Blind Boys of Alabama: 'Songs in the Key of Life'

With over 75 years of lifting spirits and moving souls, the Blind Boys continue their mission of spreading light and love through the universal language of music. In 2003, the Blind Boys earned a Grammy Award for an album that included their acclaimed cover of Stevie Wonder’s “Higher Ground,” a version later featured in film and television, including FX’s Fargo. In 2007, Stevie Wonder presented Blind Boys singer Jimmy Carter with a Vision Award for Lifetime Achievement, underscoring their enduring impact on music and culture.

The Blind Boys of Alabama are recognized worldwide as living legends of gospel music. Celebrated by The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and The Recording Academy/Grammys with Lifetime Achievement Awards, inducted into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame, and winners of six Grammy Awards, they have attained the highest levels of achievement in a career that spans over 70 years.

The Blind Boys are known for crossing multiple musical boundaries with their remarkable interpretations of everything from traditional gospel favorites to contemporary spiritual material by songwriters such as Eric Clapton, Prince, and Tom Waits. They have appeared on recordings with many artists, including Lou Reed, Peter Gabriel, Bonnie Raitt, Willie Nelson, Aaron Neville, Susan Tedeschi, Ben Harper, Patty Griffin, and Taj Mahal.

The Blind Boys released their latest album, “Echoes Of The South,” in August of 2023. It found the Gospel Music Hall of Fame inductees coming home to Alabama to record in Muscle Shoals. The 11-song collection is a portrait of perseverance from a group well-versed in overcoming incredible odds—from singing for pocket change in the Jim Crow South to performing for three different American presidents, soundtracking the Civil Rights movement, and helping define modern gospel music as we know it. The album garnered three Grammy Award nominations and won for Best Roots Gospel Album.

That win continued a run of Grammy Award nominations from the two previous years. In 2021, the group’s collaborative recording with Béla Fleck, “I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free,” was tapped in the Best American Roots Performance category. In 2022, they garnered another nod for their collaboration with the band Black Violin on “The Message” in the Best Americana Performance category.

In March 2024, the definitive book on the Blind Boys of Alabama, titled “Spirit of the Century,” was released. It’s an insider history of America’s longest-running group and the untold story of their world, written with band members and key musical colleagues. Appearances on “The View” and other major media outlets followed.

After all these years, the Blind Boys show no signs of slowing down!