Seventy years. That’s right, this year marks the seventh decade the Blind Boys of Alabama have been performing. Sure, the personnel have undergone some changes in that time, but one of the original members, Clarence Fountain, still tours with them as his health allows. What’s more, they’ve never been as relevant to the current music scene as they are today. That point is underscored in their latest album, Duets, which consists of collaborations with some of the biggest names in the music business.
Most albums that consist primarily of collaborative efforts tend to sound mostly like the group putting out the album, with the collaborator adding their particular spice to a song. In that sense, Duets is a little different since several of the songs come across as purely a reflection of the guest’s style. Perhaps the best example of that is Secular Praise, with Timothy Schmidt. It sounds like the Eagles, and what little you can hear of the BBoA could be any group of background singers the studio found.
A number of songs though, while clearly belonging to the featured guest, do a good job of adding the influence you expect from a joint effort with a band steeped in gospel and soul traditions. Perfect Peace, featuring Toots Hibbert, is an example of that. Great reggae, but with a gospel influence that sets it apart from anything I’ve heard from Toots and the Maytals. Similarly, Jesus, with Lou Reed, is unabashedly a Lou Reed kind of tune, but the Boys add a tasty rhythm section and background harmony that’s as at home in Memphis as in NYC.
The best songs on the album clearly are the ones where the effort of the guest and the Boys has resulted in a style that’s neither Blind Boys of Alabama nor that of the guest. In a couple of instances, they’ve nearly created a new genre. Up Above My Head, with Randy Travis, is a mashup of pure country and gospel, with a call-and-response vocal that could change a lot of people’s minds about church music. How I Got Over, featuring Marva Wright, is pure New Orleans; sin and salvation all at the same time. And One Kind Favor, with John Hammond, is an apocalyptic blues rock-like number sort of like Aphrodite’s Child meets Robert Lee Johnson.
Blind Boys of Alabama with Ben Harper (photo courtesy Michael Weintraub)
If you’ve heard of the Blind Boys of Alabama before, but never went out and added them to your collection, Duets is the release to have. And if you’ve never heard of them, go download at least a couple of the cuts from this album. Then next Sunday afternoon you can tell Mama you’ve started listening to religious music.
About the author: I've actually driven from Tehatchapee to Tonopah. And I've seen Dallas from a DC-9 at night.