BLIND BOYS OF ALABAMA

             (1965 - 1989)

The Five Blind Boys of Alabama are one of the really great names in gospel music, and one of the few names of a gospel group known outside the world of gospel. They are one of the longest standing groups still recording and performing in 2008. Their career can best be divided in three parts. First the Golden Age (1948-1963) when the recorded for labels as Specialty and  Vee Jay. In the second phase of their career (1965-1989) they recorded for HOB, Jewel, Wajji, Messiah and others, can best be described as the Middle Stage. The third phase (1992 - today), or the Crossover Stage, is the period when they recorded for Major Record Companies and are selling more albums than ever. On this page we focus on the Middle Stage of their career, because it's the least well documented phase, even their own website doesn't have a lot about this period.

We've made a podcast with 17 songs by the Blind Boys of Alabama covering the period 1965-1989.

For more info on this podcast click: here.  You can download and/or subscribe to the podcasts: here

When Vee-Jay went bankrupt in 1965, The Boys were without a contract. New York based HOB was quick to pick them up and sign them. At that time HOB was becoming one of the leading labels in gospel music, in what were trying times for traditional Gospel ‘quartets’.  There was not much of a market for their music outside of Church. Although they continued to get work, the 'money was gettin' funny', and arguments within the group began to drive them apart. During the late sixties it became a common practice in the world of Gospel Music to give the lead vocalist a more prominent position. On many of the HOB released 45’s the group was advertised as Clarence Fountain and the Blind Boys of Alabama. Clarence Fountain apparently felt that he was the 'star', and that he should be paid more than the other founding members. This wasn't going to fly, and so he left The Blind Boys in 1969. On a separate page we look at Clarence Fountain’s solo career in the 1970s. The Boys continued recording albums (but almost no 45’s) for HOB well into the seventies.

 

	The Five Blind Boys Of Alabama	I Saw The Light	HOB LP 254	1966
	The Five Blind Boys of Alabama	Soul of Clarence Fountain	HOB LP 262	1966/67
	The Five Blind Boys of Alabama	Church Concert In New Orleans	HOB LP 275	1967
	The Five Blind Boys of Alabama	Tell Jesus	HOB LP 284
	The Five Blind Boys of Alabama	Too Sweet To Be Saved	HOB LP 295	1970
	The Five Blind Boys of Alabama	Jesus Rose With All Power In His Hands	HOB LP 2121	1970
	The Five Blind Boys of Alabama	Five Blind Boys of Alabama	HOB LP 2136
	The Five Blind Boys of Alabama	Working For The Lord	HOB LP 2155	1973
	The Five Blind Boys of Alabama	Lord Search My Heart	HOB LP 2169	1974
	The Five Blind Boys of Alabama	Reach Out & Touch Somebody’s Hand	HOB LP 2174	1974
	The Five Blind Boys of Alabama	Best of	HOB LP 17003

With Fountain’s solo career going nowhere, in 1978 Fountain and the Boys re-united with one album at Jewel, followed with one album for ALA in 1979. Both those albums and all consecutive albums were released as by ‘Clarence Fountain and the (Original) Five Blind Boys of Alabama'. In 1980, Roscoe Robinson became a member of The Five Blind Boys Of Alabama. Both Clarence Fountain and Roscoe Robinson were aboard for the great 1982 album I'm A Soldier In The Army Of The Lord, which Roscoe co-produced with Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff. It was re-released on CD in 2004. Shortly after recording “I’m A Soldier In The Army Of The Lord” Roscoe Robinson left the group, and guitarist Sam Butler Jr. joined them. He replaced long time member guitarist George Scott. Before becoming the guitarist of the Blind Boys, Butler has made his own secular and gospel records. With Sam Butler as the new musical arranger for the group they recorded “Faith Moves Mountains” for Messiah Records in 1983 accompanied with several musicians who also played on the sessions for “The Gospel At Colonus”.

In 1983, Lee Breuer, of the Mabou Mines Theater Company, approached the Blind Boys about appearing in his new work, The Gospel At Colonus. The play was an adaptation of Sophocles' Theban Greek tragedy Oedipus Coloneus, that tells of the torment and redemption of that pathetic figure in a modern day Pentecostalist setting. It would win an Obie Award in 1984, and Breuer would 'take the show on the road' the following year. Playing to sold out houses throughout Europe, The Blind Boys were taking American Gospel to places it had never been before, becoming internationally known in the process. Upon their triumphant return to the States in 1987, they were featured in an Emmy award winning PBS television presentation of the play, which then moved to Broadway for a Tony nominated run in 1988. They were on a roll.

 

	The Five Blind Boys of Alabama	Swing Low Sweet Chariot	Jewel LP 0127	1977
	Clarence Fountain & The Five Blind Boys of Alabama	I found A Friend	ALA Records ALA G-904	1979
	Clarence Fountain & the Five Blind Boys of Alabama	I’m a Soldier In The Army of the Lord	Peace International PE-1000	1982
	Clarence Fountain & the Five Blind Boys of Alabama	Faith Moves Mountains	Messiah 101	1983
	Various Artists	The Gospel At Colonus	Warner Brothers LP 1-25182	1984

In 1987, they returned to the studio recording “Thank You For Caring For Me” again with Roscoe Robinson back on board. In 1988 at the time when The Boys were moving from Messiah Records to Wajji Records, Clarence Fountain released another solo album “Leave Them There”. The only Alabama Blind Boys connections on the album are Sam Butler, and the fact that it was recorded at Sigma Sound Studios in Philadelphia, where they had previously recorded “I’m A Soldier In The Army Of The Lord”. The album was manufactured and distributed by Messiah Records of Philadelphia, but released on Wajji Records our of Washington D.C. With “Leave Them There” as Wajji LP 1304 and the next album in the Wajji catalogue being “Changed Man” by Clarence Fountain and the Blind Boys of Alabama, Clarence’s solo project doesn’t suggest another (temporarily) break up of the group. “Changed Man” meant the first appearance of Jimmy Carter (aka Jimmy Lee Watts) as an ‘original’ Blind Boy of Alabama. Carter was a member of the Mississippi Blind Boys in the 1970s and he had toured with the Boys from Alabama during the ‘Colonus’ years. After one more album for Wajji and one for Atlanta International in 1990, they moved into another decade and another phase in their career recording for Major Recording companies, finally getting their well deserved crossover success.

 

	Clarence Fountain & the Five Blind Boys of Alabama	Thank You For Caring For Me	Messiah 110	1987
	Clarence Fountain	Leave Them There	Wajji Records LP 1304	1988
	Clarence Fountain & the Five Blind Boys of Alabama	Changed Man	Wajji Records LP 1305	1989
	Clarence Fountain & the Five Blind Boys of Alabama	Brand New	Wajji Records LP 1311	1990
	Clarence Fountain & the Five Blind Boys of Alabama	I'm Not That Way Anymore	AIR LP 10155	1990

(Red Kelly & Cies de Theije)

July 2008