"Jefferson County is the heartland of black American a cappella gospel quartet singing. For more than [a century] black quartets have thrived in Birmingham and Bessemer, and they have provided immeasurable spiritual uplift and musical enjoyment to a large portion of the local population. The tenacious survival of black quartet traditions in Birmingham and Bessemer preserves a cultural and historical continuity that informs and enriches many lives. The older singers share a sense of brotherhood, a common identification with four-part harmony heritage and lore. For many singers, a powerful desire to perpetuate these traditions is coupled with a belief that singing is their allotted personal service to God. These are reasons why there are so many septuagenarians and octogenarians in the field; they're striving to earn the epitaph, "He sang until he died."

This recording, originally produced by the Alabama Folklife Association, documents the Sterling's rehearsal at Straight Place in Bessemer on Wednesday, April 20, 1994. It includes all the elements of a traditional Sterling Jubilee rehearsal - even the sound of trains passing by the hall intermittently - and differs from an actual meeting only in the omission of the business meeting and in the nature of the opening song. Wanting their first number to have impact, they selected "Atom Bomb" rather than one of the more worshipful numbers with which they normally begin.