Post by Ms. Kathy on Jun 20, 2004 4:35:49 GMT -6
This article is from the Five Blind Boys' site at www.rosebudus.com/blindboys/ The article is from MetroActive at www.metroactive.com/papers/metro/01.10.02/gospel-0202.html
Since age 10, music has played a central role in the lives of Fountain and original Blind Boys Jimmy Carter and George Scott. As students at the Talladega Institute for the Deaf and Blind in Alabama, the trio--taught to read music in Braille--were standouts in a school glee club.
The singers turned professional in 1944, even replacing the sophisticated jubilee-style harmonies with a more raw, emotional style favored by evangelical audiences.
Then, in 1983, composer Bob Telson and director Lee Breuer approached Fountain about participating in Gospel at Colonus, a stage production that would recast Sophocles' Greek tragedy Oedipus at Colonus as a black Pentecostal church service with key roles performed by gospel singers. The Five Blind Boys of Alabama would star as a collective Oedipus. Gospel at Colonus brought the Blind Boys to a mainstream audience.
These days, the Blind Boys are playing a half dozen shows with the Spirit of the Century band and recording a follow-up album together.
"We've got this one more record to do, I think, and then we'll be winding down," says Fountain with a quiet sense of resignation."If I sat down tomorrow, I wouldn't have any regrets because I think I've done what the Lord wanted me to do," he concludes with a slight laugh, "and I'm ssssssatisfied!"
"Vintage" Five Blind Boys of Alabama-An AQGC 2000 Hall of Fame Inductee
"Look Where He Brought Me From"
Higher Ground
Run On
Way Down in the Hole
Since age 10, music has played a central role in the lives of Fountain and original Blind Boys Jimmy Carter and George Scott. As students at the Talladega Institute for the Deaf and Blind in Alabama, the trio--taught to read music in Braille--were standouts in a school glee club.
The singers turned professional in 1944, even replacing the sophisticated jubilee-style harmonies with a more raw, emotional style favored by evangelical audiences.
Then, in 1983, composer Bob Telson and director Lee Breuer approached Fountain about participating in Gospel at Colonus, a stage production that would recast Sophocles' Greek tragedy Oedipus at Colonus as a black Pentecostal church service with key roles performed by gospel singers. The Five Blind Boys of Alabama would star as a collective Oedipus. Gospel at Colonus brought the Blind Boys to a mainstream audience.
These days, the Blind Boys are playing a half dozen shows with the Spirit of the Century band and recording a follow-up album together.
"We've got this one more record to do, I think, and then we'll be winding down," says Fountain with a quiet sense of resignation."If I sat down tomorrow, I wouldn't have any regrets because I think I've done what the Lord wanted me to do," he concludes with a slight laugh, "and I'm ssssssatisfied!"
"Vintage" Five Blind Boys of Alabama-An AQGC 2000 Hall of Fame Inductee
"Look Where He Brought Me From"
Higher Ground
Run On
Way Down in the Hole