DIXIE HUMMINGBIRDS Jesus Has Traveled This Road Before (CD)

(2005/Gospel Friend) 25 Tracks

The Dixie Hummingbirds were the most successful male quartet to come up in the wake of the Golden Gate Quartet, the most celebrated quartet ever. Building their style on precise vocal attacks, showmanship and original song material, they became true masters of their craft. Their enduring popularity rested on well modulated harmonies, slight body movements and the vocal pyrotechnics of lead singer Ira Tucker. He served the model for rhythm & blues and soul singers from Jackie Wilson and Clyde McPhatter to Bobby Bland. Tucker also introduced the concept of the “activity” singer, who ran up and down the aisles, jumped from stage etc., using the body to underscore lyric content. The Birds shrewdly adapted to the changing trends in music tastes. At the fading of the gospel quartet movement in the mid 1960s, the Birds found home in the folk music circuit. The group came in demand for backup work on records for Paul Simon and Bob Dylan. This CD gives examples of the Dixie Hummingbirds abundant recordings, from the outset of their career with Decca in 1939, continuing with Apollo, Gotham and Okeh and ending up on Peacock, where they scored their biggest success.