For legendary gospel singer Jimmy Carter, the message has always been hope
The co-founding member of the Blind Boys of Alabama talks about the group’s new album, Echoes of the South
The Blind Boys of Alabama are back with their first album in six years, Echoes of the South, which is also the title of the first radio program they ever appeared on in 1944.
The gospel group was founded in 1939, when the original members were students at an institute for blind children in Talladega, Alabama.
Despite the obstacles they faced under Jim Crow segregationist laws, the Blind Boys have gone on to earn much acclaim, including five Grammys, a Lifetime Achievement Award and an audience with several U.S. presidents at the White House. And through all their years of singing, there's been one guiding principal: hope.
"We went out to touch lives," co-founding member Jimmy Carter, 91, tells Q's Tom Power. "At that time, you know, you had segregation in the South. We had to contend with all of that. So everything ever since we've been out here has been [about] bringing hope to people.
"Sometimes things might seem hopeless, but if you can get somebody to sing, to stand up and sing to you, it brings you hope. So we hope that we have done that. We have had people come up and say that we touched their lives. And so if we just get one or two to say that, it's worth everything that we've been through."
After Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005, the group traveled to New Orleans to try to lift the spirits of the communities struck by tragedy.
"We said to the people that we didn't know how to use a nail or a hammer, but we know how to sing and we came to bring you hope," recalls Carter.
The Blind Boys have amassed an audience that includes both religious and non-religious folks alike, but at the end of the day, Carter says they'll always be a gospel group.
"We sing gospel music, so that's all I know about," he tells Power. "We might sing the secular music, but the Blind Boys is a gospel singing group. And so if you hear something that don't have gospel in it, you know Jimmy Carter has something to say about it."
But even if you can't relate spiritually to the Blind Boys' Christian message, it's hard not to be moved by their spirit.
"To know how much we really love to sing gospel music — that's what it gave us," Carter says about forming the Blind Boys. "To know that God had called us to do this work and we have been doing it ever since. And I'm retired now, but the Blind Boys are going on. And they're not going to deviate from what we were told. We were taught to sing gospel. That's all we ever did and that's all we want to ever do."
Echoes of the South, which is out now, is probably the last album Carter will appear on after retiring earlier this year. "I think God's been good to me," he says. "I don't know how much time I got left, but I'll take advantage of it."
The full interview with Jimmy Carter is available on our podcast, Q with Tom Power. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.
Interview with Jimmy Carter produced by Ben Edwards.
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