When Was My Savior Born?

The Blind Boys of Alabama Rock Around the Manger

by Charles Donelan

Before funk, before rock, and even
before rhythm and blues, there was gospel. Gospel revues packed
into automobiles crisscrossed America throughout the 1940s and ’50s
playing venues big and small, spreading the word about God with
sweat-drenched, soul-shattering harmonies and rough-edged, powerful
vocal solos. The Blind Boys of Alabama, who today include founding
members Clarence Fountain and Jimmy Carter along with Bishop Billy
Bowers, Joey Williams, Ricky McKinnie, Bobby Butler, and Tracy
Pierce, are one of the original such gospel groups, having begun
their careers an astonishing 67 years ago at the Alabama Institute
for the Negro Blind in 1939. Clarence Fountain was acknowledged by
chart-topping soul singer Sam Cooke as a primary influence in the
area of making an emotional appeal to the audience; and Fountain,
unlike Cooke, is still out there bringing down the house today.

When Lee Breuer chose the group to portray Oedipus in his
groundbreaking musical theater piece Oedipus at Colonus in 1983, he
brought the Blind Boys of Alabama to a whole new audience. Since
then, high-profile collaborations with contemporary musical artists
such as Ben Harper, Shelby Lynne, Chrissie Hynde, Tom Waits, Aaron
Neville, and Mavis Staples have kept the Boys in the limelight.
They will be playing their second-to-last Christmas show before
Christmas here in Santa Barbara at the Marjorie Luke Theatre on
Thursday, December 21. Go Tell It on the Mountain: The Blind Boys
of Alabama Christmas Show is also available as a CD and an extended
live DVD. For information on these and other Blind Boys releases,
visit blindboys.com.