Five Blind Boys of Mississippi
Five Blind Boys of Mississippi were an American gospel group. With the single Our Father they reached in the early 1950s as one of the first Gospel formations the Billboard R & B charts. Her vocal style influenced not only numerous other gospel groups, but also secular musicians such as Ray Charles.
History
The formation began as a student group in 1936 at the Piney Woods School for the Blind in the vicinity of Jackson ( Mississippi). Archie Brownlee, Joseph Ford, Lawrence Abrams, and Lloyd Woodard singing both sacred and secular songs to raise money for the school. On March 9, 1937, she took on the name The Cotton Blossom Singers for Alan Lomax and the Library of Congress, religious and secular songs.
Mid-1940s, they moved to Chicago and changed their name to Five Blind Boys of Mississippi. After Reverend Percell Perkins came to the group, began the most successful period. Rev. Perkins, who was not blind, was also the group manager. In 1946 she took on her first record for Excelsior, 1950 for Peacock Our Father.
By the end of the 1960s, 27 singles and five albums published by Peacock. By the end of the 1980s they took on new albums and still touring until well into the 1990s. The last founding member died in 1999.