By Dean Poling
VALDOSTA — Call it divine appointment or perfect timing, but the right question was asked at the right time to bring the legendary gospel group the Blackwood Quartet to Valdosta next weekend.
Last Thanksgiving weekend, Terry Rountree watched the Grammy-winning group at the Blackwood theatre in Pigeon Forge. Rountree is the supervisor of the Valdosta High School Performing Arts Center and a member of Greenwood Baptist Church.
Following the show, Rountree approached the quartet’s leader Ron Blackwood. He told Blackwood he’d like to see the group in Valdosta. Normally, the Blackwoods’ commitment to the Pigeon Forge theatre would make traveling for a show impossible.
As Ron Blackwood told The Valdosta Daily Times Friday in a phone interview, the Blackwoods were at a point of transition.
“We’re coming off 19 years in theatres,” Blackwood said. “We were in Branson then Pigeon Forge.” The Blackwood Quartet was ready to return to the road, different stages, more spontaneous shows, a changing line-up of songs.
“There’s nothing wrong with theatre,” Ron Blackwood said, “but we were ready for a different atmosphere.”
Earlier last fall, the Blackwoods had already informed the theatre that the group was leaving Pigeon Forge at year’s end. Terry Rountree asked about a Valdosta show as the Blackwood Quartet was looking for new places to perform.
The Valdosta show is an opening page in the latest chapter of the Blackwood Quartet’s storied career.
As a singing group, the Blackwoods started in 1934 in Mississippi. It was completely a family singing group at that time. A family of sharecroppers turned harmonious gospel-singing quartet. At first, the Blackwoods was composed of Ron Blackwood’s father, R.W. Blackwood Sr., uncles Doyle and James, and Ron’s grandfather, Roy Blackwood.
Twenty years of playing churches and other venues, the Blackwood Brothers Quartet won “Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts” singing “The Man Upstairs” on television. Two weeks following this big break, two of the Blackwood members, including Ron Blackwood’s father, were killed in a plane crash. The group added two new members, Cecil Blackwood and J.D. Sumner.
By 1956, the group founded the first National Quartet Convention, which has become a long-standing gospel tradition. Given his love of gospel music, Elvis Presley attended many of the conventions held in Memphis. He struck up a friendship with the Blackwood Brothers, singing “How Great Thou Art” backstage with them on one visit. In 1958, when Gladys Presley, Elvis’ mother, died, he asked the Blackwood Brothers Quartet to sing at her funeral. The group chartered a plane to Memphis to sing “Rock of Ages,” “I Am Redeemed,” “Precious Lord Take My Hand,” “In The Garden,” and “Precious Memories” at the service.
Through the years, the Blackwoods have won nine Grammy Awards, 27 Dove Awards, and five All-American Awards. The group has recorded numerous albums and made many television appearances. In more recent years, the Blackwoods’ version of “Will the Circle Be Unbroken” was included in the Johnny Cash movie “Walk the Line.” A Blackwood song is also part of the soundtrack for Oliver Stone’s George W. Bush biopic, “W.,” a movie which Blackwood admitted he has not seen.
On tour, Ron Blackwood is joined by John Rulapaugh, tenor; Josh Garner, lead; Tracy Trent, baritone; Trent Adams, bass. Joe Cox accompanies the group on piano/keyboard. During the past few weeks, the Blackwood Quartet has participated in a Nashville tribute to Barbara Mandrell and is working with Willie Nelson in the coming weeks.
“I got on the bus just last night and told the guys, ‘I’m more excited, more passionate than I have been in a long time. It’s like God has given me another chance.’ I told the guys, ‘Never lose your passion.’”
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Greenwood Baptist Church sponsors the Blackwood Quartet with opening act, local gospel group Victory Song.
Where: Valdosta High School Performing Arts Center, off North Forrest Street.
When: Saturday, May 2, starts with a 5:30 p.m. spring festival on the grounds; Victory Song at 6:30 p.m.; Blackwood Quartet, 7 p.m.
Tickets: $10, adult; $8, student; free, ages 4 and under. Advance tickets available at Potters House, Ray Norton Tire, Greenwood Baptist Church. Group rates available at $9 per adult for 15 or more people.
