JAMES BLACKWOOD
The Miracle

By Art Greenhaw
July, 1992

Concert tours had taken James to Leningrad, Russia and Seoul, South Korea, and millions of Americans had heard his majestic, virtuoso voice and seen his famous rared-back profile with the head that always seems to be looking up on the NBC-TV series, "The Barbara Mandrell Show" and at Billy Graham evangelistic crusades.

On September 9, 1980, James was a featured part of a three hour Gospel sing on the south lawn of the White House. An invitation was extended to James and the entire Blackwood Brothers Quartet, but when the group had to fulfill prior bookings in Texas, James himself answered the Presidential summons and flew to Washington, D.C. for the sing. James remembers: "The President and Mrs. Carter sat on blankets right down in front, and they both took their shoes off--real laid back..."

In 1981, James and four other well-known Gospel greats--Hovie Lister, Jake Hess, J.D. Sumner, and Rosie Rozell--formed the Masters Five. The personnel was all at hand, and the timing was perfect for a team of fabulous, veteran Gospel singers.

In 1983, Golden State University bestowed an honorary Doctorate of Music degree upon James, a first for a Gospel singer.

James's sons, Jimmy and Billy, had developed thriving music and evangelistic ministries, and in addition to a strong and productive solo music ministry, James had launched a new quartet, which carried the full James Blackwood name at the unanimous insistence of all the group's members. Many fans were saying the new James Blackwood Quartet was James's best quartet ever, with a sound much like the old Blackwoods, and a vocal blend as smooth as silk.

James's trophy wall contained nine Grammys, seven Dove awards, four Singing News fan awards, the Cash Box living legend award, and proclamations and certificates from the Gospel Music Hall of Fame, Memphis State University, the State of Texas, and others.

If James Blackwood was in a particularly contemplative and philosophical mood in the summer of 1991, he might have thought about how he was the only living member of the original Blackwood Brothers Quartet left to fight the good fight, to keep the faith. Of all those who had gone on before to claim their crown of righteousness--his brothers and original Blackwood Brothers Quartet members Roy and Doyle, his nephew and Quartet member R.W., Quartet member Bill Lyles, his mother Carrie, his father Emmet, his sister Lena--only James remained on this side of the river of life, to always be steady, to do the work of an evangelist, to fulfill his and their ministry, and most of all, to sing...to sing.

And how James could still sing! That virtuoso voice of his--able to overwhelm in any of its manifestations, be it falsetto (high register), head (middle), or chest (low) voice--had never faded in fifty-seven years of professional singing, nor lost its power, its tone, or its ability to sharply articulate words like a choir book phonetic annotation.

In the early summer of 1991, James's only concession to his spirited seventy-plus years of age might be no longer modulating twice and going up to the high A on Bill Gather's mighty tune, "It Is Finished"; opting instead for a high A flat. And Al Brumley's "I'll Meet You In The Morning", a song James has been singing since it was composed, now might end with a high B flat, instead of a B or C. But fret not, o true believer, that final note which James has always sung with that knife-chop, hand-over-the-head pose is still as thrilling as ever.

O what singing! O what shouting! And to think that James will be experiencing a critical health problem come June.

A solo project with a brass ensemble called Gabriel and the very first James Blackwood Quartet album, Magnificent Sounds, had just been completed when a dizziness which James originally chalked up to mild fatigue following concertizing grew worse. He ultimately self-diagnosed himself as having had a mild stroke, and proceeded to read up on everything he could find about his condition. A physician confirmed James's suspicion that he had had a stroke, but sent him to a neurologist for further testing. In the meantime, James kept all of his singing engagements, some of which involved extended travel. Sometimes he would sing for two concerts or services a day. Upon returning to Memphis after this latest tour, James was informed that, in reality, he had experienced a sizable stroke at a very dangerous place--the brain stem. "Don't leave town!" were the neurologist's parting words, and James didn't think it necessary to tell him he'd been criss-crossing the country for days doing concerts and church services!

But lo and behold, something also was wrong with James's voice--that magnificent instrument that had been so good for so long. Everyone almost seemed to take for granted that James's voice would always be there--the high-register falsetto and almost-yodeling on "Eternal Paradise"; the almost scatting on a flat-out Gospel boogie like "Ever'body's Gonna Have A Wonderful Time Up There" (if James was born with a more permanent tan and was inclined to secularize the lyrics, the style could be called barrel-house boogie woogie); raising goosebumps on an inspirational ballad like "His Eye Is On The Sparrow" due to the sheer force of the notes and the accompanying intense, staccato-like body projections for which James is famous.

But now, something is clearly amiss with James's voice...so much so, in fact, that after a recent solo appearance during a morning worship service, James confided to his wife Mim, "My singer doesn't work..."

And what singing James still had in him, and until this happened, it seemed the best was yet to be.

Days...weeks pass, and James is routinely tested again by the same neurologist who reports in astonishment: "Mr. Blackwood, we have a miracle here! Your tests are coming up completely clear...you are showing no signs of ever having had a stroke." Then, thinking back on the events of the past few weeks and the background of his patient, the doctor adds, almost as an afterthought, "Must've been all those praises you've been offering up all these years..."

When James Blackwood speaks today of this latest, major miracle in his life, he just sort of smiles and glances upward. If you know him well, you might detect a slight break in his voice or a mist in his eyes as he talks about how God "touched him" or how he has, throughout his life, been "sheltered in the arms of God." If you don't know him well, you probably detect no difference in his mannerisms. For as spokesmen of the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) said as early as 1956, James Blackwood does not deceive. The man and the message are one. "Gentle richness" is a phrase RCA used in the liner notes of the Blackwoods' first RCA Victor LP album to describe James's songs, and in a way, James himself. "No collection of wild chants from the sawdust trail" here, say the notes, and the same can be said for James's healing.

No this is not meant to imply that James can't or won't praise God with the best of that pentecostal power. "I was pentecostal when pentecostal wasn't cool," James told a charismatic Irving, Texas congregation who filled the church to hear him sing one recent Sunday evening in the spring. It's just that what happened to James is one of the most natural things that could happen to a man who represents what those same RCA liner notes call "right, indestructible, important." What happened to James in the summer of 1991 is not at all unbelievable for a child of the King...for a child of the King who is important and right with God...with an indestructible God.

God's not through with James Blackwood yet, not by a long shot.

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