Sunday is the first day of Advent. How better to open the liturgical season than by experiencing the Christmas sounds of The Blind Boys of Alabama?
They have their annual Christmas show at 8 p.m. on Sunday at Workplay in Birmingham. Doors open at 7 p.m.
Tickets can be purchased here for $35 plus a service fee.
The Christmas show will feature traditional Christmas songs plus the hits of The Blind Boys.
The Blind Boys of Alabama are a gospel singing group founded in 1939 at what was then called “the Negro Alabama Institute for the Deaf and Blind,” long since merged into the Alabama Institute for the Deaf and Blind in Talladega.
They have now won eight Grammy Awards. They were inducted into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame in 2003 and received a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2009.
Their hit, "Way Down in the Hole," by Tom Wait, was adopted as the theme song of the HBO series "The Wire."
In February, a new film titled “A Symphony Celebration: The Blind Boys of Alabama” was released on the Public Broadcasting System (PBS). The Blind Boys were backed up by The Alabama Symphony Orchestra and a 300-voice choir from Alabama's Historically Black Colleges and Universities, including Alabama State, Alabama A&M, Miles College, Tuskegee University and Talladega College, joined by choirs from Birmingham-Southern College and UAB.
The film had an all-Alabama cast.
Blind Boys' singer Ricky McKinnie said in a 2011 interview with Mother Jones Magazine: "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."
Jim ‘Zig’ Zeigler writes about Alabama’s people, places, events, groups and prominent deaths. He is a former Alabama Public Service Commissioner and State Auditor. You can reach him for comments at ZeiglerElderCare@yahoo.com.
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