Blind Boys Of Alabama Look Back On ‘Almost Home’
The Blind Boys are in Atlanta next Thursday, Nov. 16, with singer Irma Thomas and the Preservation Hall Legancy Quintet, featuring a program of New Orleans music.
Photo courtesy of the Blind Boys of Alabama and Blind Ambition Management
The Grammy Award-winning Blind Boys of Alabama take their gospel sound to Emory University’s Emerson Concert Hall next week.
The group first sang together in 1939, and since their official formation in 1944, they’ve toured the world and put out Grammy Award-winning albums.
In their current incarnation, the Blind Boys only comprises two of their original members, Jimmy Carter and Clarence Fountain. Their longtime manager Charles Driebe figured it was time to document their reflections on their lives. He taped interviews with Fountain and Carter and sent those off to songwriters.
Fifty song submissions were whittled down, and the result is their new album “Almost Home,” which came out earlier this year.
“They never imagined they would have the career they’ve had,” said Driebe in an interview with “City Lights” host Lois Reitzes. “Jimmy used to wonder why he was blind, and now, he says, I’m glad in a way that I am blind because otherwise, I wouldn’t be doing what I’m doing.”
The Blind Boys are in Atlanta next Thursday, Nov. 16, with singer Irma Thomas and the Preservation Hall Legancy Quintet, featuring a program of New Orleans music. That’s at the Emerson Concert Hall on Emory University’s campus.
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