Nov. 9
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: LISA WOSKE
(805) 756-7110
Cal Poly Arts Brings Blind Boys of Alabama to Cohan Center
SAN LUIS OBISPO -- On Thursday, December 2 at 8 p.m. in the Christopher
Cohan Center, the Blind Boys of Alabama return to San Luis Obispo
with their first-ever
Christmas concert, “Go Tell It On The Mountain.”
The Blind Boys of Alabama deliver “faith,
soul, and quality by the truckload,” raves Billboard Magazine.
The Blind Boys of Alabama have spread the spirit and energy of
pure soul
gospel music for over 60 years, when the first version of the group
formed at the Alabama Institute for the Negro Blind in 1939.
Cal Poly Arts presents the Grammy-winning, 7-member ensemble in
a big,
buoyant holiday show for all ages. Audiences can look forward to
church-fired, “gospelized” renditions of cherished classics
such as “Joy
to the World,” “O Come All Ye Faithful,” and “Silent
Night.”
The group is touring during the holiday season in support of their
popular CD release, “Go Tell It On The Mountain.”
For Clarence Fountain, founder and leader of The Blind Boys of
Alabama,
his earliest memories of Christmas are among the most vivid.
“I must’ve been about three or four years old, living
with my family in
Tyler, Alabama, in Dallas County. We were out in the country and
didn’t
get to town but once in a while. Christmas was the one day that
us kids
all got some candy and some apples and oranges.
“Didn’t have anything else – we were too poor
to buy anything else. But
I knew it was Christmas, because that was the only time I got those
things all at the same time – the candy and the apples and
the oranges."
Fountain reports that the Blind Boys have always wanted to cut
a
Christmas album, "...we just never got it together before.”
"Go Tell It On the Mountain" is both a traditional and
innovative
12-song collection filled with genre-crossing guest vocal appearances
by
Solomon Burke, George Clinton, Michael Franti, Chrissie Hynde, Shelby
Lynne, Les McCann, Aaron Neville, Mavis Staples, and Tom Waits.
There are also special instrumental guest performances by Richard
Thompson and Robert Randolph
Soulman Solomon Burke has “…always idolized the Blind
Boys. They have
been around for more than 60 years and still, here they are: the
hottest, workin’, movin’, groovin’, jumpin’,
singin’, shoutin’ gospel
quartet in America – I’d say in the world!”
“I was listening to the Blind Boys back in the Fifties,”
says singer
Aaron Neville. “My brothers and I used to walk down the street
harmonizing, trying to sound like the Blind Boys. Their singing
still
sends chills down my spine – they've got that old soul!”
Steel-pedal guitarist Robert Randolph agrees, “(That) is
what’s so cool
about being affiliated with the Blind Boys: Their music gives you
a
feeling you just can’t get from anyone else.”
The Blind Boys of Alabama worked for more than 40 years on the
traditional gospel circuit. In 1983, their career reached a turning
point with their role in the smash hit musical drama, “The
Gospel at
Colonus.”
The production’s Obie Award-winning Off-Broadway and Broadway
success,
coupled with the group's appearance on two original soundtrack albums,
brought the Blind Boys’ timeless sound to an enthusiastic
new audience.
Their 1992 album, “Deep River,” produced by Booker
T. Jones and
featuring a transcendent version of Bob Dylan's “I Believe
In You,”
earned the Blind Boys their first Grammy Award nomination.
It was, as their executive producer and long-time booking agent
Chris
Goldsmith notes, “the first time the Blind Boys ventured into
‘gospelizing’ relevant contemporary songs that weren’t
traditional
soul-gospel songs.”
In 1995, the Blind Boys released the live album, “I Brought
Him With
Me,” followed in 1997 by “Holding On,” an experiment
in funked-up
contemporary gospel.
In 2001, the Blind Boys’ “Spirit of the Century”
delivered a set of
hot-wired traditional gospel and carefully chosen contemporary songs
that became the group’s best-selling album to date and won
the 2001
Grammy Award for Best Traditional Soul Gospel Album.
“Higher Ground,” a spiritual excavation into the soul
music tradition,
earned the group its second consecutive Grammy Award for Best
Traditional Soul Gospel Album in 2002.
That same year, during the 34th annual Dove Awards sponsored by
the
Gospel Music Association, the Blind Boys of Alabama were inducted
into
the Gospel Music Hall of Fame and presented with the Dove Award
for
“Higher Ground” as the Best Traditional Gospel Album.
Tickets for the performance range from $26 - $38, with student
discounts
available, and may be purchased at the Performing Arts Ticket Office,
10
a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturdays. To order
by
phone, call 805/756-2787; to order by fax: 805/756-6088. Order on-line
at www.pacslo.org.
Sponsored by Dr. Warren Anderson, Apple Farm Inn, and KCBX 90.1 FM.
For audio and video samples of Cal Poly Arts events, visit
www.calpolyarts.org.
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