Алабама қаз дауыстылары

American gospel group

The Blind Boys of Alabama, also billed as The Five Blind Boys of Alabama, and Clarence Fountain and the Blind Boys of Alabama, is an American gospel group. The group was founded in 1939 in Talladega, Alabama, and has featured a changing roster of musicians over its history, the majority of whom are or were vision impaired. The Blind Boys found mainstream success following their appearance in the 1983 Obie Award winning musical The Gospel at Colonus. Since then, the group has toured internationally and has performed and recorded with such artists as Prince, Lou Reed, Peter Gabriel, Bonnie Raitt, Ben Harper, Bon Iver, and Amadou & Mariam. The group's cover of the Tom Waits song "Way Down in the Hole" was used as the theme song for the first season of the HBO series The Wire. They were endowed with a National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts in 1994, they were inducted into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame in 2003, and they were inducted into the Alabama Music Hall of Fame in 2010. The group was also invited to the White House during the Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama administrations. Group member Ricky McKinnie said in a 2011 interview with the magazine Mother Jones: "Our disability doesn't have to be a handicap. It's not about what you can't do. It's about what you do. And what we do is sing good gospel music. "refn|group=note|name=first|While current band member Jimmy Carter is often credited as being the only remaining "original" or "founding" member of the group, he was actually too young to join the group when they began touring, but he was attending the Alabama Institute for the Negro Blind when the group was originally formed. He did not officially join the group until the 1980s, having previously worked with the Dixieland Blind Boys as well as Five Blind Boys of Mississippi. Carter's first recorded performance with the Blind Boys was on their 1982 record I'm a Soldier in the Army of the Lord. While the boys were not allowed to sing black gospel music at their school (which was run by an all white faculty), they were able to hear it on the radio. Hard gospel often involved a shrieking and screaming style of singing and during performances some audience members reportedly would get so excited that some would have to be sent to the hospital. Their success led to a series of recordings on various record labels. By 1953, each member made $100 per side and, as per Fountain, "That was good money in that day. We didn't know what we were worth." By the late 1960s, the term being used more commonly to describe all popular music by African Americans. In 1969, Fountain left the group in order to pursue a solo career. Carter sang with the Dixieland Blind Boys, as well as the Five Blind Boys of Mississippi, prior to his work with The Blind Boys of Alabama. The Gospel at Colonus won an Obie for Best Musical in 1984 and the production moved to Broadway in 1988. McKinnie had actually met the Blind Boys when he was about five years old. The album was produced by Booker T. Jones, and featured a version of Bob Dylan's "I Believe In You." In 1994, the National Endowment for the Arts awarded a National Heritage Fellowship to Clarence Fountain and the Five Blind Boys of Alabama. The award was presented to the Blind Boys by First Lady Hillary Clinton. In 1995, the Blind Boys became the first artists to be signed to the new House of Blues gospel label, for which they recorded their first live album I Brought Him with Me. The Blind Boys continued experimenting with contemporary popular music on their 1997 release Holding On, also released on the House of Blues label.

