A Gospel Music Life

Billy Blackwood, Xulon Press - November 9, 2020
ISBN-13: 9781631291357
Book Format: Paperback

$11.24$11.24 Retail: MSRP: $14.98 25% off
 

UPC # 9781631291357

Product Description

What do Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Tammy Wynette, Larry Gatlin, Barbara Mandrell, The Oak Ridge Boys, The Statler Brothers, and The Everly Brothers have in common? They were all influenced in their formative years by gospel music legends, The Blackwood Brothers Quartet!

Billy Blackwood, the son of multi-Grammy Award winning, James Blackwood, Sr., tells the inside story of this gospel music dynasty, their formation and chart-topping career, their triumphs and tragedies. A Gospel Music Life takes us behind the scenes of one of the most influential families in American music history and reveals the personal struggles and subsequent reemergence of Billy Blackwood, the current leader of the Blackwood Brothers Quartet.

Billy Blackwood has spent the majority of his life in music. Billy's dad, James, was an original member of the Blackwood Brothers Quartet. The Blackwood Brothers began in Mississippi in the 1930's and have taken gospel music around the world. They were an early influence on Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, the Statler Brothers, the Everly Brothers, Barbara Mandrell and the Mandrell Sisters, Larry Gatlin and the Gatlin Brothers, and many others.

Billy began traveling with the Blackwood Brothers as a teenager, making the career switch to secular music in the mid-seventies as part of Voice, an opening act with the Elvis Presley show. Billy also played drums with J. D. Sumner & The Stamps Quartet in his early years, as well as with contemporary Christian musical artists Andrus, Blackwood & Co. Billy is currently the leader/manager of the Blackwood Brothers Quartet, singing approximately 120 concerts a year in the U.S., Canada and abroad. Billy is married to his beautiful wife, Cherry, and has five children, four stepchildren, four grandkids and one on the way.