The Blind Boys of Alabama at the Grand Ole Opry

Two months ago, without much fanfare, the Blind Boys of Alabama made their first appearance on the Grand Ole Opry. I’d hoped to take the opportunity of that appearance to meet the group’s longtime lead singer, Clarence Fountain, who I’d once interviewed by phone. Unfortunately, I learned that he’d recently retired from the group because of health problems related to his diabetes.

Instead, I got to sit down for a few minutes backstage at the Ryman Auditorium with Jimmy Carter, the group’s shouter and now – with the retirement of Fountain and the passing of founding member George Scott in 2005 – its de facto leader.

As it turns out, Carter is a major country fan, from his childhood days. He was positively giddy backstage that night, getting to meet Little Jimmy Dickens, Jimmy C. Newman and John Conlee.

“I go way back,” recalls the native of Birmingham, Alabama. “I remember the Opry when George D. Hay was there, the Solemn Old Judge. That was the early ’40s—George D. Hay, Uncle Dave Macon, Stringbean. Man, I could go on and on.”

Carter says he made a habit of listening to the Opry’s half-hour network broadcast during the late ’30s and ’40s. “The Opry would come on NBC every Saturday night at 9:30 Central time,” he says. “Nine-thirty would find me in front of our little battery-powered RCA Victor radio. And I would listen to the Grand Ole Opry every Saturday night.”

The Blind Boys initially booked their Opry appearance with the notion that Porter Wagoner would introduce them. Unfortunately, Wagoner passed away from lung cancer about a month before their appearance. Carter says he did get to speak with Wagoner by phone once.

“He said he would love to have us up here and he would be glad to introduce us,” Carter says. “I told him, ‘Well, I just want to be able to shake your hand. I love your music.’ He said, ‘We’re going to make that happen.’ Unfortunately, it did not happen. But I feel Porter here tonight.”

The group dedicated their final song – the version of “Amazing Grace” they sing to the tune of “House of the Rising Sun” – to Wagoner’s family. (They also sang “Free at Last,” the lead track from the new CD Down in New Orleans, out today, and “Go Tell It on the Mountain.”)

Carter also expressed admiration for the late Roy Acuff, particularly his performances of “Don’t Make Me Go to Bed and I’ll Be Good,” a real tearjerker of a childhood-tragedy song. “I would love to get a copy of that somehow,” he told me.

Being practically across the street from the Ernest Tubb Record Shop, the Ryman Auditorium is probably one of the few places in America where one can say, “Just a minute – I’ll go get a copy for you.” Sure enough, they had two copies of one of Acuff’s CDs with that song on it. I bought two – one for him, one for me. It’s not every day you get to buy one of your musical heroes a CD by one of their musical heroes.

If you want to get a sense of the Blind Boys of Alabama in their prime, check out these two videos. The first one features Carter prominently.