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NPR Music: Tiny Desk Concerts
Tiny Desk Concerts from NPR's All Songs Considered features your favorite musicians performing at Bob Boilen's desk in the NPR Music office. This is the AUDIO only archive.Are you a fancy A/V nerd and need video? Visit our new Tiny Desk Concert video channel. Eye-popping video and all of the music you've come to expect.

The Blind Boys Of Alabama: Tiny Desk Concert

By Stephen Thompson
Published July 5, 2011 at 7:34 AM MDT

The numbers alone bear out The Blind Boys of Alabama's status as one of the greatest and most venerated gospel groups the world has ever known. Formed under a different name in 1939, the band has understandably experienced many lineup changes in the 72 years since: Singer Jimmy Carter is the only participant in this lineup billed as a founding member, and even that term is up for debate. But there's no mistaking the tremendous legacy these men embody, from the 60-plus albums and Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award to the group's 2007 induction into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame.

That said, numbers and awards don't sum up the gentle, easygoing grace of this Tiny Desk Concert, wherein these Blind Boys — young and old, blind and sighted — craft an impeccable mix of polished blues, swinging soul and from-the-gut gospel. The Blind Boys of Alabama's new album, Take the High Road, features an assortment of country stars, from Jamey Johnson and Willie Nelson to Lee Ann Womack and Hank Williams Jr. That the group so seamlessly bridges the worlds of country, gospel, blues and R&B speaks volumes about its impact on performers of every stripe, not to mention the graceful ease with which its message can stick to just about any soul.

Set List

  • "Take The High Road"

  • "I Know A Place"

  • "Jesus Built A Bridge To Heaven"

  • "Amazing Grace"

    • Credits

    Michael Katzif (cameras); audio by Kevin Wait; photo by Maggie Starbard/NPR

    Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

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    Tiny Desk Concerts
    Stephen Thompson
    Stephen Thompson is a writer, editor and reviewer for NPR Music, where he speaks into any microphone that will have him and appears as a frequent panelist on All Songs Considered. Since 2010, Thompson has been a fixture on the NPR roundtable podcast Pop Culture Happy Hour, which he created and developed with NPR correspondent Linda Holmes. In 2008, he and Bob Boilen created the NPR Music video series Tiny Desk Concerts, in which musicians perform at Boilen's desk. (To be more specific, Thompson had the idea, which took seconds, while Boilen created the series, which took years. Thompson will insist upon equal billing until the day he dies.)
    See stories by Stephen Thompson