November 2, 2004
Contact: Susan Gwynne
(805) 893-2098
e-mail: gwynne-s@sa.ucsb.edu
UCSB Arts & Lectures presents the inspirational Blind Boys of Alabama performing their Christmas Concert Go Tell It on the Mountain at the Marjorie Luke Theatre
Summary Facts:
- The Blind Boys of Alabama
- Go Tell It on the Mountain, a Christmas concert
- The Blind Boys are Grammy Award winners and inductees into the Gospel Hall of Fame
- Tuesday, December 7 / 8 pm
- Marjorie Luke Theatre, Santa Barbara Junior High School, 721 E. Cota Street, Santa Barbara
- General public: $40 / UCSB students: $19
- Tickets/information: UCSB Arts & Lectures at (805) 893-3535
The Blind Boys of Alabama, inductees to the Gospel Hall of Fame, will present their stirring Christmas concert Go Tell It on the Mountain on Tuesday, December 7 at 8 pm in Marjorie Luke Theatre, Santa Barbara Junior High School, 721 E. Cota Street, Santa Barbara. Since forming their group at the Talladega Institute for the Blind in 1939, the Blind Boys have kept alive the spirit and energy of pure soul gospel music. The seasonal-themed concert will be based on their 2003 CD Go Tell It on the Mountain, a collection featuring guest stars like Mavis Staples, George Clinton and Chrissie Hynde helping the Boys with classics like “Away in a Manger” and “White Christmas.” Variety asserted, “The group’s emotional generosity puts its new Christmas-themed album Go Tell It on the Mountain near the top of any list of holiday music, alongside classics such as Elvis’ Christmas Album, Phil Spector’s A Christmas Gift for You and Atlantic Records’ Soulful Christmas.” This performance is sure to mix the sacred and the secular in a divine combination.
Founding Blind Boys members Clarence Fountain, Jimmy Carter, and George Scott—along with more recent arrivals Joey Williams, Ricky McKinnie and Bobby Butler—have drawn upon gospel’s river-deep reflections on life’s trials and mastered its haunting falsettos and vibrant, muscular harmonies. Veterans of over fifty recordings and countless live performances, the Blind Boys were the musical heart of the crowd-pleasing, Obie Award-winning play The Gospel at Colonus in the late 1980s. Signing to Peter Gabriel’s Real World label in 2000, the group recorded a series of traditional gospel numbers and spiritual-leaning rock songs (by artists such as Tom Waits and Richards/Jagger) for Spirit of the Century, which won the 2001 Grammy Award for best traditional soul gospel album. In a review of the group’s 2002 CD Higher Ground, the Washington Post wrote, “Gospel music, according to the Blind Boys of Alabama, isn’t a joyful noise, it’s a joyfully inclusive noise. [The group has] become so adept at blending traditional forms of spiritual expression with familiar refrains of pop and soul that the result is almost guaranteed to raise the pulse of believers and agnostics alike.”
Noted for their rousing live concerts, the group is riding a wave of increased interest including a Grammy Award for their CD Spirit of the Century, a spot opening for Peter Gabriel on his 2002 U.S. arena tour and the September 2004 release with Ben Harper of the acclaimed CD There Will Be a Light.
The Blind Boys of Alabama are presented by UCSB Arts & Lectures and sponsored by KCBX Public Radio and Borders. Tickets are $40 for the general public and $19 for UCSB students.
For tickets or more information,
call UCSB Arts & Lectures at (805) 893-3535.
Editor: For photos, please call
Susan Gwynne at (805) 893-2098.