Oh! What a wonderful time we had last night! I don't know if I can even describe it all. The Blind Boys of Alabama were fantastic!!
These pictures are inside the Walt Disney Concert Hall.
The Lobby:
Inside the Hall
There is a pipe organ in this picture. The pipes are huge!
The stage is ready...
And so are we! Look - no sunglasses!!
I had taken these pictures with my iPhone when an usher told me no pictures during the show. I was okay with that - I put my phone away and just enjoyed myself!
The concert opened with the entire group stepping onto the stage hand to shoulder. Yes, four of the members are truly blind. They were like a little train getting into place.
Let me tell you about the group first:
Jimmy Carter is the oldest member of the group. He is in his late 70s and is amazing!! He was the "front man" of the group - introducing the songs, saying "Well, how about that?" between sets, and singing like a youngster!
Billy Bowers was on vocals and man could he sing! He was so cute! More than once he would get excited about a song and just do a little jig right there on stage!
Ben Moore was also on vocals. He swayed and danced to every song, whether he was singing or not!
Eric "Ricky" McKinnie is the drummer and also sang vocals. He sang a beautiful duet with Ben Moore on "White Christmas." He is known as the only Blind Gospel Drummer and he is excellent!
Rounding out the group are a couple of guys that can see!
Joey Williams played lead guitar and sang harmony. He played a fun role at the end that I'll tell you about later.
Tracy Pierce is the bass player and sang harmony on many of the songs. He wore a black top hat the entire night.
There was also a guest organist, whose name I don't recall! Update: His name is Peter Levin and has been traveling with the group for the past year and a half. He had that Hammond B-3 singing!!
Jimmy opened the show by telling everyone they are a Gospel group. "We sing about the Good News!" Not every song was from their Christmas album, but they were singing about Jesus so that was just fine! They did sing four Christmas songs - "White Christmas," "I Pray on Christmas," "Go Tell It On the Mountain," and "Silent Night."
They sang "Way Down in the Hole" (that's where you gotta keep the devil!), "Look Where You Brought Me From," "Perfect Peace" and I'm sure others I can't think of right now! Their harmonies were beautiful!!
Their version of "Amazing Grace" was off the charts! The music had a different beat, changing the song from 3/4 to 4/4 timing, but it was incredible! Ben Moore sang the first two verses, then Billy Bowers sang verse four ("when we've been there ten thousand years...") and Jimmy Carter came in on the end just singing about Grace.
The finale of the night was "Free at Last" The "Boys" couldn't hold their excitement. All night, the three of them would sit in chairs and stand when it was their turn. But they couldn't stay down on that song! Finally, Joey stepped into action - he would walk behind Ben and sit him down, then Billy would hop up and Joey would sit him down. This went on and on, while Jimmy was singing lead and getting more and more excited! It was obvious that this was part of the show, but it was so fun! With a little help, Jimmy ended up in the aisle, still singing and blessing the place!
We walked out just smiling and so glad we went. The Blind Boys have more than 30 albums and I currently own ONE. That IS going to change!!!
