2008

SG History 101 - James Blackwood

Exactly three years ago, I wrote an article here about what probably was the most momentous day in gospel music history, the day of the 1954 plane crash that took the lives of two key members of the Blackwood Brothers Quartet.

Arguably, gospel music was never the same after that tragedy. Events were set in motion that to this day affect the gospel music world.

This month’s article is not here to relive and reset that event, but to commemorate one of the key people involved in the events of that day, and to celebrate him and his unparalleled contributions to the history of gospel music…namely, the man known to many of his peers as “Mr. Gospel Music”, James Blackwood.

Although James Blackwood ascended to the very top of his chosen profession, the road there was by no means easy for him, and his is a story of how commitment, determination, and faith can take a person far beyond their wildest dreams.

James Webre Blackwood was born August 4, 1919 in Choctaw County, Mississippi into a musical family that made its’ living from sharecropping. His father was a fiddler that belonged to a string band around the turn of the 20th century.

Along with music, church and prayer were basic components of the Blackwood home. Everyone sang, and as a young boy hunting squirrels and selling them for a quarter apiece, James was determined to make music a major part of his life.

When James turned 7, his older brother Doyle bought a mandolin. The two began singing duets, church songs along with folk songs of the day.

By the time James was 10, he and 18-year old Doyle became interested in attending a singing school just three miles from home. There was a problem…the tuition was $3 per person for the 10-night length of the school. What would these youngsters do?

Like most mothers, Mrs. Blackwood was able to find the answer to the boys’ dreams. She was able to sell enough of the chickens on their farm to raise the $6 to send James and Doyle to the school.

The school’s teacher, Vardaman Ray, was so impressed with the youngsters that he asked them if they’d like to sing in a quartet with him. The excited boys accepted, and soon the Choctaw County Jubilee Singers were born.

Both James and Doyle grew as singers in the short-lived group. The training they had given themselves by standing atop tree stumps and singing to the tops of their lungs was serving them well indeed.

The oldest Blackwood sibling Roy, 19 years James’ senior, got the urge to get a family quartet going. Soon Roy would enlist James and Doyle, then add his own son R.W., and form the very first Blackwood Brothers Quartet.

In the beginning, Roy would sing lead, R.W. alto, James a rather high baritone, and Doyle would sing the bass part and accompany the quartet on his mandolin. When James’ and R.W.’s voices changed, R.W. became the baritone, James the lead, and Roy moved up to tenor. This was the basic lineup of the quartet for nearly a decade.

Radio was a big tool in the young quartet’s rise up the ranks. From Kosciousko, Mississippi in 1934, the boys moved up to Jackson, Mississippi a year later, then on to Shreveport, Louisiana’s giant KWKH by 1939, where along the way they picked up a pianist, and a benefactor(the Stamps-Baxter Music Co.).

About that time, James would pick up a permanent addition to his life. A young lady named Miriam Grantham approached James after a singing, and she caught James’ eye immediately. The shy young James recognized her name from a fan letter she had written the quartet. In time she and James would fall in love, and on May 4, 1939, both James and his brother Doyle would tie their respective knots in a double-ring ceremony.

V.O. Stamps was so impressed with the quartet, that in 1940, he had them trade places with his brother Frank’s quartet and move to Shenandoah, Iowa…which might as well have been the North Pole for the enthusiastic young Southern boys.

The move proved to be fortuitous for the quartet…they established a fan base there, and because of station KMA’s strong signal, they managed to acquire fans in several Midwestern states and even into the Plains. The Blackwood Brothers were well on their way to being the leading quartet in the entire fledgling gospel music business.

But at that time in history, lives were being disrupted by the second World War…and the Blackwoods were no exception. The quartet had to disband, and James was drafted for service. Apparently the army wasn’t desperate, because James was rejected for armed service, and thus he relocated to San Diego, California to work as a welder in a defense plant.
During their time in California, James and Mim(as Miriam was known as)would have their first child, a boy named James Jr. in 1943. James missed singing with the quartet, though, and eventually wound up re-establishing the Blackwood Brothers while in San Diego. They were heard there on radio station KGB.

When the war ended, the quartet returned to Iowa and resumed their radio program and their hectic personal appearance schedule. They would soon break away from the Stamps-Baxter organization and move to Memphis in 1950, in part to be closer to their aging parents.

While all this was going on, James assumed more and more of the direct leadership of the quartet. He was becoming known as the onstage voice of the quartet, gradually taking over for brother Doyle, who would eventually leave the group for health reasons.

Besides doing all of that and growing as a singer, James was also acquiring a keen, creative business mind…and by 1951, the Blackwood Brothers signed a long-term record contract with RCA Victor, in many ways the leading record company in America.

In 1952, another son was born to James and Mim…Billy Blackwood was born.

