The Sons are an example of an authentic American roots music that, sadly, is in danger of becoming extinct.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnfortunately, quartet singing is a dying art form,\u201d Pugh says. \u201cIt\u2019s hard to do. It takes years to put together a gospel quartet.\u201d<\/p>\n
This is a return engagement for the Sons. I heard them when they were at Rancho Nicasio for its 75th anniversary celebration in November. I\u2019m not a religious person, so I wasn\u2019t sure about a night of church-based music. Much to my surprise, it turned out to be an experience bordering on an epiphany. The Sons set my spirit dancing that night.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Music that \u2018moves\u2019<\/h4>\n
\u201cWhen we sing, people say, \u2018I felt something,\u2019 and they wonder what it is,\u201d says the Sons\u2019 Dwayne Morgan. \u201cWe tell them that some people call it energy, but we call it the Holy Spirit. And it moves. It touches people\u2019s hearts.\u201d<\/p>\n
Traditional gospel quartets have a sound that\u2019s distinct and quite different from contemporary Christian groups and choirs. Simply put, they rock.<\/p>\n
\u201cQuartets are down home with a groove that\u2019s out of this world,\u201d Morgan says. \u201cWhen you get a good, driving fast song and that beat locks in, oh, my goodness, you can\u2019t help but skip.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Gospel quartets sing in three and four-part harmony \u2014 first and second tenor, baritone and bass. Dwayne, 45, and his older brothers, James Morgan, 50, and Walter Morgan Jr., 55, form the vocal core of the group. They\u2019ve been singing together in church since they were kids.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe three brothers say words with the same inflection and have the same vibrato in their voices,\u201d Pugh says. \u201cWhen they harmonize, it sounds almost like an organ.\u201d<\/p>\n
Walter Jr., who also plays guitar, founded the Sons in 1970 to continue the quartet tradition that the brothers\u2019 father, Walter Sr., and his brothers started with the original Soul Revivers. The Sons are rounded out by Oliver \u201cPetie\u201d Calloway on drums and bassist \u201cQ\u201d Johnson.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Forty-year career<\/h4>\n
Pugh, who started the Little Village Foundation in 2014, had gotten to know the group years ago when he was playing keys for Oakland\u2019s Gospel Hummingbirds and co-producing their Grammy-nominated album \u201cSteppin\u2019 Out.\u201d Over a 40-year career, he\u2019s toured with Robert Cray, Van Morrison, B.B. King, John Lee Hooker and Etta James, among others, and has always been the kind of musician who has never been blinded by the bright light of fame. When he was in his early 20s, for instance, he played on \u201cAmerican Bandstand,\u201d the popular TV show hosted by Dick Clark, then flew home later that day for a gig at an organ bar in Oakland.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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\u201cBoth gigs had equal value to me,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd that\u2019s how I see the music from Little Village. It\u2019s of equal value even if most people don\u2019t know about it \u2014 yet.\u201d<\/p>\n
He had been looking for a little-known gospel quartet to add to his roster of musicians and bands who are \u2014 as he puts it \u2014 \u201ctoo often hidden in our towns and cities, far from the spotlight reserved for only the most famous of names.\u201d<\/p>\n
When Rancho Nicasio\u2019s owners, Bob Brown and Angela Strehli, suggested recording the Sons show for a live album, Pugh was all in. The quartet\u2019s record is one of the five albums Little Village will be releasing this year with financial help from the Bill Graham Foundation and a recent grant from Bonnie Raitt.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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In July, the Sons will be performing for thousands of music fans at the 30th Waterfront Blues Festival in Portland, Oregon. With their new album and exposure to audiences outside the church, they\u2019re hoping to follow the crossover success of gospel groups like Southern California\u2019s Mighty Clouds of Joy, the Blind Boys of Alabama and the Dixie Hummingbirds, the quartet that sang backup on Paul Simon\u2019s hit \u201cLove Me Like a Rock.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re in our prime right now,\u201d Morgan says. \u201cBefore we get any older, we want to get exposed to as many people as we can across the world. We\u2019re broadening our horizons. Our dreams are coming true.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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For those of us who don\u2019t get to hear traditional gospel quartets very often, if ever, the fact that the Sons of the Soul Revivers are breaking out of the four walls of the church to perform for secular audiences is something of a musical blessing.<\/p>\n