COURTESY REAL WORLD
They were six boys in 1937 from the Talladega Institute for the Deaf and Blind. Blind Boys’ new CD
"Higher Ground"
uneven but worthy
The Blind Boys of Alabama
(Real World)
By Gary C.W. Chun
gchun@starbulletin.com"We just wanted to sing gospel," said founding member Clarence Fountain, and that's just what the Blind Boys of Alabama have been doing for six decades-plus.
Now down to a trio with Fountain, fellow original member George Scott and Jimmy Carter, the now-elderly men have enjoyed a resurgent career ever since making an electrifying series of 1988 performances in the award-winning Broadway musical "Gospel at Colonus."
Last year, the Blind Boys received their first Grammy award for Best Traditional Soul Gospel Album, for the critically acclaimed "Spirit of the Century," the first release on Peter Gabriel's eclectic world music label. Traditional gospel songs were mixed with gospel-inspired readings of work by Tom Waits and Ben Harper.
The young and soulful Harper returns the favor on the Blind Boys' new album by guesting on three songs, playing down-home steel resonator guitar on his self-penned "Freedom Road," a spry "I May Not Can See" ("but I got somebody lookin' out for me") and the title track.
"Higher Ground" is a rockin' gospel-soul hybrid of the Stevie Wonder original also recently covered by the Red Hot Chili Peppers. The Boys' stretched-out version blends authoritative, old-time gospel voices with Harper's guitar and steady backing by "sacred steel" phenom Robert Randolph and his Family Band.
That track is the dividing point for the album. The songs that precede it are of a comparatively mellower tone - to the point that I was somewhat disappointed that the overall recording didn't have a rawer, live-in-studio quality to it. It seemed a bit too sterile, muting gospel's impact.
Some of those songs also fade prematurely. A smooth rendition of Aretha Franklin's "Spirit in the Dark" just starts to cook before it fades to silence. Still, there are a couple of high points: The soul-satisfying three-part harmony on "Wade in the Water" just hunkers down and digs and works a slow groove, and a meditative version of Jimmy Cliff's "Many Rivers to Cross" features Randolph's steel guitar playing.
But it's the songs after "Higher Ground" that put this album over the top. Besides the aforementioned "Freedom Road" and "I May Not Can See," Harper chips in on a funky Detroit-via-New Orleans take of Funkadelic's "You and Your Folks," that stirs up a swampy gumbo ya-ya stew behind a recitation of the 23rd Psalm.
Jimmy Carter and Clarence Fountain round out the proceedings on a quiet note, with Carter lending his alto voice to a fine rendition of the spiritual "I Shall Not Walk Alone," accompanied only by piano and the occasional tapping of cymbals. Fountain's weathered, raspy voice on "Precious Lord" is paired up with Randolph's steel playing, two voices calling and responding to each other, floating over a soothing bed of grounded backup vocals by Carter and baritone Scott.
It ends the album on a beautiful, sublime note.
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