(MORRISTOWN, NJ) -- Six-time Grammy-winning gospel group The Blind Boys of Alabama, who state they are the longest running group in American music, will perform at Mayo Performing Arts Center (MPAC) on Friday, January 31, 2025. Â Jeiris Cook opens the night. Showtime is 8:00pm.
For 80 years, The Blind Boys of Alabama have broken down racial barriers, soundtracked the Civil Rights movement, and helped redefine modern gospel music in the process. Through it all, not only has their music endured, but it has thrived, helping both to distinguish the sound of the American South and to push it forward through 20th century and well into the 21st.Â
The Blind Boys of Alabama are recognized worldwide as living legends of gospel music. Celebrated by The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and The Recording Academy/GRAMMYs with Lifetime Achievement Awards, inducted into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame, and winners of six GRAMMY® Awards, they have attained the highest levels of achievement in a career that spans over 70 years. The Blind Boys are known for crossing multiple musical boundaries with their remarkable interpretations of everything from traditional gospel favorites to contemporary spiritual material by songwriters such as Eric Clapton, Prince, and Tom Waits. They have appeared on recordings with many artists, including Lou Reed, Peter Gabriel, Bonnie Raitt, Willie Nelson, Aaron Neville, Susan Tedeschi, Ben Harper, Patty Griffin, and Taj Mahal.
Tickets range from $47-$79 and are available for purchase online or by calling the box office at (973) 539-8008. Â Mayo Performing Arts Center (MPAC) is located at 100 South Street in Morristown, New Jersey.
The Blind Boys released their latest album, ‘Echoes Of The South,’ found the Gospel Music Hall of Fame inductees coming home to Alabama to record in Muscle Shoals. The eleven-song collection is a portrait of perseverance from a group well-versed in overcoming incredible odds – from singing for pocket change in the Jim Crow South to performing for three different American presidents, soundtracking the Civil Rights movement, and helping define modern gospel music as we know it. The album garnered three GRAMMY® Award nominations, and won for Best Roots Gospel Album.
That win continued a run of GRAMMY® Award nominations from the two previous years. In 2021, the group’s collaborative recording with Béla Fleck, ‘I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free,’ was tapped in the Best American Roots Performance category. In 2022, they garnered another nod for their collaboration with the band Black Violin on ‘The Message’ in the Best Americana Performance category.
In March 2024, the definitive book on the Blind Boys of Alabama, titled Spirit of the Century, was released. It’s an insider history of America’s longest-running group and the untold story of their world, written with band members and key musical colleagues. Appearances on The View tv show and other major media outlets followed. After all these years, the Blind Boys show no signs of slowing down!
Mayo Performing Arts Center (MPAC), a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, presents a wide range of programs that entertain, enrich, and educate the diverse population of the region and enhance the economic vitality of Northern New Jersey. The 2024-2025 season is made possible, in part, by a grant the New Jersey State Council on the Arts/Department of State, a Partner Agency of the National Endowment for the Arts, as well as support received from the F.M. Kirby Foundation, The Blanche and Irving Laurie Foundation and numerous corporations, foundations and individuals. Mayo Performing Arts Center was named 2016 Outstanding Historic Theatre by the League of Historic American Theatres, and is ranked in the top 50 mid-sized performing arts centers by Pollstar Magazine.
