Still Feelin' Fine

Mosie Lister is one of gospel music’s greatest writers.  He started writing songs seventy years ago, and is still writing at the top of his artistry.

One of his best is a song called “Where No One Stands Alone” that the group I was in did the backup work for Stan Hitchcock for his first album back in 1960.  That was one of the many outstanding songs Lister has written over the years, songs such as “’Til the Storm Passes By,” “Goodbye World, Goodbye,” “How Long Has it Been?” “Then I Met the Master,” and “I’ve Been Changed.”  Even Elvis recorded on of his songs, “His Hand in Mine” which became the album title.

Mosie first gained notice when Hovie Lister (no relation) chose him as the first lead singer for the newly formed Statesmen in 1948.  He soon found that his great gift was songwriting and arranging.  He formed his own publishing company which later merged with Lillenas Music.  Mosie is still being published regularly by Lillenas.

Singing groups, and particularly quartets, loved his songs and recorded each new one before the ink on the paper dried.  In 1952 he wrote what became one of the most recorded and performed songs in Southern Gospel Music history, “Feelin’ Mighty Fine.”  Fifty years later he wrote another song he entitled “Still Feelin’Fine” which became a monster hit for the Booth Brothers in Southern Gospel Music.

Soon to be eighty-eight, Mosie is still writing and arranging.  He is a deacon at Riverside Baptist Church in Tampa, Florida, and even teaches a college age Sunday School class.  I guess Mosie Lister is “Still Feelin’ Fine.”