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SHOUT! Black Gospel Music Moments - Blind Boys of Alabama

The always innovative Blind Boys of Alabama tear up Hank Williams “I Saw the Light” in 1965.

What’s left to say about the Blind Boys of Alabama? The longest-lasting, most decorated gospel quartet of all time ... the group has been electrifying audiences since their founding in Talladega School for the Blind in 1939. Through the decades, the Blind Boys have had a host of hits, played the biggest halls in the business, and won multiple Grammy awards.

How many gospel groups can say they won an Obie Award for their part in the off-Broadway production of The Gospel at Colonus? Or say they’ve performed in the White House for three different presidents? They’ve been awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award and National Heritage artist designations. And so much more.

What’s amazing, they’re still out there and still releasing great gospel music. Here’s a sample of what vintage Blind Boys of Alabama sounded like in 1965, tearin’ up Hank Williams’ beloved “I Saw the Light.”

2323 Blind Boys of Alabama - I Saw the Light 44100 1.mp3

MUSIC: “I Saw the Light,” The Blind Boys of Alabama from the LP I Saw the Light, Side 1, Track 1

I’m Robert Darden … “Shout! Black Gospel Music Moments” is produced by KWBU, the Black Gospel Music Preservation Program at Baylor University Libraries and is funded by generous support from the Prichard Foundation.

Robert F. Darden is the author of two dozen books, most recently: Nothing But Love in God’s Water, Volume II: Black Sacred Music from Sit-In to Resurrection City (Penn State University Press, 2016); Nothing But Love in God’s Water, Volume I: Black Sacred Music from the Civil War to the Civil Rights Movement(Penn State University Press, 2014); Jesus Laughed: The Redemptive Power of Humor(Abingdon Press, 2008), Reluctant Prophets and Clueless Disciples: Understanding the Bible by Telling Its Stories(Abingdon Press, 2006); and People Get Ready! A New History of Black Gospel Music(Continuum/Bloomsbury, 2004).