The Blind Boys of Alabama

Blind Boys of Alabama
Blind Boys of Alabama performing at the West Coast Blues & Roots Festival in 2011
Background information
Origin	Alabama, United States
Genres	Gospel, blues
Years active	1944–present
Website	blindboys.com

The Blind Boys of Alabama are a five-time Grammy Award-winning gospel group who first sang together in 1939. The Blind Boys have toured for seven decades, and created an extensive discography. In 2016 the on-stage configuration of the group consists of eight people: four blind singers—Jimmy Carter, Ben Moore, Eric “Ricky” McKinnie, Paul Beasley - guitarist and musical director Joey Williams, and a keyboard player, a bass player, and a drummer.

The Blind Boys of Alabama sing mainly spiritually uplifting songs, as well as giving encouragement to those with disabilities. In the words of one of the group’s blind members, Ricky Mckinnie, “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."

The Blind Boys of Alabama first sang together in the school chorus in 1939 at the Alabama Institute for the Negro Blind in Talladega, Alabama. All around nine years old at the time, the founding members were Clarence Fountain, Jimmy Carter, George Scott, Velma Bozman Traylor, Johnny Fields, Olice Thomas, and the only sighted member, J. T. Hutton. The earliest version of the group was known as “The Happyland Jubilee Singers” and originally performed for World War II-era soldiers at training camps in the South. The group’s first professional performance was on June 10, 1944. In 1945, the members dropped out of school and began touring the gospel circuit.

In 1948, a Newark, New Jersey promoter booked two sets of blind gospel singers - the Happy Land Jubilee Singers from Alabama and the Jackson Harmoneers from Mississippi - and advertised the program as "Battle of the Blind Boys." A friendly rivalry sprouted between the two groups and continued henceforth. The two acts soon changed their names to the Five Blind Boys of Alabama and the Five Blind Boys of Mississippi and often toured together, occasionally swapping members. In 1948, The Blind Boys of Alabama recorded their first single, “I Can See Everybody’s Mother But Mine” on the Veejay label. It was a hit and lead to a series of recordings on various record labels.

During the 1950s black gospel music was popular, and the Blind Boys were one of the better known groups. Artists from pop and rock genres began to include aspects of black gospel music in their arrangements and black gospel artists began 'crossing over' to pop and rock music.

During the 1960s and 1970s, soul music gained favor as a new type of secular black music. As a traditional gospel group, the fortunes of The Blind Boys of Alabama waned during these decades. Soul music was spiritual and socially engaged pop music, and its sales soon exceeded those of its gospel forerunners. Although soul music became a more financially successful route for many gospel artists, the Blind Boys of Alabama remained purely gospel singers.

In spite of shifting societal trends, The Blind Boys continued to be active in the 1960s and 1970s, releasing thirteen more albums through several labels, including the Vee-Jay label from 1963 to 1965. In the 1960s, the group's hard-driving gospel sound was imitated by people like Bobby "Blue" Bland and Marvin Gaye. In 1969, Fountain left the group for a decade to try to make it on his own, and the group re-formed with all the original members in the late '70s.