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Artist: The Blind Boys of Alabama
Category: Americas
Gospel music has proved a fertile field for many of the 20th Century's great African American vocalists - Sam Cooke, Aretha Franklin, Marvin Gaye, Ray Charles and many others learned how to express their great vocal power initially by calling to Jesus. Yet while all these singers left the church for the secular world and all the fame and fortune it offered some equally great vocalists stayed with the church so refining the art of gospel music.
While gospel's most famous vocalist remains the late Mahalia Jackson (who touched the world when she sang at Martin Luther King's funeral), The Blind Boys Of Alabama remain gospel's most celebrated living exponents. Initially a quintet, The Blind Boys began singing together while attending a school for the blind in Alabama in the 1940s. They soon became so popular in the area that they decided to stay together after graduation.
Back then the church was the focus of African American community and a highly regarded gospel group could achieve high levels of fame. This was true for The Blind Boys and they were soon making intense gospel records that spread their fame further afield. Touring they developed a reputation as ferocious live performers, capable of bringing a congregation to its feet screaming for God's mercy.
Lead by Clarence Fountain's raw, aching voice, The Blind Boys were as intense as gospel got. And as soul became urban pop, gospel also became a softer, slicker product. Which meant there was less and less call for Fountain and co'. Retire? No chance. Fountain was intent on spreading the gospel message and cannily moved The Blind Boys onto the blues and world music festival circuit. So powerful was the response to their performances that Peter Gabriel's world music label, Real World, approached The Blind Boys about cutting an album.
The result, Spirit Of The Century, is a masterpiece with The Blind Boys interpreting songs with a Christian theme by writers as diverse as Tom Waits, Ben Harper and The Rolling Stones. Now in their seventies, The Blind Boys Of Alabama remain a primal force to be reckoned with both in concert and on CD.
Biography by Garth Cartwright, November 2001
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