Run On For A Long Time

Theirs is perhaps the richest tradition in Western contemporary music and The Blind Boys Of Alabama have no intention of putting an end to it soon. Why would they? Much of their year is spent spreading joy through their uplifting gospel music and inspiring live performances and, despite the overtly religious nature of much of their music, their audience is largely secular.

“People are just people and we realise that if you sing from the heart, what's from the heart reaches the heart – we try to sing from the soul,” the band's drummer and sometimes vocalist Ricky McKinnie says. “We go in with the idea of knowing that music is universal, we just take the music to the people and we don't usually have a problem.”

The mindset has stood the group in good stead for no less than 74 years now. Back in 1939, six boys attending the Alabama Institute For The Negro Blind in Talladega, Alabama, all around the age of nine, began singing together. Five years later the boys had left school and begun to tour as a professional gospel singing group.

The ensuing decades saw peaks and troughs in their popularity as musical trends wavered, but they remained strong and have, for many years now, become a well-known touring act the world over. Australia has been a hotspot for the group since they started coming here. “The food is good, the people are nice and we just like going places where people don't mind having a good time,” McKinnie says. “The Blind Boys don't like to sing to a conservative crowd, we like a noisy crowd and when we come to Australia they don't mind getting up and getting into it.”

It has been 23 years since McKinnie joined Blind Boys and Australia will always hold special memories for him. “I was playing for a church here in Atlanta, they came to me and said 'Ricky, we need a drummer to go with us to Australia'. So my first gig with The Blind Boys when I became a member was in Australia, so it brings back a lot of memories to me.”

McKinnie lost his sight to glaucoma in 1975, just after scoring a gold record with his group The Gospel Keynotes, but giving up the drums was never on his agenda. “I never thought about the fact that I couldn't see; it wasn't my disability that made me who I am, it was my ability – everyone has their limitations,” he says. “I'll be performing until I can't perform anymore, I guess. I'm asking the Lord to continue to give me strength to do it and as long as people can enjoy [it] then I'll be doing it.”

In recent years the group have collaborated with scores of high profile artists from across many different genres of music. Everyone from Solomon Burke to Willie Nelson to Tom Waits to George Clinton to Ben Harper (with whom they recorded an entire album, 2004's There Will Be A Light) have appeared on record with The Blind Boys in recent years.

“As long as somebody wants to work with The Blind Boys Of Alabama and they have a clean song with a good message, then we don't mind working with them,” McKinnie says. “We keep all our avenues open; it's not about the person, it's about the music.”

Don't come to see The Blind Boys expecting a reverent, solemn or reserved gospel performance – these are energetic shows at which you are to let your inhibitions loose. “At our concerts if you feel like dancing you can dance, if you feel like singing along you can, when we come off stage you can touch Jimmy Carter, he'll come down and shake your hand,” McKinnie says. “We've got a hands-on program going on.

“Australia won't be the same when The Blind Boys are back in town.”

Blind Boys Of Alabama will be playing the following dates:

Thursday 28 March - The Tivoli, Brisbane QLD
Saturday 30 March - Bluesfest, Byron Bay NSW
Sunday 31 March - Hope Estate, Hunter Valley NSW
Monday 1 April - Enmore Theatre, Sydney NSW
Wednesday 3 April - Hamer Hall, Melbourne VIC