Blackwood Brothers
In any genre of music, there are specific individuals that are considered the pioneers or those who transcend a musical generation. Southern Gospel music is no different. With its origins deeply rooted in the early 1900's based on Christian lyrics and backed by American early music styles such as bluegrass it has its own history of transcendent artists.
Considered one of the founders of Southern Gospel music James D. Vaughan was one of the original pioneers. Born 1864 in Tennessee James was a music teacher, a composer and a songbook publisher. In 1900, he started the James D. Vaughan music publishing company and the Vaughan school of music in 1911 where many gospel performers studied in the coming years. In the year previous 1910, he pioneered the concept of selling songbooks on the road when he assembled the first professional quartet and sent them on the road. Vaughan also founded one of the very first radio stations in Tennessee in 1922 that broadcast Southern Gospel music up until 1930. In addition, he founded Vaughan phonograph records, which is the first recording company in the south. It is easy to see why Vaughan is considered the pioneer of Southern Gospel music and why he was inducted into the southern Gospel music Hall of Fame in 1997.
You cannot speak about James D. Vaughan without mentioning Charles Davis Tillman. Tillman is also considered one of the pioneers of modern Southern Gospel music. Born 1861 in Alabama as the youngest son of a Baptist preacher, Tillman has been credited with integrating African-American spirituals into traditional Christian music. As a singer and composer, he was introduced to the spiritual "The Old-Time Religion" at a very young age where he wrote his own version and exposed it to the white churchgoers and southerners to this new type of sound. In doing so this blend of music eventually became known as Southern Gospel and influenced a generation of artists such as Elvis Presley and Buddy Holly. Tillman went on to write dozens of songs one of which being the most popular "Life's Railway to Heaven" that influenced generations. Tillman has been memorialized at the southern Gospel music Hall of Fame and the Gospel music Hall of Fame.
Carrying on the Southern music legacy are the Blackwood Brothers. Formed in 1934 with brothers Roy Blackwood, Doyle Blackwood, James Blackwood, and R.W Blackwood began singing together as a quartet. By 1940, they were already on the road selling songbooks and singing on the radio in Iowa. The quartet over the years has had many lineup changes of family members and non-family members but overall has been influential in the Southern Gospel music business for 76 years. They inspired generations of quartets that followed them such as the Kingsmen Quartet, the Statesmen Quartet and the Oak Ridge boys.
Some of the most influential Southern artists of modern day have over the years been comprised of such artists as Elvis Presley, the Oak Ridge boys to some of today's artists like Ernie Hasse & the signature sound. Over the many generations, there have been hundreds of Southern artists responsible for paving the way for the next generation and to mention some would mean missing more. The previously mentioned pioneers of the ones that started it all and they are legacy will inspire future artists as well.
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Hymn Time # 136 Blackwood Brothers On The Jericho Road
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