The Dixie Hummingbirds - Jesus Has Traveled This Road Before 1939-52

More from Cliff's Gospel Friend series gift.

Interestingly enough, even though I have an alleged 'complete' 1939-47 set of the Birds, there seems to be quite a bit here that I didn't have.

The Dixie Hummingbirds - A Christian Testimonial

Yes, indeed it a two service Sunday although I'd nearly forgotten I had this one cued up. Now let's be clear - the group was formed in 1928, and began recording in the 30's so the subtitle is misleading unless you focus on the literal meaning of 'album'. The material comes from around 1959 at Peacock records where 'the Birds' are breaking new ground with R&B style accompaniment. A lovely snapshot in time of the 80 year national treasure that was The Dixie Hummingbirds.

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!

The Dixie Hummingbirds - Journey to the Sky

Formed in 1928 in Greenville, South Carolina, by James B. Davis and his classmates, they sang in local churches until they finished school, then started touring throughout the South.

Lead singer Ira Tucker joined the group in 1938 at age 13, and they signed with Decca Records. In addition to his formidable vocal skills, Tucker introduced the energetic showmanship - running through the aisles, jumping off stage, falling to his knees in prayer - copied by many quartets that followed. Tucker also took the lead in the stylistic innovations adopted by the group, combining gospel shouting and subtle melismas with the syncopated delivery made popular by The Golden Gate Quartet, as well as adventuresome harmonies, which the group called "trickeration", in which Paul Owens or another member of the group would pick up a note just as Tucker left off. The group relocated to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in the 1940s.

During the years, a number of talented singers starred in the group—their bass, William Bobo (known as Thunder), baritone Beachy Thompson, James Walker (who replaced Owens), and Claude Jeter, who went on to star for The Swan Silvertones. The Hummingbirds added a guitarist, Howard Carroll, who added even more propulsive force to their high-flying vocals.

The Hummingbirds absorbed much from other artists as well, performing with Lester Young in the 1940s and sharing Django Reinhardt records with B.B. King in the 1950s. Tucker and the Hummingbirds inspired a number of imitators, such as Jackie Wilson and James Brown, who adapted the shouting style and enthusiastic showmanship of hard gospel to secular themes to help create soul music in the 1960s.

The group recorded for a number of different labels over the years, while touring the circuit of black churches and gospel extravaganzas. They occasionally came to the attention of white listeners—at Café Society, the integrated New York nightclub favored by jazz cognoscenti, in 1942, at the Newport Folk Festival in 1966, and as backup for Paul Simon on the 1973 single "Loves Me Like a Rock". For a long time, the group was signed to Don Robey's Peacock Records, based in Houston, Texas. In 1973, Robey sold Peacock to ABC Records, which released a cover of "Loves Me Like a Rock," produced by Walter "Kandor" Kahn and the group's lead vocalist Ira Tucker, which reached #72 on Billboard Magazine's Top 100 R&B Singles chart. The single also won a Grammy for "Best Soul Gospel Performance". Kahn and Tucker produced an album for ABC entitled We Love You Like A Rock. The album contained Stevie Wonder's "Jesus Children", on which Wonder played keyboards.

At that time, the group consisted of five vocalists: Ira Tucker Sr., James Davis, Beachy Thompson, James Walker and William Bobo. Howard Carroll was the group's guitarist. The group now consists of William Bright (vocals), Carlton Lewis, III (vocals), Torrey Nettles (drums/vocals),) and Lyndon Baines Jones (guitar & vocals and Ira Tucker, Jr (vocals)

In 1973 The group sang the backup vocals on Paul Simon's "Loves Me Like a Rock", and "Tenderness", from his album "There Goes Rhymin' Simon".

In 2003, the Hummingbirds were the subject of an award-winning book about their 75-year career span, Great God A'Mighty! The Dixie Hummingbirds: Celebrating the Rise of Soul Gospel Music [Oxford University Press] by Jerry Zolten. The book was favorably reviewed in The New York Times. 2-26-2003.

In February 2008, the first feature-length documentary/concert film featuring the life and history of the Dixie Hummingbirds was released in commemoration of their extraordinary eighty years as performers. The Dixie Hummingbirds: Eighty Years Young has been shown on the Gospel Music Channel and has played at numerous film festivals. Produced and directed by award-winning filmmaker Jeff Scheftel, and executive produced by University of Hawaii musicologist Jay Junker, the film is now available on DVD, featuring extensive interviews with Ira Tucker, Sr., archival footage, and following the current group as they perform in numerous venues and rehearse under Mr. Tucker's spirited guidance, in their hometown of Philadelphia, and across the vast landscape of America.

Ira Tucker, Sr. died due to complications from heart disease on the morning of June 24, 2008, at the age of 83. The group will go on, thereby preserving the rich legacy left by Tucker, James Davis, William Bobo, Beachey Thompson, James Walker, Howard Carroll, et al., with possible new additions to their personnel down the road.

This package came from Uncle Cliffy without numbering and 5 extra track from somewhere, I numbered the first 28 as they are on the official release and added the 5 at the end, finishing with the magnificent  Christian Automobile.