First forming at the Alabama Institute for the Blind in 1939, the Blind Boys have already been around for several musical lifetimes, and are showing absolutely no signs of letting up in their golden (disc) years. Whatever about selling your soul to rock & roll, selling it to gospel music obviously gets you a much better deal in the longevity stakes.
Their secret lies in their ability to adapt and reinterpret music from outside the realm of dusty deep south churches and ramshackle wooden prayer houses, yet still make it very much their own. Since first reaching a wider audience with their roles in the 1983 Broadway production of The Gospel At Colonus, the Blind Boys have repeatedly reinvented – and gently subverted – some of rock’s finer moments, with their own eclectic takes on tracks by everybody from the Rolling Stones and Bob Dylan to Tom Waits and Ben Harper.
Following on from last year’s Grammy-winning Spirit Of The Century, new album Higher Ground sees them continuing to plough the fresh fields of contemporary funk and soul, shining the light of the Lord and reaping their own uniquely harmonious harvest. Covering everything from Prince’s ‘The Cross’ and Curtis Mayfield’s ‘People Get Ready’ to Aretha Franklin’s ‘Spirit in the Dark’ and Jimmy Cliff’s ‘Many Rivers To Cross’, the Blind Boys effortlessly transform popular song into consecrated writ, ably backed by the sizzling steely sounds of Robert Randolph and his Family Band, and the slide guitar wizardry of Ben Harper.
Stand out tracks include their take on Funkadelic’s ‘You And Your Folks’ (which cleverly segues into a reading of the 23rd Psalm) and their six-minute cover of Stevie Wonder’s ‘Higher Ground’ – a, em, blinding version that gives even the Chilli Peppers’ take on it a run for its money.
It certainly won’t be everybody’s cup of tea, but this listener found Higher Ground as soul-stirring on a Saturday night as it was easy on a Sunday morning.