The Tide Of Life

The Five Blind Boys Of Mississippi are among the greatest singing groups in popular music history. Their origins date back to the '30s, when Archie Brownlee, Joseph Ford, Lawrence Abrams and Lloyd Woodard formed a quartet. They were students at the Piney Woods School near Jackson, Mississippi. The quartet sang on the school grounds in 1936, then were recorded in 1937. After graduation, they decided to become professional singers. They became a quintet when Melvin Henderson joined. When Percel Perkins replaced Henderson in the mid-'40s, they became The Five Blind Boys. _The Tide Of Life_ illustrates nicely how close Hard Southern Gospel is to secular soul, with tracks like _Please Remember Me_ echoing a Stax Records feel and cuts like _Oh Well What Can You Do_ and _Thank The Lord I'm Singing Again_ coming within a whisper of Motown. This configuration still does an admirable job on _Tide Of LIfe_, which is arguably the group's finest post-Brownlee recording.