Blind Boys of Alabama with Clarence Fountain

by Mark Hoffman

1/10 @ Mystic Theatre, Petaluma, CA; w/Spirit of the Century Band (feat. John Hammond, David Lindley, Charlie Musselwhite, Danny Thompson, & Michael Jerome)
1/11 @ Fillmore, San Francisco, CA
1/12 @ UCLA, Los Angeles, CA
1/13 @ Belly Up Tavern, Solana Beach, CA
1/15 @ Southern Oregon University, Ashland, OR
1/17 @ Columbia Theatre, Longview
1/18 @ Washington Center, Olympia
1/19 @ Admiral Theatre, Bremerton
1/21 @ Cinerama Theater, Seattle (Total Experience Gospel Choir opens)
1/23 @ University of Montana, Missoula, MT
1/25 @ Peery's Egyptian Theater, Ogden, UT

The Blind Boys of Alabama have been singing God's music for more than six decades. In 60 years, the group has gone from playing small tent shows to performing at the world's largest music festivals, and have picked up three Grammy Award nominations along the way. The Blind Boys return this month for a series of foot-stomping, hand-clapping, soul-stirring, "James Brown does gospel" shows that'll make a believer out of you, too.

Formed in 1939 when five young men met in the glee club of the Talladega School for the Blind, the Blind Boys never really wanted to do much more than sing great gospel music, says their leader and featured singer, Clarence Fountain. "We wanted to be popular too, but we wanted to sing gospel," Fountain recalls. The original group (Fountain, Johnny Fields, JT Hutton, Ollice Thomas, George Scott, and the late Velma Traylor) adopted the jubilee style of gospel singing and took their show on the road. All but one member was visually impaired, which became a selling point. "We had an advantage over all of the rest of the gospel groups because you hardly ever see a bunch of blind guys on stage in concert," says Fountain. For years, the group was known as The Five Blind Boys of Alabama, though the actual number members fluctuated.

After decades of performing, they tasted mainstream success in 1988 when they starred for 15 weeks with Morgan Freeman in the Broadway musical The Gospel at Colonus, which won an Obie Award. In 1994, the group won a National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, presented by First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton. Today, Clarence Fountain and his compatriots perform on a varied circuit of arts centers, churches, nightclubs, and some of the world's most prestigious festivals-including the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, WOMAD, Groundwork 2001 (the Seattle world hunger benefit), and two Olympics. They've recorded with k.d. lang, Bonnie Raitt, Peter Gabriel, Lou Reed, and others, and they've recently been heard on David Letterman and CBS Saturday Morning.

The Blind Boys' latest CD, Spirit of the Century, is a stunning blend of classic gospel tunes and contemporary secular music that's on many "Best of the Year" lists. It features, besides Fountain, two other long-time members of the group, Jimmy Carter and George Scott. Backing them is a musical dream team: multi-instrumentalist David Lindley, Grammy-winning blues singer/guitarist John Hammond, Jr., blues harp legend Charlie Musselwhite, as well as bassist Danny Thompson and drummer Michael Jerome-the rhythm section behind guitarist/songwriting genius Richard Thompson. Spirit of the Century includes traditional gospel numbers such as "Run On For A Long Time" and "Motherless Child" and gospel standard "Amazing Grace," redone to the tune of "House of the Rising Sun." It also covers songs by Tom Waits ("Jesus Gonna Be Here" and "Way Down in the Hole"), the Rolling Stones ("Just Wanna See His Face"), and Ben Harper ("Give a Man a Home"). Lindley sums up the CD's mood. "When I was asked how much I'd charge to play on this album with the Blind Boys of Alabama and these other great musicians, my response was, 'I should be paying you guys to do this project!'"