BLIND BOYS OF ALABAMA DELIVER THE GIFT OF JOY

• By Mabel Pais

The BLIND BOYS OF ALABAMA deliver the gift of joy at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC) on Sunday, December 21 at 3PM.

In this uplifting holiday show, the GRAMMY®-winning gospel legends perform Christmas classics and songs from their albums ‘Go Tell It on the Mountain’ and ‘Talkin’ Christmas.’ You’ll be singing and clapping along with the spirit of the season.

Hailed as “gospel titans” by Rolling Stone, the Blind Boys of Alabama defied the considerable odds stacked against them in the segregated south, working their way up from singing for pocket change to performing for three different American presidents. Inducted into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame in 2003, the group has won five Grammy Awards for their albums (plus a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award), received a National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, and collaborated with artists as diverse as Mavis Staples, Stevie Wonder, Chrissie Hynde, Lou Reed, Tom Waits, Peter Gabriel, Bonnie Raitt, and Bon Iver. Beyond the group’s considerable commercial success, the artistic influence the Blind Boys imparted onto their contemporaries and the generations of gospel, rock, and soul singers who followed is immeasurable.

The New York Times explained that in their earlier years, the band “came to epitomize what is known as jubilee singing, a livelier breed of gospel music,” adding that “they made it zestier still by adding jazz and blues idioms and turning up the volume, creating a sound…like the rock ‘n’ roll that grew out of it.” TIME raved that the group has always been “hunting for—and finding—the perfect note or harmony that lifts an old tune into the sublime,” while The Washington Post praised their “soul-stirring harmonies” and “cross-genre collaborations,” and The New Yorker simply dubbed them “legendary.”

“One of the greatest and most venerated gospel groups the world has ever known … an impeccable mix of polished blues, swinging soul and from-the-gut gospel.”

TICKETS

Tickets for the ‘Blind Boys of Alabama’ can be purchased by visiting NJPAC.org or  the NJPAC Box Office or by calling 888.GO.NJPAC (888.466.5722).

New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC)

Learn more at njpac.org.