This month, I want to focus on a unique situation and period in gospel music, one not seen prior to its’ existence, and one not likely to be repeated again.
It was a time when the two biggest names in the gospel music world joined forces, and pretty much dominated the industry for over a decade.
Those names were the Blackwood Brothers and the Statesmen, and it stood to reason why they dominated gospel music in the 1950s and 1960s, for they were arguably the most musically proficient artists of their day.
The Blackwood Brothers were not formed with the idea of being the biggest name in the gospel music field, they were formed (like many artists’ careers were formed in the rural South in the early 20th century) as a means for the most musically gifted members of the family to escape the poverty of farm life. A deeply religious, close-knit family, the Blackwoods all enjoyed singing on their Mississippi farm from the turn of the 20th century all the way through the Great Depression.
It was at that time that the gospel music industry began to develop, and there were opportunities for singers to form groups, usually quartets, and make a name for themselves in that fledgling line of work.
The Blackwood boys (Roy, Doyle, and James) were all good singers, and Doyle was also a proficient guitarist. They began to sing everywhere they were able to get exposure, and by 1934, they, along with Roy’s son R.W., formed their very own gospel quartet.
Their career was briefly interrupted when the much older Roy accepted a call to preach away from Mississippi, so the other brothers pursued singing opportunities for a couple of years. By 1937, however, Roy returned home to Mississippi, and the Blackwood Brothers Quartet reformed and used radio and the standard practice of the time, acquiring the sponsorship of a music company, to garner bookings and radio affiliations wherever they could get them.
It didn’t hurt that the Blackwood Brothers soon became one of the better quartets in the entire gospel music business, so much so that by the late 1940s, they were on the verge of being at the very top of the gospel music profession.
It was about that time that a young, flamboyant, and driven person from South Carolina relocated to Atlanta with the dream of assembling the best quartet he could put together. Hovie Lister had put in a long apprenticeship with some of the finest names of the day in the industry, but he was now ready to put together what he envisioned as being the “perfect” quartet, and with the formation of the Statesmen Quartet in 1948, came very close to achieving just that.
By the turn of the 1950s, both quartets were drawing large audiences on a consistent basis. And they both developed fan followings of their own, and a good-natured rivalry developed between the quartets and their fans alike. And because both quartets were good for a full house wherever each would sing, really enterprising promoters began to book them together. Late in 1952, both quartets sang at Birmingham Central High School, and the place was packed with people, to such a degree that the fire department had to turn people away.
Hovie Lister remarked to James Blackwood, “James, we’ve got something here.”
Thus, the two quartets joined forces, and they were booked together as a unit.
Because of this, the combined quartets commanded higher prices than had ever been conceived of in the gospel music business. “The Team” (as they became known) was able as a result of this to wield a lot of power and influence in the industry.
Both quartets got recording contracts with RCA Records (then the biggest recording company in existence) . Both quartets also won the talent contests on Arthur Godfrey’s “Talent Scouts” TV program, one of the 1950s top TV shows. Gospel music has not received that kind of widespread exposure, before or since then. The Blackwood-Statesmen partnership “struck gold”, so to speak. They sold the most records, they got the highest pay, and their success had a lot to do with whatever success other groups would have.
On a practical level, it behooved the other artists in the industry to develop good relationships with the Blackwoods and the Statesmen. Groups like the Speer Family, the Oak Ridge Boys, and the Rebels benefited from those kinds of relationships. To be sure, riding the coattails of the team was a good way to guarantee yourself work if you were a gospel group. Similarly, if you didn’t have a good working relationship with them, you were more likely to struggle as far as getting places to sing.
The team did a lot for the business overall. In the late 1950s, they founded Skylite Records, and a lot of artists got to record under their auspices that otherwise had no place to record. The team was also instrumental in the founding of the National Quartet Convention in 1957, as well as being in the forefront of transportation accommodations for gospel singers, introducing the gospel singing world (and to a lesser extent, the entire entertainment field) to customized bus travel.
And if the team liked a group, that group would get booked with them in concert appearances, and would receive all the exposure needed to get a firm foothold on establishing itself.
The members of the Blackwoods and Statesmen became “stars”, among the biggest names in the gospel music business, and by the end of the 1950s, both the Blackwoods and Statesmen were making in the neighborhood of a half million dollars each year.
But in life, nothing lasts forever, and even the domination of the team could not last through the changes in society and the business that came ahead.
