The Blackwood Brothers

The Blackwood Brothers Quartet
The Blackwood Brothers Quartet in 1965
Background information
Origin	Mississippi, U.S.
Genres	Southern gospel
Instruments	Vocals, piano
Years active	1934–present
Labels	RCA Victor, Skylite
Associated acts	The Statesmen Quartet
Website	blackwoodbrothers.com blackwoodartist.com
Members	Billy Blackwood Wayne Little Butch Owens Michael Helwig Mike Hammontree

The Blackwood Brothers are an American southern gospel quartet. They are nine-time Grammy Award-winning pioneers of the Christian music industry.

The Blackwood Brothers Quartet were formed in 1934 in the midst of the Great Depression when preacher Roy Blackwood (1900–71) moved his family back home to Choctaw County, Mississippi. His brothers, Doyle Blackwood (1911–74) and 15-year-old James Blackwood (1919–2002), already had some experience singing with Vardaman Ray and Gene Catledge. After adding Roy's 13-year-old son, R.W. Blackwood (1921–54), 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.

Doyle left in 1942 and was replaced by Don Smith. After Doyle left, The Quartet relocated to Memphis, Tennessee in 1950. The move proved to be successful for the group as they began to appear on television station WMCT in coming years. After the move, Roy left and was replaced with Calvin Newton, who was replaced with Cat Freeman, and after Freeman left, Alden Toney was hired to sing tenor. In 1951, Alden Toney and Don Smith left and were replaced with Dan Huskey and Bill Lyles.

In 1952, Dan Huskey left and was replaced by Bill Shaw. On June 14, 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 plane crash took the lives of R.W. Blackwood, Bill Lyles, and Johnny Ogburn, a local friend of the Blackwood Brothers. The survivors, James Blackwood, Bill Shaw, and Jackie Marshall soldiered on. R.W.'s little brother Cecil Blackwood (1934–2000) took over as baritone and J. D. Sumner replaced Bill Lyles at the bass position. According to Ken Berryhill, their producer it was at about this point in their career that they first crossed paths with the young Elvis Presley, with whom they became friends but had to discourage from joining them. In the following years, the group was the first to customize a bus to make travel spacious and comfortable for entertainers thereby inventing the customized "Tour Bus", something which many years later, when already the most famous singer in the planet Presley saw and went straight out and had one made for him. The Blackwood Brothers were, in fact, Presley's favorite gospel group which led them to form an enduring friendship and collaboration which lasted even beyond Presley's death.