Although the Blackwood Brothers are thought of primarily as a southern gospel quartet (they began performing publicly in Mississippi), they spent a number of years in Iowa, initially between 1940 and 1944, then again between 1945 and 1950 (see here for details).
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| For additional photos of the Blackwood Brothers, see here. |
For part of this time they had a regular radio presence on Shenandoah’s KMA 960 AM (three shows a day), but they also performed throughout the wider region, in Iowa, Nebraska, Missouri, Kansas, Minnesota, and North and South Dakota.
In addition, the Blackwoods and the Stamps-Baxter Music Company offered music schools every summer, possibly more often. So it was that sometime in the early 1940s Grandma spent several weeks learning from and singing with the Blackwood Brothers. For a video of the 1951 members singing “He Bought My Soul,” see here; all but the bass singer were the same as when Grandma attended the school of music.
If I understand correctly, Grandpa and some of the kids drove from Lushton to Shenandoah when the school session was finished, and everyone participated in an all-night sing-along. As always, if any of the kids have additional details or memories of that time to share, we all would love to hear more. I, for one, am curious about a number of things:
- What prompted Grandma to want to attend the Blackwood Brothers school? Did she attend one of their performances? Did the family listen to the Blackwood Brothers on KMA? Did something else lead her to attend?
- Did Grandma ever perform solo or in a singing group other than a church choir?
- What was it like for eight kids to be taken care of for several weeks by Grandpa?
- Does anyone recall exactly what year Grandma attended the school?
- How long did the trip to Shenandoah and back take?
- What was the family car at that time?
Inquiring Buller minds want to know!
1 comment:
This is so interesting. I had never heard about this before!
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