One of those changes had to do with the growth of television. Now we noted that television was one of the factors in propelling the team to the top of the industry, but as more and more groups ventured into it on their own, they began to develop fans on their own apart from the influence of the team.
The Speer Family, the Blue Ridge Quartet, and the Lewis Family all had successful TV shows that helped each of those groups develop their own fan bases. And another “team”, that of the Blue Ridge Quartet and the LeFevres, organized the “Gospel Singing Caravan” show in the early 1960s that helped put the focus on another group of gospel artists. And the success of the Florida Boys’ “Gospel Soundshop” program in the early 1960s led to the formation of the very successful “Gospel Singing Jubilee”, the most successful gospel music syndicated television show.
And even though the Blackwoods and Statesmen had their own successful TV shows, ”Singing Time In Dixie” followed by “Glory Road”, TV was one medium that they couldn’t dominate in the same way they dominated both the concert and the record media.
What probably was more responsible for the team’s declining influence on the gospel music industry was the changes in the music itself in the 1960s. The work of groups such as the Goss Brothers, the Couriers, the Imperials, the Oak Ridge Boys, and the Bill Gaither Trio and the parallel development of the contemporary Christian music scene created a change in the musical appetite of the gospel music fan, and the influence of the Blackwoods and Statesmen declined markedly as a result. The Blackwoods even went through a period in the mid-1960s where they became more interested in a church audience rather than the traditional gospel music customer base.
Both groups tried to keep up with the emerging trends in gospel music, but instead of leading the way as they had in the past, they were merely followers. The balance of power in the gospel music world had shifted, and it was apparent that the Blackwoods and Statesmen were no longer at the forefront of it, so by the end of 1967, the two quartets dissolved their partnership.
Such was the nature of the business that no other such “team” even approached the prestige and the power of the Blackwood-Statesmen team. The Blue Ridge-LeFevre team, even though they had a flurry of productivity with the emergence of Sing Records in the 1960s, pretty much fell apart after the demise of the Caravan, and although their have been overtures toward other such arrangements, there were really no other “teams” that followed in the footsteps of the Blackwoods and the Statesmen.
But in the 15 years it lasted, what a wonderful alliance it was! Some of the best gospel music ever recorded was done so under the auspices or influence of the Blackwood-Statesmen team, and the National Quartet Convention survives as sort of a legacy of it. It’s arguable that gospel music has never quite regained the general popular and cultural acceptance that it had when “the team” was at its’ peak of power and influence.
Individually and collectively, the work of “the team” represents one of the most exciting periods in the history of gospel music, and it is my hope that this article did a good job in recapping the highlights of that most exciting period in gospel music history.
See you all next month.
 Blackwood Brothers, early 1950s. |  Blackwood Brothers, 1959. |
 Cover of Blackwoods-Statesmen RCA Christmas album, 1962. |  Statesmen Quartet, 1955 |
Author: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
Written: 07/14/2010
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Category: SG History 101
Comments: 8
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Another good article John! The influence these two groups had is responsible for many groups that followed in their footsteps and helped make Gospel music what it is today!
Seems like there has been several attempts to copy this "team" concept. Didn't the Kingsmen and Gold City do some dates together as KingsGold? And didn't the McKameys and Inspirations do some traveling as a tour team? Also I thought I could remember the Oak Ridge Boys, the Rambos and another group traveling together and even doing some singing/production/acting together.
J.D. Summer and the Stamps were part of that team with the Rambos. There was a play involved but the name escapes me.
For a time around 1970(could have been that year or a year either way)the Stamps, Ramobos, and the Oak Ridge Boys did a package tour called the Gospel Festival Show.
The Stamps and the Imperials used that concept for a while also.
I took that picture!! It's from my album I have of them "The Sensational Statesmen with Hovie Lister", every song on it was written by Big Chief Wetherington!You can find the pic on the Statesmen fan page on Facebook.
I believe the name of the play that the Stamps, Rambos and the Oaks did was "The Three Nails." I saw it in Harrisburg at a Couriers program at the Pennsylvania Farm Show arena. The play was good in presenting the Gospel, but I had to laugh. Every one in the play had a southern accent (maybe they were all from southern Isreal), which was very noticeable up north in Harrisburg,
I enjoyed the article, as I always do. I would contend, however,that the Gaither Homecoming Series would also fit, or arguably, top this statement about the Statesmen/Blackwoods team, and their influence on gospel music.....but only because you included the future in your time range.
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