Photos from UCLA Performing Arts The Blind Boys together
in the days of yore. The group started in 1939 when the original
members met at the Talladega Institute for the Deaf and Blind in
Alabama.
By Mary Williams
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
It’s hard to imagine that a band could be around longer
than the Grateful Dead have tried to be, but the Blind Boys of
Alabama have performed for over 60 years and are still going
strong.
The original Blind Boys met in 1939 at the Talladega Institute
for the Deaf and Blind in Alabama. They got their name when
performing as Happy Land Singers with another group of Southern
blind men. The promoter billed the show as a contest between the
Blind Boys of Alabama and the Blind Boys of Mississippi.
With three of the original members remaining, the group has
recorded over 40 albums and toured internationally. The gospel
group will be performing at Royce Hall on Saturday night as part of
the UCLA Live performing arts program.
“The Blind Boys have continually been popular because
they’ve learned to adapt to all situations,” said Ricky
McKinnie, the group’s drummer and a backup singer. “Our
music is traditional gospel, but traditional gospel has a way of
reaching all types of people, through the fact that we have
recorded contemporary music and traditional. Most of our music has
a flavor that is traditional, but has a rhythm and blues type
flavor, because of the way that we have adapted to the
times.”
 Photos from UCLA Performing Arts A more recent
incarnation of the Boys, who will be performing at Royce on
Saturday night. The group, whose current lineup is Clarence
Fountain, Jimmy Carter, George Scott, Ricky McKinnie, Caleb Butler,
Joey Williams and Fredrick Rice, most recently recorded
“Spirit of the Century.” The album is a combination of
older gospel songs and covers of new material by artists including
Tom Waits and Ben Harper, and also includes a track by another
group with a long-lasting career: the Rolling Stones.
“Throughout the years the Blind Boys have been able to
adapt to the time,” McKinnie said. “Our recordings have
always had something for everyone’s taste.”
“We’ve been collaborating with different artists for
a long time,” he added. “We’ve done records with
a lot of different people. We’ve been doing this and
we’ll continue to do it.”
Although the Blind Boys have recorded non-traditional pieces on
many of their albums, the members insist on performing songs to
which they can relate.
This is important for song selection as well as for the
selection of new members in the group.
“We try to find people with the right spirit and the
gospel background so it enhances the group,” McKinnie
said.
The Blind Boys, in their musical odyssey, have discovered that
in order to excel in anything, they must familiarize themselves
with the subject matter intimately.
“In order to play gospel music and be successful at it,
you have to know God for yourself,” McKinnie said.
“Everyone has their own religious background, but we try to
find people that believe in what we’re doing and what
we’re singing about, because you can’t really sing
about what you don’t know about.”
The group has drawn audiences in all kinds of settings, from
churches to concert venues like Royce. In over their six decades of
performing, they have found gospel to be a universally popular
genre.
“The Blind Boys have played to audiences all over the
world. Our music is electrifying as well as spiritual so I think
that the (UCLA) audience will receive us quite well.”
In general, the Blind Boys feel that they are not a
studio-focused band, and live shows like their performance on
Saturday are the best representation of their music.
“We have been blessed to have five musicians that we can
take into the studio that can portray somewhat the style of the
Blind Boys, but when you hear the Blind Boys with their own band
doing their own thing you get the real flavor of what its all
about,” McKinnie said.
The Blind Boys have benefited from a remarkably long career,
longer in fact than the entire life span of rock “˜n’
roll.
Even though popular music from 1939 to the present has changed
vastly, gospel seems to have remained a constant, leaving its mark
on both rhythm and blues and rock music. It’s this
characteristic of the genre that has kept the Blind Boys recording
and performing for so long.
“I’ve learned that gospel is like the Bible,”
McKinnie said. “It was here at the beginning, and it’s
going to be around forever. It’s traditional music because
its the root of all music.”
MUSIC: The Blind Boys of Alabama will be
performing at Royce Hall on Saturday at 8 p.m. Tickets are
available at the Central Ticket Office, or call (310) 825-2101.