Five Blind Boys of Alabama

With their roots in prewar rural Southern Gospel, the Five Blind Boys of Alabama represent a living link between traditional nineteenth-century sacred black music and the evolving soul-gospel singing stylizations that have contributed so directly to contemporary blues, R&B, and rock. In 1939, the original quartet was formed at the Talladega Institute for the Negro Blind in Alabama, and originally recorded in 1948 as the Happyland Jubilee Singers. Soon afterward, they changed...