Hurricane Hazel Didn't Stop The Birds

  • Rev Joe, Oct 15, 1954, Hurricane Hazel made landfall in North Carolina. We had a concert scheduled that day, that concert was in Kingston, North Carolina at the Tobacco Warehouse. We were staying at the Hotel in Raleigh, North Carolina, Home Eckers Hotel. That was our home base. We knew the Hurricane was coming and would make landfall near Kingston at the time of the concert, we assumed the concert would be canceled. The promoter of the show was “Hotfoot” Lawson, The Hotfoot Man, Hotfoot called Davis and said, “You all better get down here. Hey, man, I got a houseful of people here. They ain’t going nowhere. What do you want to do? Do you want to take a chance.”

    Davis came to us, and said, “We got to go.” He didn’t have to say anything else. We knew the sacrifice and risk that the audience was making to come out to the concert, and we couldn’t do less.

    Kingston was better than an hour away in good weather. We knew the hurricane was coming. The hurricane wind was already happening. When Davis said, we got to go, no one questioned him. Davis, Tucker, Beachy, Walker, Bobo, and me we all got into the car quick and James B. Davis drove to Kingston, and that was before there were any Interstates. Signs were blowing down, the wind was very strong. Water blowing across the road in sheets everywhere. When we arrived and entered the concert hall, the place was packed. As soon as we entered, they started clapping and started yelling, “They’re here!” They’re here!” We got a standing ovation just walking into the place. They kept cheering and crying and yelling as we set up. We never saw anything like it. It didn’t take long to set up. When I started playing the guitar to introduce the first selection, people were standing up, and then they got quiet, real quiet. Nobody moved. Absolute silence and stillness. Sent a shiver up my spine, They wanted to hear what we played, they wanted to see our movements. Our first song was, “Nobody Knows The Trouble I’ve Seen.” Tucker’s voice soaring above the storm outside. We were blessed that night, because we did the full concert, and people almost never sat in their seats. When the lightning flashed there was feedback, but a feedback that was in perfect pitch, like a 7th voice, like God had decided to harmonize with The Birds. And you could feel a little shock when you got too close to the mike. I wondered if this was what Moses felt in God's presence at Mt Sinai.

    There were two mikes, Tucker and Walker swapping one mike, snatching it out of each other’s hands to the rhythm of the song. And it seemed the thunder kept the beat. I’d let the guitar string flash with the lighting and fret it to play with the howl of the wind. That was some kind of gospel that night like we were all in Noah’s Ark. And like always they never wanted us to quit. People hugging us as we finished and wouldn’t let us leave. And you couldn’t help but be crying yourself. As we were leaving, People praying for a safe journey home. People sometimes rode mules to get to our concerts, back of pickup trucks, horse wagons. People all dressed up in suits and beautiful dresses and hats, nobody dressed better, like kings and queens and dignitaries, Maybe they got their suit out of the pawn shop just for our concert, and put the suit back in the pawn shop the next day. You know, at our performances people got pretty emotional and this concert was no different. We got back in the car and started back to the hotel in Raleigh, and we talked about what it would have been like if we missed this one. We understood how dangerous hurricanes can be. What was amazing when we exited the concert building there was a calm during the storm. We just trusted in God. We knew that it wasn’t always easy for people to get to our concerts back then. People didn’t have cars the way they do now. It wasn’t easy for everybody. Everybody was sacrificing. People riding in the back of flatbed trucks to get there. Walked. And all this in the middle of a hurricane. We were all on the same ship, and we knew if this ship floated or sank, it didn’t depend on us, we were all in God’s hands. When we finished the concert and everyone was leaving going home, there was a calm outside, no wind, no rain. I guess it was the eye of the storm. God opened a door in the storm so we could all go home and come back another day to praise His Name.

    This wouldn’t be the last hurricane we encountered. There would be tornadoes, blizzards, lightning, deserts, mountains to encounter. The audience showed up under these circumstances, we couldn’t do less. So when Davis said, “We got to go,“ We know we had to go. Because it was important to a lot of people.

    On the drive back to the hotel in Raleigh, nobody slept in the car on the ride back to the hotel which we often did, although we should have been tired, should have been worn out. We were wide awake. We talked and we marveled at the power of the Lord we served., as He had calmed the storm for us during our drive, we too, like the disciples marveled, “What manner of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him!” We always felt the living presence of Jesus was with us. His Holy presence blessed our everyday.

    That was Hurricane Hazel, biggest hurricane to that date, and we were in the middle of it. Pretty much all of North Carolina was Dixie Hummingbird country back then. Baseball was really big back then in North Carolina. Everybody had a team. The job where they worked, the barbershop, the mechanic shop, the funeral home, the schools, the banks, the bakery, the grocery store, but every baseball schedule had to be adjusted to when the Dixie Hummingbirds were in town, because nobody would show up for the baseball game if we had a concert. Weddings were scheduled around The Dixie Hummingbird concerts. Funeral directors would tell families they had to wait until the next day for the funeral after the Birds were done. Sometimes people would ask us to pray and they would sing and call out the name of a dying relative, praying and singing to the Lord to keep them alive until the end of our concert so they could pray with them one last time and tell them about The Birds concert. These were Our people, We were their people, What a People We Are! No white music producer or company had enough money to take us away from Our People. My God, what a people we are.

    And later sometime after the hurricane, the Anniversary Concert in Raleigh was even bigger, two shows, Swannee Quintet, Soul Stirrers, Crume on the guitar with Soul Stirrers. Raleigh Memorial Auditorium. After the first show, the audience filed out and the new audience walked right in. Different promoters from all over North Carolina would organize busloads of people, the price of ticket and bus ride and box lunch included. Back then people couldn't go into restaurants so food had to be taken along. Finding a bathroom was always a problem. No hotels. So they slept on the bus on the ride home. Sunday was Hummingbirds Day. They loved us there.

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