Alabama Southern3

Although The Blind Boys of Alabama have been singing gospel music for more than five decades, it's only recently that the group has had the benefit of a major record company behind it. Led by founding member Clarence Fountain, the group has also featured Eric McKinney, George Scott, Caleb Butler, Johnny Fields, Jimmy Carter, Joey Williams, Donald Dillion, and Aubrey Blount. From their inception in the 1930s, when all were boys, the group's members turned their blindness into their chief selling point, and in fact, all members of the group except one are blind. They began singing when all were students at the Talladega Institute for the Deaf and Blind in Alabama, but didn't begin recording until 1948.

Sony Legacy reissued five albums recorded in the '80s by Alabama: My Home's in Alabama, Feels So Right, Mountain Music, The Closer You Get…, and Roll On…

Southern Drawl arrives 14 years after Alabama's last secular album, 2001's When It All Goes South – a record that reached four on Billboard's Country Albums chart but is largely forgotten – but a better way to put it into context is that it is the group's first record since Brad Paisley kick-started a new millennial Alabama revival thanks to his 2011 hit "Old Alabama."

This concert release captures a 2008 show put on by The Blind Boys of Alabama at New Orleans' historic Tipitina's. With the help of celebrity guests such as Dr. John and Susan Tedeschi, the boys perform a number of songs including "Free at Last," "Amazing Grace," "Down By the Riverside," and "People Get Ready."
Although the Blind Boys of Alabama have been singing gospel music for more than five decades, it's only recently that the group has had the benefit of a major record company behind it.

With an impressive run of hits in the '80s – thanks to a country sound washed in a sleek, pop sheen and with enough rock dynamics to put it all over – Alabama built an early template for how to be a country group in the 21st century. They had chart hits in three different decades, a pretty impressive lesson in longevity in a business that hardly encourages it. This well-sequenced set features some of the group’s most enduring songs, including “I’m in a Hurry (And Don’t Know Why),” “Song of the South,” and “Mountain Music,” among others, and makes it easy to hear why Alabama was so ubiquitous in the genre.