Wednesday 17th December 2014
Tony Cummings met up with Carl Anthony "Tony", Martin Luther "Lute", "Jamie" Cornelius, Carl III "Carlo" and Rodney Allen "Baby Boy" aka THE WARDLAW BROTHERS
The Wardlaw Brothers
Five male voices in intricate, acappella harmony blend deftlytogether. The WardlawBrothers have travelled from Georgia, USA, to the HQ of CrossRhythms, Stoke-on-Trent where they are now gathered around a singlemic in CR's main studio performing an impromptu jingle for thestation. The vocal dexterity of the Wardlaws is nothing short ofspectacular with four lead singers underpinned by a dynamic bass man.The eldest brother, Carl Anthony "Tony" (second tenor), introduces hisfour siblings, Martin Luther "Lute" (first tenor), "Jamie" Cornelius(bass), Carl III "Carlo" (falsetto and second tenor) and Rodney Allen"Baby Boy" (baritone). The group, sometimes referred to as "The BoyzII Men of gospel," are making their first visit to the UK and takingin Cross Rhythms on their whistle-stop tour. Earlier in the afternoonthey spoke to me about their 30 plus years in music ministry.
Said Jamie, "We all grew up in a little city called Lyons, Georgia,about two and a half hours south east of Atlanta. Our father, Rev CarlWaldlaw Jr, was a Baptist minister. But he don't sing - he justpreaches." Their childhood days were crammed full of church meetings.Remembered Tony, "We had meetings morning, noon and night. There wasno option as to whether or not you were attending those meetings, orelse you'd have a different kind of meeting. You did not want to havethat kind of meeting, because it had something to do with rods."
The Wardlaws' home was a very musical one. Explained Tony, "Ourparents believed an old, traditional sound. We have young parents, butthey were grounded in the old roots. That's what you hear in ourmusic: they would have us in the back seat of the car listening to thegroups like the Swan Silvertones, the Dixie Hummingbirds, the SoulStirrers and all those other quartets. We have that grounded,traditional flavour; but we're contemporary guys."
The brothers were singing from an early age. Explained Martin Luther,"Our mom wouldn't let us stop singing, so we were singing as theWardlaw Children: we had one sister. We went around the churches allthe time. We started out in the state of Washington. Our mother andfather were part of a church: it was the pastor, his family and us. Wesang in a choir, so we started very early, and we never stopped. Thatwas in 1982. We went back to Georgia '83."
As the years went on and the performances around Georgia's churchesclocked up, the group's sound began to take in other musicalinfluences in addition to the traditional quartet sound. Listening tomainstream R&B the Wardlaws were particularly enamoured by theMotown harmonisers Boys II Men. Said Martin Luther, "I was in eighthgrade when they came out with 'It's So Hard To Say Goodbye ToYesterday'. That was appealing to us: we liked the harmony sound."
Through the '90s the Wardlaws honed their vocal skills with more andmore concerts until finally in 2000 they recorded their debut album,'Putting My Life In Your Hands'. Although it was an independentrelease which only got radio exposure in Georgia, it contained atleast one song, "Saddle Up", which is still part of the group'srepertoire today. Reminisced Tony, "I remember the first time weperformed it and it went out over the radio: they started playing itthree or four times back-to-back-to-back. We were like, 'Oh mygoodness!' They called us into a television show; we were trying to doa mini-concert, and they wouldn't let us do any other song: we justhad to keeping singing 'Saddle Up' over and over. Maybe there'ssomething to this song! "
After the success of "Saddle Up" the group turned professional andbegan looking at reaching audiences further afield than Georgia. "Westarted travelling outside of the Georgia area," said Jamie. Morerecording followed. Explained Tony, "We dibbled and dabbled. Our firstalbum set us up with other opportunities, so we looked into those -one independent label and one major label. Through that course we putout a six-song album 'Only Believe'; then we did a single with EMIGospel, 'Somewhere Listening'. It wasn't until 2007 that we reallystarted picking up on our own label TWB Records - because everythingelse did not make sense. From that we did 'The Forerunner', then wedid 'Delivered', and now we're at our current album, 'God's BeenThere'."
Most of the Wardlaws' most popular songs have been ballads whichdisplay their magnificent vocal blend. But they are also able to takein other styles like funk and even rock. Tony pointed out, "On our'Delivered' album the title track is like that. When I tell you itgave us an opportunity to express ourselves, at the time, the way wewere feeling, it took that kind of rock hard expression to get it allout. When you hear that, it just allowed us to say what we wanted tosay. I felt like we couldn't say it any other way than the way'Delivered' came out with the hard rock grind. It's a very powerfulsong and it's my favourite on that album."
For all their musical dexterity it is their deep felt desire tominister which keeps them on the exhausting road of touringinterspersed with occasional sortes into the studio. PronouncedRodney, "Our mission is to spread the Gospel throughout the world, atall times, in order that God's will be done. That's pretty much whywe're here, so we can continue to spread it; because we've been allover the United States, and now we're trying to go abroad with thatmessage. Back home we have a non-profit organisation. What we do withthat is we have a prison ministry where we go into the prisons,minister to them, to the nursing homes, boys and girls clubs; sothat's one way we get our ministry outside of the church."
The Brothers have already begun recording songs for a new album. SaidTony, "There's a song which is the title track of a movie, On AngelsWings - a good family movie, a Christian movie starring ReginaldVeljohnson (he played in the sitcom Family Matters) and Robin Givens,who was the first wife of Mike Tyson. Right in the middle of themovie, bringing it all together in a good church scene, was none otherthan us, your boys theWardlaw Brothers."
The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those held by Cross Rhythms. Any expressed views were accurate at the time of publishing but may or may not reflect the views of the individuals concerned at a later date.
Tony Cummings is the music editor for Cross Rhythms website and attends Grace Church in Stoke-on-Trent.
