And so The Blind Boys of Alabama came back. Having truly wrecked the house last year, they returned to the Guinness Blues Festival covered in glory and ready to do it all over again. Last year's lucky witnesses showed up, too, and the festival crowds were further swelled by the curious and the doubtful. There had been a lot of big talk about The Blind Boys throughout the year and surely, they thought, they couldn't be that good ? Believers, however, just smiled quietly. They knew what was going to happen - and it did. And just like last year, everyone - absolutely everyone - went home speechless.
On the road since 1937, The Blind Boys have a collective age which runs well into serious figures, and yet these extraordinary gentlemen seem untouched by anything other than that spirit they keep singing about.
Formed at Alabama's Talledega Institute for the Deaf and Blind, and known first as The Happyland Jubilee Singers, The Blind Boys were inspired by the great vocal groups of the day, like the early Soul Stirrers and The Golden Gate Quartet. By the early 1950s they were one of the leading groups themselves and their front-man Clarence Fountain was very much a star in demand.
This, however, was at a time when many gospel stars began to cross over to the more lucrative secular scene. And as Sam Cooke and the rest of them became the greatest of pop stars, Clarence Fountain simply refused to budge. In his view, he just couldn't do both - even the Reverend Green, who these days happily mixes the sacred and the secular, doesn't quite measure up to Fountain's strict standard.
"There's a little difference between Al Green and The Blind Boys. See, we been doing this all our lives and he's been singing rock'n'roll. That's alright if he wants to do that - that's good - but, see, it's not complicated to switch right over and do Love and Happiness and keep on going, doing what he does. But I wouldn't switch for all the tea in China. Many times I had the opportunity, but I think that's not the thing to do. I wouldn't mix it because you cannot serve two masters at once. You gotta love one and hate the other or vice versa. I love the Lord and my choice was to serve the Lord."
Clarence Fountain is rigid on this one. At a time when so many gospel singers were jumping overboard and moving to stellar careers in secular music, Clarence Fountain was as highly regarded as any of them. There is no doubt whatever that he could have made it as a successful soul singer, but it simply wasn't an issue. His strict religious upbringing had a very strong hold and, year after year, all temptation was resisted. Fountain is now satisfied he has, in his own words, "served the Lord well."
"See, when these guys crossed over they were looking at it from the money angle. But my thing was that I wouldn't work for a man that wouldn't pay me. And the Devil, he doesn't have anything for me. He might pay me in money, but when you compare that to your soul, that's nothing. So I said I'll work for the Lord because I know I'll get paid. He's a just God and his word is true. I had my chance to sing rock'n'roll because we came along just like Little Richard and Sam Cooke. Sam came from a gospel group but money has never been my priority. I just wanted enough to keep the people from coming knocking on your door and pay your creditors."
From his early days at "cutting sessions" with other top-drawer stars, Fountain developed all the spectacular techniques of gospel singer. From a whisper to a scream, he became a supreme cross between a showman and a preacher - employing the skills of both to whip any audience/congregation into an actual frenzy. His father was a preacher, too - and a good one. As Fountain puts it, "I know he was a good preacher because he had a big cadillac."
But whatever about who crossed over and who didn't, the real irony is that these septuagenarian gentlemen create far more energy than any of their secular soul counterparts and easily out-rock any rock'n'roll band you care to think of. It is immediately evident to anyone with ears that what The Blind Boys purvey is the actual thing itself, the living source of all those later variations and dilutions - and nothing much comes even close. As I suggested to Fountain, a performer like James Brown seems rather on the tame side compared to this group of holy rollers from Alabama.
"Well, that's the difference in singing gospel and singing blues. We sing with power and we sing with conviction. In rock'n'roll the words doesn't go far because the gospel is the truth. The gospel means good news, Jesus is coming and you can't get around that. The Devil says the good news isn't coming. The Devil always been here and until the Lord chain him down and lock him up and throw him in Hell, he's going to be here. And you have to be on your ps and qs because he's out to get you. The joy is to make people feel something that you feel. We get a thrill out of letting people know that there is a reality and that there is joy in serving the Lord."
The high point of any Blind Boys show is the electric moment when the seemingly quiet one - the mild-looking Jimmy Carter - gets suddenly animated and very jumpy indeed. Before long he's lifted into the audience, everyone is on their feet and this little seventy-something blind man is running up and down the aisles screaming about Jesus and causing something of a spiritual riot. A hypnotic and frenzied call-and-response hysteria develops and grown men weep as Carter screams louder and longer than anything anyone has ever heard before. In fact, it all begins to seem a little superhuman and people begin to look at each other in disbelief.
As the energy builds, the frantic Carter begins to fight off any attempts to get him back on stage. He jumps, he spins and finally collapses on the floor while roaring a note to heaven that seems to go on forever. Everyone is left exhausted, exhilarated, elevated and quite speechless. And yet for Clarence Fountain and The Blind Boys of Alabama, this is a ritual "getting over" which happens every single time they perform.
"He's not getting over on his own. It ain't nothing but the Lord. Some people take drugs to do it but we don't need no drugs. We just take Jesus and that'll get us over every trip of the train. You got to understand that it's not us. It's the God that's in us that keeps us going. We pray before each show and that's the main thing that gets you over. You know what you're doing and then we ask the Lord to bless us and come in and dwell among us. That's the one thing you can't get away from. You can't get away from God."
The Blind Boys of Alabama did it again. They left us ecstatic, rattled and stunned.