The Blind Boys of Alabama visit Hoyt Sherman Place this weekend, fresh off a recent Grammy win. Photo: Blind Boys of Alabama
Writer: Michael Morain
The original Blind Boys of Alabama got their start in 1939 as part of the school chorus at the Alabama Institute for the Negro Deaf and Blind. Back then, the all-white faculty didn’t let them sing the Black gospel songs they heard on the radio.
But they eventually set out on their own, first for pocket change near World War II bases and then on increasingly bigger stages, including White House concerts for three different presidents.
Members have come and gone over the years, but they’re still mostly blind and still going strong, with a pile of hit albums and another shiny new Grammy. Their latest release, “Echoes of the South,” was named the Best Roots Gospel Album earlier this month.
“It’s always a surprise when you actually win,” longtime member Ricky McKinnie said. “Afterward, we went out to eat. That’s what we like to do.”
They also like to sing, which they’ll do at 7:30 p.m. Thursday at the Englert Theatre in Iowa City and again at 7:30 p.m. Friday at Hoyt Sherman Place.
They’ve sung through the Jim Crow era, the Civil Rights Movement and the ongoing Black Lives Matter movement. They’ve sung sturdy old hymns and soulful hits by Aretha Franklin, Curtis Mayfield and Ben Harper.
“I bet we could rock the Stones pretty good,” said McKinnie, who met Mick Jagger after the Rolling Stones covered a Blind Boys hit. “He was a very nice guy, kind of laid back.”
The Blind Boys just keep on keeping on, even in era dominated by pop and hip-hop.
“If you’re listening to Beyonce or Taylor Swift or any kind of American popular music, you’re tapping into blues and gospel,” said Brian Coyle of the Civic Music Association, which is presenting the concert here in Des Moines. “I think of them as this underground aquifer that feeds the roots of American music and branches off into all these other genres — jazz, hip-hop, rap.”
McKinnie didn’t get too philosophical over the phone last week, but he did make a pretty good case to buy a ticket: “If you’re feeling bad and you want to feel good, the place to be is at a Blind Boys concert.”
The group has 85 years to back him up.