By 1954, they had attracted enough attention to earn an invitation to appear on one of television’s top programs…the Arthur Godfrey Talent Scouts. On June 12, 1954 they won first place in the talent contest, which made them a national name. Characteristically, when R.W. wondered aloud to James as to whether or not to tone down their southern accents, James was quoted as saying, “No, let’s be ourselves. No false airs and graces. Let’s just let our little lights shine real natural like.”

Then on June 30, the aforementioned plane crash occurred, killing both R.W. and the quartet’s bass singer, Bill Lyles.

That tragedy affected James rather deeply. R.W. was more like a brother to James than even Roy or Doyle were, since there was only two years separating them in age. James’ grief was such that at first, he vowed to never sing again.

James, though, remembering his commitment to serving God in song, persevered. He got his nephew Cecil and an up-and coming bass singer named JD Sumner to replace R.W. and Lyles, and within two years, the Blackwood Brothers were back atop the gospel quartet world.

Along the way, in 1955 the quartet became the first gospel group to own a bus to take them from venue to venue. In 1956, the Blackwood Brothers organization started the National Quartet Convention. And also in 1956, the revamped quartet returned to Godfrey’s Talent Scouts…and won the contest again.

Many give JD Sumner the majority of the credit for those milestones, but in his autobiography, Sumner states that none of any of that would have happened if not for James’ vision and willingness to listen to new ideas and concepts, and then be bold enough to implement them.

The Blackwood Brothers would remain atop the gospel quartet field, but in 1965, they went through another major transition phase when Sumner left the group to sing and manage the Stamps Quartet.

James continued to lead on, both by deed and by example. He became more and more convinced to stress spiritual themes in the quartet’s repertoire and onstage countenance. As such, the Blackwood Brothers became more evangelistic in their basic approach to gospel music.

By the end of the 1960s, James was beginning to consider “cutting back” on his singing presence. So he boldly decided to bring both his sons into the quartet. James, Jr.(known to gospel music fans as Jimmy)would replace his father on the lead part, while Billy would play the drums and sing on specialty songs.

As long as James was continuing to appear with the quartet, people kept coming to their concerts and buying their records. But by 1985, James would go into a new venture. He would join old friends JD Sumner, Jake Hess, Hovie Lister, and Rosie Rozell in the Masters V. That group was only supposed to be a part-time group, but ever the go-getter, James could not resist booking them for more and more dates.

Finally, by 1993, James left the Masters Five, because by that time he wanted to sing on his own terms, and not be tied up on the road each and every night at his age.

But James would not be gone for long. He got Larry Ford, Ray Shelton, and Ken Turner from the Blackwood Brothers to form the James Blackwood Quartet. This was a fine quartet that sang together for a number of years.

Even in 1999, James was still doing 75 appearances per year, some with his quartet, others just by himself. He was also seen frequently on the Bill Gaither Homecoming videos.

Even nearing 80, James still had a powerful, clear voice. That voice was finally stilled though, on February 3, 2002…when James Blackwood finally passed away, due to complications from a stroke.

James Blackwood, first and foremost, had a powerful tenor voice that could be heard seemingly miles away. His range was quite large…he was capable of handling baritone chores, and especially in falsetto, he was able to sing higher than almost every first tenor he ever sang with.

The number of popular songs he was featured on is long, including “How About Your Heart”, “Aloha Time”, “The Lord’s Prayer”, “I Walked Today Where Jesus Walked”(the author’s favorite James Blackwood reading), “The Night Before Easter”, and “I’ll Meet You In The Morning”.

James Blackwood is perhaps the most honored singer in gospel music history. He is a nine-time Grammy Award winner, and still holds the record for most nominations with 31(28 in a row!)…he is a seven-time Dove winner, and was voted into the Gospel Music Association Hall of Fame in 1974, and the Southern Gospel Music Hall of Fame in 1997.

In addition, in 1983 the Golden State University awarded him an honorary Doctoral Degree of Music…in 1986 Memphis State University gave him their Distinguished Achievement award in the field of communications and fine arts. And in 1994 he won the Singing News magazine’s Marvin Norcross Award, followed in 1997 by the Gospel Voice magazine’s Living Legend award.

Finally, in 2001, James Blackwood was presented with the General Superintendent’s Medal of Honor from the Assemblies of God, the highest recognition from that denomination.

But more than all that, James Blackwood was a man of consummate dignity and class. Sometimes called the “Frank Sinatra of gospel music”, James was most comfortable not with acclaim or stardom, but with being the best person he could possibly be. As his son Jimmy said, “It didn’t matter if someone was Elvis or the lady in the post office…he had time for everybody.” This author is here to lend a hearty “Amen” to that, for he had time for me as well…even though I didn’t have the privilege to meet him that often in my lifetime.

Because of his personal attributes along with his peerless vocal talent, James Blackwood is someone we can always look to as an example, a role model, and an inspiration.