After seven decades, Blind Boys still feeling the spirit

For an artist who has spent nearly his entire life singing in the same gospel quartet, Jimmy Carter never thought much about retirement. But at age 84 — along with a career that spans the entire seven-decade lifespan of the Grammy-winning Blind Boys of Alabama — he senses the day will arrive when he’ll abandon performance life.

Luckily for everyone, artist and audience, that day is not at hand.

“Never used to think about retiring, but I do now,” Carter said before erupting into sagely laughter. “Oh, I don’t know. I’m going to stay out here as long as I possibly can. I don’t know how long it’s going to be, but I’m feeling good. My health is fair. I’m a diabetic, but I’ve got that under control. So as long as I can hold out, I’ll be here.”

Though the Blind Boys of Alabama began singing together as children in 1939 at the Alabama Institute for the Negro Blind, the last 15 years ignited a crossover into the secular marketplace with a long roster of non-gospel artists as collaborators. That has led to high-profile tours with the likes of Peter Gabriel, joint recordings with Ben Harper and, subsequently, a string of five Grammy Awards.

What sparked the extraordinary renaissance was the 2001 album, “Spirit of the Century” — a record that mixed spiritually themed secular songs (Tom Waits’ “Way Down in the Hole,” the Rolling Stones’ “Just Wanna See His Face”) with traditional gospel (“Good Religion,” “Soldier”) and a diverse band that included blues veterans John Hammond and Charlie Musselwhite, American guitarist David Lindley and British bassist Danny Thompson. The record opened up the Blind Boys to a huge fan base, much of whom had never heard their singing to that point. It also won the group its first Grammy.

But the “Spirit” tune that sparked the most attention was a wild mash-up of the spiritual and secular — specifically, a version of “Amazing Grace” sung to the weighty melody of the decidedly non-gospel “House of the Rising Sun.”

“We didn’t want to record that because the arrangement was too much like ‘House of the Rising Sun’ for us,” Carter said. “But we had a great producer in California, John Chelew, who said, ‘Well, let’s put it on there.’ I think that song was what won us the Grammy. Now we never miss a night playing that song.”

Aside from a 2014 holiday album with bluesman Taj Mahal (“Talkin’ Christmas”) that Carter doesn’t seem fully taken with (“It came out OK, but not as good as I thought it would”), the Blind Boys’ last recording was 2013’s “I’ll Find a Way,” produced by Justin Vernon of Bon Iver. The album boasted a guest list that included My Brightest Diamond’s Shara Worden, tUnE-yArDs’ Merrill Garbus and, on a stirring version of Bob Dylan’s “Every Grain of Sand,” Vernon himself.

Carter said the alliance with Vernon proved fruitful once he and the Blind Boys got to know one another.

“Our manager came to us one day and said, ‘How would you all like to make a record with Justin Vernon?’ I said, ‘Well, fine. Who is he?’ I was embarrassed because I didn’t know him. But after we met and after we talked, we went to his house. He had a studio in his house. In Wisconsin. In November. To us, it was very cold, but he had a warm house and a warm heart, so everything worked out good.

“We enjoy collaborating with secular artists, but there has to be an agreement that if we need to change something to fit our fervor, we are able to do that. A lot of times, people come to us with songs that are too secular for us. We’re gospel singers, you know? We can’t go too far out, so sometimes we have to change some words. But most times with these collaborations we have, the guys know what we’re looking for and usually present the music in a gospel way where we can use it.”

Curiously, Carter said that one of the ideas being considered for the next Blind Boys’ recording is a repertoire that does away with secular tunes altogether.

“It’s just in the talking stage. We’ve been collaborating with so many people, but I think it’s time that the Blind Boys just go back to basics, back to what brought us here, which is singing traditional gospel music. I think we should go back to that and see how it will work. I think it’s time for us to show the people we are still the Blind Boys of Alabama.”

This story was originally published November 4, 2016 at 6:09 PM with the headline "After seven decades, Blind Boys still feeling the spirit."