The Blackwood Brothers Quartet is an American gospel music singing group.

Musical career

The group formed in 1934 in the midst of the Great Depression when preacher Roy Blackwood (1900-1971), moved his family back home to Mississippi. His brothers Doyle Blackwood (1911-1974), and James Blackwood (1919-2002) (only 15 at the time), already had some experience singing with Vardaman Ray and Gene Catledge. Adding Roy's 13-year-old son R. W. Blackwood (1921-1954), to sing baritone, the brothers began to travel and sing locally. By 1940, they were affiliated with Stamps-Baxter to sell songbooks and were appearing on 50,000-watt radio station KMA (AM) in Shenandoah, Iowa.

The quartet relocated to Memphis, Tennessee in 1950. The move proved to be profitable for the group as they began to appear on television station WMCT in coming years. On 14 June 1954, the Blackwood Brothers lineup of Bill Shaw (tenor), James Blackwood (lead), R. W. Blackwood (baritone), Bill Lyles (bass), and Jackie Marshall (piano), won the Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts competition on national television with their rendition of Have You Talked To The Man Upstairs? The excitement was short lived however, when a fatal plane crash in Clanton, Alabama just 16 days later claimed the lives of R. W. Blackwood and bass singer Bill Lyles, along with a local friend from Clanton, Johnny Ogburn. Bill Shaw, James Blackwood and Jackie Marshall soldiered on. R.W.'s little brother Cecil took over as baritone and J. D. Sumner replaced Lyles at the bass position. In the following years, he and James Blackwood put a number of innovative ideas into play. They were the first to customize a bus for group travel and are the founders of the National Quartet Convention. Sumner also contributed to the group as a songwriter, sometimes writing all the songs for a music album. The Blackwood Brothers were also setting new standards in the studio. Their RCA Victor recordings from this time period are now prized collectors' items. The lineup with Bill Shaw, James, Cecil, and J.D. Sumner (who for many years was unchallenged as the Guinness World Record holder for having the lowest human voice on record) is considered the classic version of the Blackwood Brothers Quartet, with Jackie Marshall or Wally Varner on piano. The Blackwood Brothers Quartet came up with the idea to customize the first bus to make travel spacious and comfortable for entertainers thereby inventing the customized "Tour Bus". Elvis Presley saw their bus and went straight out and had one made for him. A replica of the bus can be seen at the Southern Gospel Museum and Hall of Fame at Dollywood in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee.[1]