, North Carolina. He then returned to Alabama where he sang in several part-time groups in the ensuing years.