The Blind Boys of Alabama enjoyed further exposure and success in the 2000s and 2010s, including collaborations with many high profile musical artists. Their songs were featured on soundtracks of television series, such as Boston Public, Lost, and Criminal Minds, as well as films, such as Madea Goes to Jail, Alpha and Omega, and Hop. In 2001, the Blind Boys released Spirit of the Century on Peter Gabriel's Real World Records. The album included a version of "I Just Want to See His Face" by The Rolling Stones as well as a version of the song "Amazing Grace" arranged to the tune of "The House of the Rising Sun". The Blind Boys also performed on the steps of the Library of Congress in 2002. The album contains renditions of mostly Christmas related gospel songs and features guest artists Solomon Burke, Tom Waits, Michael Franti, Chrissie Hynde, Richard Thompson, Aaron Neville, Mavis Staples, Shelby Lynne, George Clinton, Robert Randolph, Meshell Ndegeocello, and Les McCann. The Blind Boys performed live twice with Lou Reed: In 2004, they performed together at a private concert on the floor of the UN General Assembly for the Landmine Survivors Network and in 2010, they appeared on Late Night with David Letterman and performed "Jesus", a song originally released by The Velvet Underground on their eponymous album. The Blind Boys collaborated several times with Ben Harper: Harper played guitar on the Blind Boys' albums Higher Ground and Spirit of the Century. The Blind Boys again collaborated with Harper on his 2004 album There Will Be a Light and toured with him throughout Europe that year. The following year, Harper and the Blind Boys released Live at the Apollo, a recording of their live performance from the Apollo Theater in October 2004. The Blind Boys released the album Atom Bomb in 2005. The album features cover versions of songs such as "Demons" by Fatboy Slim and Macy Gray, (a track that also featured a guest appearance by rapper Gift of Gab); Blind Faith's "Presence of the Lord," featuring soul musician Billy Preston; and a cover of Norman Greenbaum's "Spirit in the Sky," featuring David Hidalgo of Los Lobos and blues musician Charlie Musselwhite. In 2006, vocalist Ben Moore was invited to join the group by Carter. Moore had previously performed under the name "Bobby Purify" as part of the R&B duo James & Bobby Purify and continued to use the name as a solo artist after the duo broke up in the 1980s. The album was recorded in New Orleans, which was a first for the group, and includes songs written by or made famous by New Orleans musicians along with updated gospel standards. Each song features a duet between the Blind Boys and another artist; some of these artists include Susan Tedeschi, Bonnie Raitt, and John Hammond. In 2011, the group appeared in the live action/animated feature film Hop. Vocalist Billy Bowers left the group in 2011 when he was injured and underwent back surgery. Bowers' role as vocalist was filled by Ricky McKinnie, who was also the groups' percussionist for many years. Bowers died July 2, 2013, of heart failure in Montgomery, Alabama, at the age of 71. The album also features guest appearances by Sam Amidon and Merrill Garbus of Tune Yards. In 2016, the Blind Boys contributed to God Don't Never Change: The Songs of Blind Willie Johnson, a tribute album recorded in honor of gospel musician Blind Willie Johnson. The Blind Boys performed the song "Mother's Children Have a Hard Time", a performance that was nominated for Best American Roots Performance at the 60th Annual Grammy Awards. The album was also nominated in the category of Best Roots Gospel Album. Fountain also rejoined the group for the album's recording. The Blind Boys' manager, Charles Driebe, recorded interviews with the members of the group then shared them with the songwriters who wrote songs reflecting the Blind Boys' personal stories. Written by Leventhal, the song is about Carter as a young boy at the Alabama Institute and "how scared I was, and that I wanted my mother to live until I got grown." His final performance with the Blind Boys of Alabama was on May 16, 2018, at the Manship Theatre there. The Blind Boys, along with blues musician Mike Farris, performed a cover of the song "Respect Yourself." The performance was broadcast on the PBS live music series The Kate that spring. Over the summer of 2019, the Blind Boys toured Europe with blind Afro pop duo Amadou & Mariam. The album features Cohn and the Blind Boys performing new and older material by Cohn in addition to renditions of traditional gospel songs. Seven of the tracks are recordings from their performance on The Kate earlier that same year, including Cohn's hit "Walking in Memphis", as well the Blind Boys' version of "Amazing Grace" to the melody of "The House of the Rising Sun". Music blog UDiscoverMusic named Blind Boys the longest standing music group, as they are still touring and writing/recording music after being founded in 1939. In 2019, Jason Isbell selected the Blind Boys to join him for his October residency at the Ryman Auditorium. Shortly after, they were featured with Irish TV host Hector Ó hEochagáin for his show Hector USA. The Blind Boys' 2019 Christmas Tour earned the praise of The New Yorker, which commented "The beloved gospel ensemble the Blind Boys of Alabama remains perennially fresh, whether it's interjecting godliness into unexpected songs or, as in this case, saluting Christmas."

Name Years active Instruments Notes Jimmy Carter (c. 1932) 19822023 Vocals Bishop Billy Bowers (c. 1942, d. July 2, 2013) 19682011 Vocals Caleb "Bobby" Butler 19792008 Vocalist, bass Butler is sighted. No relation to Samuel Butler Jr. Samuel Butler Jr. 19721994 Vocals, rhythm guitar, songwriter, arranger, manager No relation to Caleb "Bobby" Butler. Ben Moore (b. August 7, 1941, d. May 12, 2022) 20062022 Vocals Paul Beasley (b. December 11, 1944, d. March 13, 2023) 20132023 Vocals Roscoe Robinson Vocals Charles Porter Vocals Dwight Fields (deceased) Vocals