October 18–25, 2001
music
Blind Faith
The Blind Boys of Alabama set their sights higher.
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Century Club: The Blind Boys take their Spirit on the road. | |
The genial Fountain is one of the original Blind Boys. As he reckons it, he was about 9 years old when he and some fellow glee club singers from Birmingham’s Talladega School for the Blind got together. Until that point they’d been singing typical glee club fare, but their hearts lay elsewhere. "We loved listening to the Golden Gate Quartet on the radio," says Fountain. The syncopated sounds of jubilee quartets (a cappella ancestors of today’s gospel quartets) were engaging and challenging beyond what they were taught in school. Golden Gate was also an inspiration that the boys could do more than "make brooms, belts, pocketbooks." That was considered a blind person’s destiny back then, particularly an African-American in the deep South. Fountain recalls that even after he was a pro, "I had a man in Detroit come by and offer me a job sorting bolts!"
Soon the Golden Gate Quartet was on the national radio network, coast to coast, presenting African-American culture in an uplifting way. The Happy Land Singers, as the Boys called themselves then, were not settling for anything less. In 1944 they left the Talladega School, settled with one of the boys’ families and began their work of spreading good news in earnest.
When Fountain gets warmed up on the subject, it’s clear that the faith is genuine. It takes a little prodding though, since he does most of his talking from the stage, "People don’t come to hear you talk about world affairs. But faith is something you live by. If it were not so, I’d’ve never been able to get on an airplane again [after the attacks of Sept. 11]. And we just got back from Johannesburg, 10 hours flying each way!"
Fountain looks at that disaster as God’s wake-up call. "Singing has taken us worldwide. We are trying to get a message over that God is in control of his world. He made it, and he ain’t gonna let you tear it up!" But that doesn’t mean we get off without a little sweat equity, says Fountain.
There has been surprising variety in the Blind Boys’ career. When The Gospel at Colonus was merely a dream of telling Greek theater with gospel for the chorus, it was Fountain who was tapped for the arrangements. The Blind Boys spent, at his estimate, six to seven years with the show, including five on Broadway and a stint here at the Annenberg Center.
What else would Fountain like to get done before he goes to his reward? "Well, I’ve been to the Grammys several times; now I’d like to bring one home!" The Blind Boys’ newest CD, Spirit of the Century may just do the trick. It is unlike any other they’ve ever done. When Danny Thompson’s walking bass eases us through the first few bars of the first song — a cover of Tom Waits’ "Jesus Gonna Be Here" — we know this is not your average gospel CD. Enter Fountain, all rough-edged sincerity. It’s just the two of them for a few more bars. Then Michael Jerome’s understated drums, Charlie Musselwhite on mouth harp. John Hammond plays growling resonator guitar throughout, and David Lindley’s electric slide. Very different, very refreshing.
"We can sing anything!" says Fountain. "Ry Cooder had us back up the Buena Vista Social Club on one number that will be on their next CD." Folks like Hammond (who is working with the Boys on selected dates, but is not expected at the Keswick) and Musselwhite are blues legends in their own right. Fountain reminds us that "gospel and the blues go hand. I can take any blues, change the words, keep the melody, and it’ll be a gospel." Flexibility and faith have kept Fountain and friends singing and moving for more than half a century.
Blind Boys of Alabama with the Robert Cray Band, Fri., Oct. 19, Keswick Theatre, Easton Rd. and Keswick Ave., Glenside, 215-572-7650.
