Effective period / Period of releases: 1963 - 1989

Members: Hal Kennedy, J. G. Whitfield, Coy Cook, Ken Turner, Dale Shelnut, Sue Whitfield, Joe Whitfield, Randy Shelnut, Billy Hodges (3), Garry Jones (5), Vaughn Thacker

Years active: 1960–present

A professional Southern Gospel quartet based in Pensacola, FL.

The quartet got their start in 1960 by J. G. Whitfield, who founded The Dixie Echoes and The Florida Boys. Whitfield, only just a couple of years earlier, had yielded his bass singing role of the Florida Boys to spend more time at home. But as the country entered the first year of the 1960s, the desire to sing lured Whitfield to form another quartet that he named The Messengers. In 1962, J.G. renamed the group to The Dixie Echoes Quartet. It was in 1963 that the Dixie Echoes truly began to journey down the path that would carve their place in Southern Gospel history.