The Dixie Hummingbirds - Diamond Jubilation

Good Morning and welcome to Sunday service with Deacon KC.

"In the Beginning, after the world, but before rock n' roll, before there was rap, hip hop, disco, punk, funk, metal, soul, Mowtown, or rock-a-billy; before bebop,do-wop and the big band swing, there was the Dixie Hummingbirds. The Mighty, Mighty Dixie Hummingbirds.

They sang through the Great Depression, they sang through the terms of fourteen presidents, four (or five) major wars, six generations of Americans and seven decades of the 20th century (plus one of the 21st).

The Dixie Hummingbirds. They personify perseverance, patience, talent and dedication. Here the iron men of Gospel celebrate their 75th anniversary. They are indeed a uniquely American institution. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the gentlemen of song....the legendary Dixie Hummingbirds!"
from the Rev Isaac Hayes

"It's best to set the record straight before anybody gets the idea that because the Dixie Hummingbirds have asked a number of friends from the secular music world to play with them, they are doing a Blind Boys of Alabama riff. Diamond Jubilation marks the Dixie Hummingbirds' 75th anniversary as a group. Fronted by the great Ira Tucker Sr., this quartet is performing at a creative peak and this album is the evidence. There are no pop songs here. This is a gospel program, even if those songs come from unlikely sources, like producer Larry Campbell. The guests here are relatively few and the instrumentation spare: there's Campbell, Dr. John (two cuts), Levon Helm and Garth Hudson from the Band, Tony Garnier, and (New Orleans) percussionist George Recile. The rest is the Hummingbirds rocking it up in joyful and reverent style; whether the tune is by Tucker such as "He Watches Over Me," a Dorothy Love Coates classic like "I've Been Born Again," something by Campbell like the country gospel ragtime of "Someday," the inimitable sacred blues of Buddy & Julie Miller as on "Too Many Troubles," or the canonical traditional song "Rasslin' Jacob," the treatment is the same. Here Tucker, and sometimes William Bright, front a group whose seams have long since been covered over by sheer musical skill and prayerful instinct. One listen to the album's opener, Rev. Dan Smith's nugget "God's Radar," is enough to take listeners out of current time and space and carry them into an entirely new emotional and sonic dimension. The instrumentation, mandolins, guitars, organic hand percussion, drums, and accordions serve the voices, not the other way around. Singing is what propels the tunes here, a joyful noise that is as liberating as the gospel itself. Take this one home and something will change, even if it's only for the duration of the recording." Thom Jurek

It is truly a miracle that these men should have been blessed to sing this hard for this long. Sadly we lost the great Ira Tucker in 2008 but still 'The Birds' march on. God Bless The Dixie Hummingbirds, AMEN!