Blind Boys Of Alabama and Preservation Hall Jazz Band

The Blind Boys of Alabama have been pilgrims on the Gospel highway for nearly 60 years now. The seeds of the group took root among friends singing informally in 1937. The road from Talledega, Alabama's Institute for the Deaf and Blind, to Hollywood's House of Blues is a long one, and the journey was often a test of faith. There were the legal inequities and social insults that marred road life in the group's early days as well as bilking by record company sharks.
There were temptations to cross over to secular rhythm and blues and painful losses of colleagues and friendly rivals, among them founding Blind Boy Vel Bozman Traylor, Archie Brownlee of the rival Blind Boys of Mississippi, and one-time soul stirrer Sam Cooke.
But future group leader Clarence Fountain remained undaunted. "I just kept waiting for the big thing," he said. "I knew we would hit the jackpot one day."