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Born in 1946 to a Baptist preacher on Stuttgart, Arkansas’s soil, Robert Vanderbilt was a precocious gospel artist, having joined, at just 13, the locally prominent and long-enduring Stuttgart Harmonizers quartet. He left Arkansas behind in 1966, and a decade after arriving in Chicago, was recruited by the Foundation of Souls, a group from the Joshua Missionary Baptist flock.
A self-contained unit, the Foundation consisted of guitar player Reverend Donnie Hardiman, vocalist Jerry Patterson, vocalist Eddie Cobb, lead
guitarist Robert Golar, and bassist Larry Stampp. The Foundation wanted for a steady drummer, settling for friends and relatives in a pinch. As their name implies, the Foundation of Souls never concealed an affection for contemporary soul music. Their lone issue, "<a href="spotify:album:5L63IFvclXyJ76njyO9wvM" data-name="A Message Especially From God">A Message Especially From God</a>" b/w “I Can’t Make It By Myself,” appeared on the Hardiman-run Sensational label in 1978— with the A-side bearing more than a passing similarity to Manchild’s Chi-Sound-released 1977 Windy City hit “Especially For You.” The Sensational label would have two more
entries in Chicagoland cut-out racks over the next few years, one featuring Hardiman, the other the Jericho Travelers, with both taking an approach that was more traditional than R&B-leaning. The Foundation of Souls endured, ending a 40-year gap in their release schedule with So Hard To Get Along, a self-produced 2001 compact disc, with Robert Vanderbilt still at the helm.
A self-contained unit, the Foundation consisted of guitar player Reverend Donnie Hardiman, vocalist Jerry Patterson, vocalist Eddie Cobb, lead
guitarist Robert Golar, and bassist Larry Stampp. The Foundation wanted for a steady drummer, settling for friends and relatives in a pinch. As their name implies, the Foundation of Souls never concealed an affection for contemporary soul music. Their lone issue, "<a href="spotify:album:5L63IFvclXyJ76njyO9wvM" data-name="A Message Especially From God">A Message Especially From God</a>" b/w “I Can’t Make It By Myself,” appeared on the Hardiman-run Sensational label in 1978— with the A-side bearing more than a passing similarity to Manchild’s Chi-Sound-released 1977 Windy City hit “Especially For You.” The Sensational label would have two more
entries in Chicagoland cut-out racks over the next few years, one featuring Hardiman, the other the Jericho Travelers, with both taking an approach that was more traditional than R&B-leaning. The Foundation of Souls endured, ending a 40-year gap in their release schedule with So Hard To Get Along, a self-produced 2001 compact disc, with Robert Vanderbilt still at the helm.
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