The Blind Boys of Alabama
American gospel group / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The Blind Boys of Alabama, also billed as The Five Blind Boys of Alabama, and Clarence Fountain and the Blind Boys of Alabama,[2] 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.[2][3][4][5]
The Blind Boys of Alabama | |
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Background information | |
Origin | Talladega, Alabama, U.S. |
Genres | Gospel, traditional black gospel, blues, soul |
Years active | 1939–present |
Members |
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Past members |
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Website | blindboys |
The Blind Boys found mainstream success following their appearance in the 1983 Obie Award-winning musical The Gospel at Colonus.[2][6][7] 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.[2][3][6][8][9] 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.[3][8]
The Blind Boys have won five Grammy Awards in addition to being presented with a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2009.[10] They were endowed with a National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts in 1994,[11] they were inducted into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame in 2003,[12] and they were inducted into the Alabama Music Hall of Fame in 2010.[13] The group was also invited to the White House during the Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama administrations.[6][14]
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."[6]