Five-time GRAMMY® Award-winning group, The Blind Boys of Alabama, continue their fall US tour this week. The “gospel titans” (Rolling Stone) will join Crescent City legends Irma Thomas and The Preservation Hall Legacy Quintet on “The Heart and Soul Queen of New Orleans Tour” in support of their new Amazon Original album, Almost Home, available now on BBOA Records only through Amazon Music. To purchase tickets, visit www.blindboys.com/tour-dates.
Coming almost 70 years after the group released its first single, Almost Home serves as a fitting capstone to a career that has helped define the sound of American music. The album is available to stream exclusively on Amazon Music – both Amazon Music Unlimited and Prime Music, in addition to its exclusive availability as a digital download and physical release. To listen/purchase, visit http://amazon.com/almosthome
Recorded over four difference sessions with four different Grammy-winning producers in four different cities, Almost Home serves as a musical memoir, telling stories from the lives of original founding members Jimmy Carter and Clarence Fountain (both now in their eighties), through new, original songs written by Valerie June, North Mississippi Allstars, John Leventhal, Ruthie Foster, Marc Cohn, and others.
Almost Home grew out of the recognition that the band’s original lineup is down to just two remaining survivors. Wanting to capture the group’s eight decade-long history and experiences through song, inspiration for the album was born through recordings of wide-ranging interviews with Fountain and Carter, pressing deep into their memories of their improbable route to success and the changing, sometimes-hostile world they had to navigate along the way. The focus was less on capturing a biographical account of events and more on probing the emotional side of their journey, hoping to understand what it felt like to walk such a winding and eventful road. The interviews were then distilled down to 30-minute clips and shared with a variety of songwriters who were invited to channel Carter and Fountain’s words and reminiscences into song.
NPR Music recently stated “If The Blind Boys of Alabama’s surviving founders, Clarence Fountain and Jimmy Carter, never get around to writing their memoirs, the autobiographical slant of the legendary gospel group’s new album, Almost Home, will be close enough.” Billboard also raved “Formed more than 70 years ago, the Gospel act is still making music – and plowing unique musical ground.”
Since the original members first sang together as children in the late 1930s, the Blind Boys of Alabama have persevered to become one of the most recognized and decorated roots music groups in the world. In addition to receiving five Grammy Awards (plus one for Lifetime Achievement), they are members of the Gospel Music Hall of Fame and the Alabama Music Hall of Fame, and have collaborated with everyone from Stevie Wonder and Prince, to Lou Reed and Bon Iver.
The Blind Boys of Alabama Fall 2017 Tour Dates:
10/20 – Fairfield, IA @ Fairfield Convention Center*
10/21 – Davenport, IA @ Adler Theatre*
10/22 – Milwaukee, WI @ Miller High Life Theatre*
10/23 – Minneapolis, MN @ Guthrie Theater*
10/25 – Findlay, OH @ Marathon Center*
10/26 – Notre Dame, IN @ Leighton Concert Hall*
10/27 – Chicago, IL @ Symphony Center*
10/28 – Clinton Township, MI @ Macomb Center*
10/29 – Detroit, MI @ Music Hall of Detroit*
11/01 – Wilmington, DE @ Grand Opera House*
11/02 – Binghampton, NY @ Osterhout Concert Theatre*
11/03 – Boston, MA @ Berklee Performance Center*
11/04 – Bloomsburg, PA @ Haas Center for the Arts*
11/05 – Greenvale, NY @ Tiles Center*
11/07 – Toms River, NJ @ Grunin Center*
11/08 – Pittsburgh, PA @ Byham Theater*
11/09 – Winchester, VA @ Armstrong Concert Hall*
11/10 – Winchester, VA @ Armstrong Concert Hall*
11/11 – Richmond, VA @ Camp Concert Hall*
11/12 – North Bethesda, MD @ Music Center at Strathmore*
11/13 – Durham, NC @ Carolina Theatre*
11/16 – Atlanta, GA @ Emerson Concert Hall*
11/17 – Irmo, SC @ Harbison Theater*
11/19 – Daytona Beach, FL @ Peabody Auditorium*
11/20 – The Villages, FL @ Morse Performing Arts Center*
11/21 – Petersburg, FL @ Mahaffey Theater*
12/03 – Peekskill, NY @ Paramount Hudson Valley Theater#
12/10 – Great Barrington, MA @ Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center#
12/15 – Orange, CA @ Musco Center at Chapman#
12/16 – Santa Barbara, CA @ UCSB Campbell Hall#
12/17 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Ace Hotel#
12/19 – San Luis Obispo, CA @ Christopher Cohan Center#
12/21 – Edmonds, WA @ Edmonds Center for the Arts#
12/22 – Bremerton, CA @ Admiral Theatre#
* “The Heart and Soul Queen of New Orleans Tour” featuring Irma Thomas and the Preservation Hall Legacy Quintet
# with The Preservation Hall Legacy Horns
