Blackwood Gospel Quartet - A Concert Review

On a tip from my good friend John Crenshaw, my wife and I were privileged to take in a wonderful evening of Southern Gospel Quartet music with the Blackwood Gospel Quartet the other night, March 12, 2006 at Bethlehem Christian Church near Elon College, North Carolina. While actually finding the place in the middle of nowhere was a doting task, after arriving and taking in the wonderful music, it was well worth the find!

Currently consisting of Cecil Blackwood’s son, Mark Blackwood, along with former Kingsmen/Carolina Boys members Bryan Hutson and Derrick Boyd and former Dove Brothers Quartet bass, Burman Porter, the name “Blackwood” is a name synonymous with Southern Gospel Music. As far as I am concerned, the name represents Southern Gospel royalty and has proven itself to be one of the most respected names in not only gospel music circles, but in all musical genres. Not many groups have that reputation to boast about.

Anyway, we arrived about 30 minutes before the service was to begin, and as we looked to the platform, we realized we arrived not long after the group did; as they had gotten lost and arrived late. After setting up and getting dressed, about 20 minutes after the service was to begin, the Blackwood Gospel Quartet hit the stage with the quartet classic, “Your First Day in Heaven”. Going through several time honored favorites like “Because He Lives”, “Jesus is Coming Soon”, “The Lighthouse”, “Who am I” and “How Great Thou Art”, the crowd of probably over 250 continued to give their approval to the music they heard. The group also did several songs popularized by some of the groups the members had been a part of in the past like “Getcha to the Other Side”, “Glory Road”, “Come and See the Rising Son” (Bryan Hutson turned in a phenomenal performance on this song!) and “Gonna Rise”. My one gripe was I felt like I was at a Kingsmen/Dove Brothers Quartet concert instead of the Blackwood’s, but they did churn out one old Blackwood favorite, “The Old Country Church”, which was great to hear.

After the usual break for the offering and sales pitch, the group (who was without a piano player) took requests from the audience before John Crenshaw was called upon to help play the piano for the group. It was neat hearing some of the songs being called out from the audience and hearing the group tackle some of them on the spot like “He Touched Me”, “The Old Ship of Zion” (excellent performance of this old Kingsmen favorite), “Sweet Beulah Land”, “House of Gold”, “I’m Feeling Fine”, “Victory in Jesus”, “Peace in the Valley”, “Mansion Over the Hilltop”, “I’ll Fly Away”, “Til the Storm Passes By” and another Blackwood standard, “I’ll Meet you in the Morning”. One interesting tune that was called out was the parody to the Oak Ridge Boys tune, “Go Jonah” (“Elvira”), but the guys pulled it off, much to the crowd’s delight.

Before the night was over, Derrick Boyd shared his testimony of being adopted as a child, and finally coming to meet his real family 6 years ago through some interesting circumstances; after which the group turned in an acapella rendition of the classic, “Oh What a Savior”. Bryan Hutson gave a very touching and heartfelt invitation to the tune of “I Surrender All”, before the evening closed nearly 2 hours after it had began.

It was a great night hearing some great singing by some great singers. All 4 vocalists are stellar vocalists in their own right, and putting them together in one quartet makes for a rich sound and one I’d love to hear again soon. I look forward to hearing them on a recording soon.

Cream of the Crop

If I may borrow an idea from my friend David Bruce Murray, I’d like to give special mentions to a few releases over the past couple of months that I think are the cream of the crop.

Crabb Family – “Blur the Lines”
This is an exceptional piece of work. Not many artists can pull off what the Crabb Family did with this new release by recording all previously recorded works and making each song unique and different from the original. The Crabb Family took each song, and made it their very own. It’s almost like a recording of all new material. It’s a fun recording to listen to and is a defining moment for them.

Brian Free & Assurance – “It’s so God”
I will admit, while I have always liked and enjoyed their music, I would not consider myself a big fan of their music…that is until now. This new recording is absolutely phenomenal and Brian Free & Assurance has set a new standard and this recording will be the benchmark whereby all other quartet recordings will be measured by. This a career recording, and one that I believe people will still be talking about 20-30 years from now.

Mark Lowry – “Be the Miracle”
For some reason, there hasn’t been a lot of fan fair with this release, but there should be. I never thought Mark could top previous vocal release from a few years ago, “But Seriously”, but he did. I was never overly impress with his last vocal release, “Some Things Never Change” and was pretty much expecting a similar opinion of this, but I was dead wrong. This is and will be one of the best releases for 2006. It’s a superb piece of work and masterfully done.

Gaither Vocal Band – “Give it Away”
This recording probably ranks as one of the most anticipated releases over the past year. For me, there is a lot to love about this new recording. This is the best one since “God is Good”, which I rank as their best effort ever. Though there are a ton of previously recorded tunes, much like the Crabb Family’s new release, they are done with fresh, new arrangements and have captured a newfound excitement, not previously accomplished by other artists.