As the owner of this website, it has been a professional highlight for me to build this showcase for one of South Carolina’s finest offerings – the Dixiana band. As a musician it was a personal joy and honor to work so closely with Mark and Phil Lister while putting it all together, thank you gentlemen for the opportunity.
There is so much one can say about Dixiana, the talent, the songs, the look and feel of the band and how they presented themselves to the world in such a professional manner as to make our state so proud. One of my biggest take-aways as I worked on this showcase was discovering that not only were they a world class act, but they were also fans themselves as noted during their Nashville and Grand Ole’ Opry period. One more attribute that solidifies their place and value in the musical landscape of South Carolina.
A wonderful band and good folks too, we are blessed to call them ours.
Dixiana evolved from a group, The Country Masters, formed in the 1960s by brothers Mark and Phil Lister who hosted a weekly TV show, “Carolina Country”, on WSPA in Spartanburg, SC, from 1972 to 1976. In 1982, the band changed their name to Dixiana and began commuting to Nashville where they landed a deal with Grand Prize Records. Their debut single, “Dixie Anna”, went to number one in several small markets across the Southeast.
The group was scheduled to appear on Nashville Now in 1986 when they suddenly lost their original lead singer; fortunately, the Listers' childhood friend, Cindy Murphy, formerly a member of the bluegrass Wooden Nickel Band, agreed to be their primary vocalist. The band was composed of five members: brothers Mark (bass guitar, vocals) and Phil Lister (guitar, vocals), Randall Griffith (keyboards), "Colonel" Wayne Shuford (drums), and Cindy Murphy (lead vocals).
When a severe drought hit the South in the summer of 1986, a group of Midwestern farmers sent truckloads of hay across the country to the desperate farmers in the Carolinas. Dixiana was called upon to write a song of gratitude to the Midwestern farmers for their gesture of kindness. Teaming with long time friend Buddy Brock, the group wrote and recorded the song “Spirit Of The Land” which featured a video with 1500 people spelling out the words “Thank You”. The drought and the expression of gratitude garnered national attention from major news outlets and opened new doors in Nashville for the quintet. One of those doors was with singer/songwriter Keith Stegall, who had just begun producing new artists, and would eventually become one of Nashville's premier producers, with acts such as Alan Jackson, Randy Travis, and The Zac Brown Band. Under his guidance, the group recorded several projects developing their unique sound. One of these projects caught the attention of Bob Montgomery, the head of the A&R department at Sony Music, and he signed the group to a recording contract on Epic Records in 1992. They released their self-titled debut album that year, It produced three singles and a fourth single was released in 1993.
In March of 1992, Sony released a video of the groups debut single, “Waitin' For The Deal To Go Down”. The video, shot in LA, received immediate attention and became a “Pick Hit” on CMT and Nashville Network's Video Country. The single was released to radio a week later peaking at #39 on Billboard’s Hot Country Singles & Tracks chart and staying on the chart for 20 weeks, making it their highest charting single to date. The follow-up single “That’s What I’m Working On Tonight” peaked at #40 on Billboard’s Hot Country Singles & Tracks chart, staying on the chart for 13 weeks. The last single released from the album “Now You’re Talkin'” peaked at #66 on Billboard’s Hot Country Singles & Tracks chart, staying on the chart for 3 weeks spurring TV appearances on shows Celebrity Outdoors, Crook and Chase, Nashville Now, On Stage, Farm Aid and The Grand Ole Opry. Dixiana continued touring the country, performing at such prestigious venues as The Roxy in LA, The Spectrum in PA, the Houston Astrodome, the Kemper Arena in KS, and the Land Mark in Las Vegas.
Dixiana disbanded in 1995, but they independently released their last album to date titled “The Gospel Truth”, an album of gospel standards.
Mark and Phil Lister co-founded a recording studio located in Nashville called Dixiana Music. The two also worked with indie labels RowPro Records and Red Horse Records as producers and A&R specialists. They offer artist management services and two publishing companies, Double Springs Publishing (BMI) and Mr. Lister (ASCAP); Cindy Murphy (now Cindy Murphy Orr) works as a worship minister and speaker in the Greenville, South Carolina area; Colonel Shuford is a member of a band called 45 Cherry and Randall Griffith is the owner and operator of a production audio recording facility called Harrison Entertainment Group.
The band was inducted into the South Carolina Entertainment & Music Hall of Fame on June 3rd, 2023.
