As I’m starting to blog each week now, one of the things that I want to do is introduce you to guitar players that you may not have heard of. One of the advantages of having large community of guitar enthusiasts here at ActiveMelody is that site members introduce me to lots of obscure guitar players, and I always end up learning something new.
Last week I got a call from a long-time site member named Russell, and he told me about a guitar player named Howard Carroll who played for the Dixie Hummingbirds, a black gospel group originally from South Carolina. I hadn’t heard of Howard Carroll, and I wasn’t familiar with the Dixie Hummingbirds, but on doing a little research, I found out that they were the vocal group behind Paul Simon’s “Love Me Like a Rock”. I had always loved that song, and the backup vocals, but had never researched who was singing behind Paul.
So I did a little digging around on YouTube and found out some old video clips of the Dixie Hummingbirds playing and fell in love with their sound. I’ve always been a sucker for southern gospel harmonies, and the vocal work from these guys is some of the best you’ve ever heard. They were very influential on artists like Jackie Wilson and James Brown. In fact, I’m convinced that James Brown got the falling to his knees part of his act from Ira Tucker (the lead singer from the Hummingbirds).
Beyond great vocals, they had one musician that would accompany them on stage in their live performances, and that was guitar player Howard Carroll. You can hear his work best if you listen to their albums. I’ve noticed that Spotify has a nice selection of their albums. Here are 2 “Best Of” albums that can introduce you to their sound:
The Best of The Dixie Hummingbirds
Thank You For One More Day: 70th Anniversary of the Dixie Hummingbirds
Although there aren’t too many videos of Howard Carroll playing on YouTube, I did find a few, and I wanted to highlight one in particular. Check out Howard’s excellent guitar work on, “If You See My Savior”.
I thought this was so cool that I had to learn it, and wanted to share it with you. I’m not including any tabs for copyright reasons, but here’s what I heard Howard Carroll playing on the song “If You See My Savior”.
As far as I know, Howard Carroll is still alive and is in his 90s. There are several videos of his great-grandson playing guitar for him in what looks like an assisted living facility. I thought this video was interesting because it showed Howard verbally talking his great-grandson through a bluesy chord progression while he improvised a vocal melody on top of it.
I hope you find obscure guitar players like Howard Carroll as fascinating as I do. He played a small part in a popular gospel group that had a far greater influence than we may realize. Thank you Howard!
The above reply was meant for the blog thread about obscure or not-well-known guitarists. Sorry.
Well, I guess I was in the right place after all!
So awesome Brian… Way to thank this loyal gentleman & us with a lesson
Thank you for that excellent video lesson and for sharing what you found on Howard Carroll. Learning something that has a great story behind it makes it so much more rewarding. I’m looking forward to more.
Mr. Carrol is aware of your music and blog andappreciates you for your musical efforts to teach his legendary riffs,chords and stucture,continue to do what you do
I really appreciate that this site exposes its members to players such as this; so much more than a guitar tutorial website! I only accidentally hit the blog button, and now I am hooked. Thanks Brian!
Hey Brian, love the new site – great stuff! But I only just discovered the blog series on inspirational guitarists and I wanted to give a plug for the late, great Sean Costello. I know you probably know of Sean but his guitar work is truly awesome – as well as being very unusual and interesting. I just wish I had the musical words to explain what I mean! Anyway, a good example is ‘It’s my own fault’ on
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_4mMYqr__K0
All the best,
Steve
Awesome video Brian, thanks so much for sharing Howard Carroll and the Dixie Himingbirds. And to Russel for introducing this wonderful group to Active Melody members. We love you Brian, God’s blessings to you and your beautiful family.
Kevin
The Cox Family does a terrific version of this song (except they call it “Standing by the Bedside of a Neighbor”). They are great instrumentalists as well as great singers.
Very nice…perhaps we will do it at our Elkton Babtist Church in Elkton, oregon…We always have fun…
Everyone “like” (click the facebook button) and help tell others about this great resource for guitar. I have had many teachers but I think Brian is the best so far…
the great Reverend Gary Davis does a fingerpicking tour de force of something vary similar. I believe he called it “Sit on the Banks of the River”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWPT_38l2Q8
My favorite is ” All I need is some sunshine in my life”