The Blackwood Brothers
The Blackwood Brothers , consisting of the brothers Roy Blackwood (* December 24, 1900 in Fentress, Mississippi ; † March 21, 1971 ), Doyle Blackwood (* August 22, 1911 in Ackerman , Mississippi; † 1974 ) and James Blackwood (* 4 August 1919 in Ackerman, Mississippi; † February 3, 2002 in Memphis , Tennessee ), were an American gospel quartet that had their greatest successes in the 1950s and 1960s.
Beginnings
In 1934 the brothers Roy, Doyle and James Blackwood formed a band together that sang in churches and at local events. Even then they mixed old hillbilly music , an early form of country music, with gospel . Later the son of Roy Blackwood, RW, joined the group. In 1937 they moved to Koscinsko, Mississippi, and appeared there on a local radio station, in 1938 they moved to Jackson, Mississippi, and appeared there regularly on the radio station WJDX , which was already broadcasting all over the southern United States. The group's popularity slowly increased, and they moved to Shreveport , Louisiana . When they signed with the VO Stamps label, the most successful marketer of gospel music, they had actually made the leap into fame, but the Blackwoods separated during World War II.
The breakthrough
In 1946 the Blackwood Brothers reunited, but without Doyle, who was replaced by Don Smith . Doyle then founded the Blackwood Gospel Quartet . When the rest of the Blackwood brothers founded their own music publishing company, Doyle's band also made a start in the music business. In 1950, the brother Roy who had left the company was replaced by Bill Lyles . Shortly thereafter, they moved to Memphis, Tennessee and signed with RCA . Their first session took place in 1952, from 1954 they also appeared on television.
On June 30, 1954, RW Blackwood and Bill Lyles died in a plane crash in Alabama . The group did not want to appear again afterwards. With the new singers JD Sumner and Cecil Blackwood , Roy Blackwood's other son, they recorded again until the mid-1960s for RCA and Skylite, almost all of which had great success. In 1967 they received the first of eight Grammys . James Blackwood won a total of seven Dove Awards in the 1970s and was inducted into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame .
In 2005, her cover version of Jimmie Davis ' Live Was There When It Happened was used on the Johnny Cash -Biopic Walk the Line .
Most famous title
- Won't We Be Happy
- When He Put A Little Sunshine In
- The Family Of God
- Songs That Answer Questions
- Something beautiful
- Let's Just Praise The Lord
- It is finished
- I'm Winging My Way Back Home
- Jesus Is Lord Of All
- I Love To Be Alone With Jesus
- Jesus Walked That Lonesome Valley
- The Old Country Church