The New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture by Wilson Charles Reagan Malone Bill C

Author:Wilson, Charles Reagan, Malone, Bill C.
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press
Published: 2008-04-05T16:00:00+00:00

Dixie Hummingbirds

GOSPEL MUSIC GROUP.

The Dixie Hummingbirds, a gospel “quartet,” most of whose members were from South Carolina, began their long recording career in the late 1930s with the selection “When the Gates Swing Open” (Decca 7645). Ira Tucker, their famous lead singer, joined the group in 1940, soon followed by Willie Bobo, their well-known bass singer. The Birds, as they came to be known, consisted by 1945 of James Walker, Ira Tucker, William Bobo, Beachey Thompson, and James Davis, the original leader. Guitarist Howard Carroll joined the quartet in the early 1950s. (Male groups were usually referred to as “quartets,” even though most of them consisted of five or six members.)

The recording of black quartets singing spirituals and gospel songs began with the Dinwiddie Colored Quartet’s 1902 Victor recording of “Down on the Old Camp Ground.” The performing style, musical structure, and vocal literature of quartets changed in the 1930s, and the Birds arrived toward the end of the transitional period, so that they, together with the Blind Boys of Mississippi, the Soul Stirrers of Tyler, Tex., the Blue Jays of Alabama, the Pilgrim Travelers, and the Spirit of Memphis, became the first of the more modern gospel quartets.

Other than the Golden Gate Quartet, a very popular transitional group, the Birds were the only gospel quartet to achieve a measure of success with white listeners. They have always been regarded as among the foremost of the quartets by black audiences. Their first interracial success came during 1942 at Café Society Downtown, in New York City, where they received a standing ovation. Their second such success came in 1966, at the Newport Folk Festival. Finally, a million or more young white listeners became acquainted with them in 1973 when they were included on Paul Simon’s “Loves Me Like a Rock,” on his successful album There Goes Rhymin’ Simon.

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