It’s fair to say gospel music has gone unnoticed in modern times but you wouldn’t think so to attend a concert like the Blind Boys Of Alabama, because the Hamer Hall was packed with smiling faces.
At 8pm sharp the first support, Sweet Honey in the Rock, walked onstage. The six ladies, all in black and red, stood confidently as they broke into song without an introduction.
The crowd was immediately transfixed as the women performed a cappella songs one after the other. The audience happily joined in, either by clapping or singing at the ladies request. While it seemed unfair to make the audience compete with such voices, the ladies appeared the most energetic when they were encouraging the audience to sing with them. Towards the end of their set, the ladies performed a beautiful version of Marvin Gaye’s ‘Mercy, Mercy Me.’
Allen Toussaint came onstage after the first interval to loud applause. Vastly different to the Sweet Honey Ladies, Toussaint was more New Orleans honkytonk than the previous soulful harmonies.
Performing a lively set, Toussaint was backed by an impressive band, including a guitarist as lively as his tie-dyed pants. The set only took an awkward turn when Toussaint spent an exorbitant amount of time throwing gifts out into the audience, adding an amount of excitement to the evening that was thus far comfortable not exiting in a state of frenzy.
The second interval finished, and by this time more than a few people were checking their watches with drooping eyes as they realised it was approaching 11pm. The Blind Boys Of Alabama emerged on stage one hand on the other’s shoulder to safely make their way to the front. The time was forgotten and the crowd cheered them enthusiastically.
A gig that ends near midnight is not uncommon in this town, but once you consider that the Blind Boys first performed together at the end of the ‘30s then you start to wonder what is keeping them going. They are, after all, no longer boys. Considering what this group has experienced, including first performing during times of racism and then a civil rights movement, you would think they’d be ready to call it a day sometime after lunch. Listening to the Blind Boys Of Alabama perform live though, you just couldn’t be corrected for thinking they were ageless, with skin that glowed like a newborn and voices still warm and rich.
Nothing touches the soul musically like people coming together to sing in harmony. Modern ‘improvements’ in sound engineering have nothing on the power of the human voice. It produces a feeling that is intimate and perhaps fitting to a genre associated with religion; the kind of music that would comfort you to whistle to yourself on a walk home at night.
It’s not hard to understand the power of music and start to appreciate groups like the Blind Boys Of Alabama. Songs like ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’ and ‘Nobody Knows The Trouble I’ve Seen’ are not titles to take lightly.
Midnight approached without notice, as the audience concentrated on keeping up with the energy of the Blind Boys, who, it must be noted, can still dance like those less than half their age.
