Ruth had organized the Selah Jubilee Singers, a gospel group drawn from the membership of a church choir, leaving it in 1949 to pursue more secular interests in music.
[2] Ruth was a deejay on WOV, a radio station in New York City, at a time in the late 1940s when gospel groups such as Sister Rosetta Tharpe, the Pilgrim Travelers and the Five Blind Boys were touring the country playing in shabby settings with few amenities for the performers.
[3] No one had yet conceived of combining the power of gospel with the highly charged, money-making revue format of the successful R&B acts that appealed to urban audiences.
In 1949, Ruth formed a secular vocal group with fellow singers Allen Bunn, David McNeil, Hadie Rowe Jr., and Raymond "Pee Wee" Barnes.
The group had some success on the Billboard R&B charts, their biggest hit being "Eyesight to the Blind" in 1951 on which Bunn (later known as Tarheel Slim) sang lead vocals.
By 1950, Ruth was very aware that gospel groups had become popular acts although they usually appeared in dusty store fronts, not in thriving, jiving black theaters.
[5] Ruth also taught the gospel groups to abide by theatrical rules, such as keeping firm to time limits on stage, as they were used to singing as long as the spirit hit them in the storefronts.