Free Concert, Feb. 4
The community is invited to a free gospel concert at 7 p.m., Friday, Feb. 4, at First Baptist Church of Olney (FBCO), featuring the Fabulous Blackwood Quartet (FBQ). This group has a legendary story, and it comes through in every song. FBCO will take up a love offering for the Blackwood Quartet.
Mark Blackwood and the FBQ sing gospel music around the world. According to the quartet’s biography, the Blackwood name is legendary in the gospel music industry. Roy Blackwood, Doyle Blackwood, their youngest brother James, along with Roy’s oldest son R.W. Blackwood, founded the original quartet in the hills of Choctaw County, Mississippi in 1934.
The Blackwood Brothers performed at camp meetings and other church and community events throughout the 1930s. Then, in 1940, they moved to Shenandoah, Iowa, where they had a live broadcast on the radio.
In 1954, they appeared on Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts on CBS. They won first place and received a recording contract with RCA. They became the first gospel group to sell a million records.
On June 30, 1954, the quartet lost two of its own as R.W. Blackwood and Bill Lyles died in an airplane crash in Clanton, Alabama. Following the plane crash, the FBQ re-built with Cecil Blackwood singing baritone and J.D. Sumner singing bass.
The Blackwood Brothers were the first group to travel by bus. The Blackwood Brothers’ original bus replica was displayed for years at the Southern Gospel Music Hall of Fame and Museum in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee.
Recording more than 200 albums and touring 47 countries, the Blackwood Brothers have won eight Grammy Awards, 27 Dove Awards, and the Gospel Music Association inducted James/Blackwood Brothers into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame in 1974. In addition, Cecil Blackwood, James Blackwood and J.D. Sumner were founders of the National Quartet Convention.
Mark Blackwood now continues the legacy of the Blackwood Brothers through the Blackwood Quartet. Mark traveled with his dad, Cecil Blackwood, for many years. The Blackwood Quartet does not take its heritage nor the responsibility of integrity in music lightly.
Join them at FBCO Olney for a fantastic night of music.