Friday Music: The Blind Boys of Alabama

The Blind Boys of Alabama are an old-school gospel group that's been singing and touring since 1939. Yeah, 1939. That's a lot of cultural and music business changes to weather over seven decades. Originally called the Happy Land Jubilee Singers, the five original singers (Jimmy Carter, the current lead singer, has been with the group since it began) met at the Alabama Institute for the Negro Blind in Talladega.

Clarence Fountain, another founding member, recalls the early years while the singers were still attending the institute: "The school was not happy for us to go off campus, but we would sneak out," Fountain told Folk Roots interviewer Dave Peabody. "We would go out and make some money. There was a big soldier camp up there,had about ten or twelve thousand soldiers. We'd perform for that soldier camp and we'd do alright."

On the band's name change, Fountain says, "For a while we called ourselves the Happy Land Singers and we toured all around the country. Then a promoter put us on a show with another blind group, the Jackson Harmonies from Mississippi. He billed it as a contest between the blind boys of Alabama and the blind boys of Mississippi. The name worked good so we stuck with it."

Known for remaining contemporary and collaborating with many mainstream artists while keeping their traditional gospel sensibilities, the Blind Boys have won four Grammy Awards and their most recent album, Down in New Orleans was released earlier this year.

People not apt to listen to gospel music might know the Blind Boys from their cover of the Tom Waits' song "Down in the Hole" that was the theme song for HBO's drama The Wire. (The show has used a variety of covers of the tune, with the Blind Boys' version used in season one.)


YouTube has a wonderful selection of video performances:

"Something Got A Hold On Me" -- a 1960s live performance
"Too Close" -- the same early-to-mid 1960s performance venue
"Look Where He Brought Me From" -- a live performance in a church, I think, maybe in the 1970s
some old-fashioned musical testifying at an outdoor concert or tent revival
"Run On" -- live 2001 performance on the British tv show Later
"Amazing Grace" -- their live version sung to the tune of "House of the Rising Sun," and here's a studio version someone has set to images of Black American history
"Satisfied Mind" -- Ben Harper & Blind Boys of Alabama performing live (There Will Be A Light, Harper's album with the Boys came out in 2004)
"Shall Not Walk Alone" -- with Ben Harper, video is of a recording studio performance
"Jesus Hits Like the Atom Bomb" -- the video is some cute, quirky animation (2005 album Atom Bomb)

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