People Open DS/UK/1302 Blind Boys of Alabama (1939) Blind Boys of Alabama 1939 American gospel group Group (Male) The Five Blind Boys of Alabama; Clarence Fountain and the Blind Boys of Alabama Talladega, Alabama, United States (formed) American Music Group; Gospel Sensory disability Original Members: Clarence Fountain Johnny Fields George Scott Olice Thomas Vel Bozman Traylor J.T. Hutton Members: Jimmy Carter Ben Moore Ricky McKinnie Joey Williams Past Members: Bishop Billy Bowers Caleb Butler Samuel Butler Jr Roscoe Robinson Charles Porter Dwight Fields Paul Beasley Stephen Raynard Ladson Peter Levin The Blind Boys of Alabama, also billed as The Five Blind Boys of Alabama and Clarence Fountain and the Blind Boys of Alabama, is an American gospel group. The group was founded in 1939 in Talladega, Alabama and has featured a changing roster of musicians over its history, the majority of whom are or were visually impaired. The Blind Boys of Alabama first sang together in 1939 as part of the school chorus at the Alabama Institute for the Negro Deaf and Blind in Alabama. The earliest version of the group was known as The Happy Land Jubilee Singers and their first performances were for World War II soldiers at nearby encampments, where the boys sung for pocket change. The Blind Boys found mainstream success following their appearance in the 1983 Obie Award-winning musical The Gospel at Colonus. Since then, the group has toured internationally and has performed and recorded with such artists as Prince, Lou Reed, Peter Gabriel, Bonnie Raitt, Ben Harper, Bon Iver, and Amadou & Mariam. The group's cover of the Tom Waits song "Way Down in the Hole" was used as the theme song for the first season of the HBO series The Wire. The Blind Boys have won five Grammy Awards in addition to being presented with a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2009. They were endowed with a National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts in 1994, they were inducted into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame in 2003 and they were inducted into the Alabama Music Hall of Fame in 2010. The group was also invited to the White House during the Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama administrations. Group member Ricky McKinnie said in a 2011 interview with the magazine Mother Jones: "Our disability doesn't have to be a handicap. It's not about what you can't do. It's about what you do. And what we do is sing good gospel music." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Blind_Boys_of_Alabama (2021) International Standard Archival Authority Record for Corporate Bodies, Persons and Families - ISAAR(CPF) 2nd edition - ICA 2004 ISBN 2-9521932-2-3 National Council on Archives, Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997 RAHhbryony 8/28/2012 RAHAKirkbride 4/21/2023 ed7d87a5-f99b-4750-8e03-7750c237184c