Soul Stirrer

In 1945, Henderson, through his brother got them booked into Chicago at a time when it was a prime quartet town. Two quartets were the acknowledged leaders in Chicago at this time. the Blue Jays from Birmingham, Alabama and the Soul Stirrers from Houston, Texas. Both groups had made much use of two lead singers, who would play off each other to build the emotionalism in the song. While it is hard to be certain at this time, the hard gospel sound of the Blind Boys probably came from the influence of hearing the Soul Stirrers and the Bllue Jays as well as the important addition of Percell Perkins on second lead with the departure of Melvin Henderson. Rev. Percell Perkins asserts with some authority that he "made" the sound of the Five Blind Boys of Mississippi. Born in 1917 in Duncan, Mississippi, Percell Perkins grew up in the Mississippi Delta region singing with local groups. He was influenced by the one quartet from the region to record in the early thirties, the Delta Big Four. At the age of 16, Perkins moved to Clarkedale, Mississippi to join one of the legendary groups from the area, the Glorybound Singers. After a few years with them, Perkins went on to join two of the leading quartets at the time: first the Fairfield Four, the best quartet in Nashville and then onto the New Orleans Chosen Five.

The Blind Boys of Mississippi met up with the Chosen Five again during their tenure in Chicago and convinced Perkins to join them as their sighted lead singer, manager and trainer. Perkins brought the group back to New Orleans where they were active in local programs while they began to travel through the country, and it was also about this time that the Five Blind Boys were making contacts that led to their first recording with Excelsior Record Co. In 1948, bass singer Joseph Ford left the group, disenchanted with life on the road. The group replaced him with another blind singer, J.T. Clinkscales. With this line-up of Brownlee, Perkins, Woodard, Abrams and Clinscales, the group continued to travel and record for Peacock Records, a major label based in Houston, Texas. Their first recording session for the Peacock label produced one of the groups biggest hit, "Our Father." It was one of the few gospel records ever to make the Billboard rhythm and blues charts.

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