Last year, The Blind Boys of Alabama released Sprit Of The Century, a startling revelation of a record featuring one of the two (along with The Fairfield Four) living giants of the golden age of gospel-quartet singing.
Now they’re back, and, like its predecessor, Higher Ground is a masterful record, at times fiercely rocking and always steeped in the spirit.
The Blind Boys of Alabama continue to demonstrate their position at the top of old-school gospel, combining the timeless traditions of the African-American church with relatively contemporary songs and assuredly contemporary musicians. These musicians include Robert Randolph and the Family Band, an incredible quartet of young musicians led by Randolph, a steel guitar player whose playing is quite honestly unbelievable. Randolph made his name by playing gospel, and this matching of talent is a perfect fit.
Curtis Mayfield’s “People Get Ready” would be a cliché if it wasn’t such a fantastic piece of music, and the Blind Boys (along with guest vocalist Ben Harper) use it to begin Higher Ground with a straightforward and powerful reading.
Aretha Franklin’s “Spirit In The Dark” is next, and Randolph and the Family Band deliver the song’s slow-burn intensity with youthful fire, all the while being paced (sometimes nearly passed up) by the singing of the elders.
“Wade In The Water” is the first of several more traditional African-American gospel songs, and, unlike the others, it is one of the few unremarkable spots on Higher Ground. It’s not that it’s bad, but it suffers when compared to the startling performances that populate the rest of the record.
“Stand By Me” is NOT the Ben E. King hit, the promise of which makes its omission something of a disappointment, but it is a solidly shuffling gospel tune penned by leader Clarence Fountain, who shouts the vocals with his characteristic throaty power. The next song, Prince’s “The Cross,” is simply incredible, sung and played with funky reverence.
“Many Rivers To Cross” was first recorded by Jimmy Cliff on the soundtrack for “The Harder They Come” (one of the best albums ever recorded, by the way), and the Blind Boys alter the arrangement ever-so-slightly into a slow soul ballad.
Cliff’s original is hard to beat, and this version doesn’t quite surpass it, but the resigned quality in Fountain’s vocals add to this beautifully mournful song a dimension which Cliff’s youth simply didn’t have. This is the only time on Higher Ground in which any of the Blind Boys, all of whom are in their 70s, sound in any way tired.
Luckily, the title track perks the proceedings back up, with the Blind Boys, Randolph and company sending Stevie Wonder’s swirling rhythms and soaring melodies higher than they’ve been since Wonder’s original. “Freedom Road” is another high point, an arrangement of the great freedom song more commonly known as “Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me ‘Round” that benefits from a subtle blues arrangement which pushes the emphatic call-and-response forward with gentle, solid insistence.
“I May Not Can See,” the album’s other original, is a little too funky, if that’s possible, and it represents the one occasion on this record when these great men of gospel seem overwhelmed by the arrangement blasting around them. Still, Randolph delivers a typically great solo, and at least you can get up and dance to it.
The album’s next track is its most ambitious, a pairing of Funkadelic’s “You and Your Folks” with the words of the 23rd Psalm. This could be a disaster, but it turns into something highly memorable, a dark and brooding funk workout that’s still steeped in promise.
There are no words to describe Ben Harper’s “I Shall Not Walk Alone,” an utterly beautiful prayer that could be sung well by just about anybody; thank god The Blind Boys of Alabama aren’t just “anybody.” You can practically feel the emotion that George Scott, the group’s other lead singer, puts into the song. It’s the best track on the album, sure to move anybody with a pulse.
It’s only because of the tremendous quality of “I Shall Not Walk Alone” that the album’s closer, so-called father of gospel music Thomas Dorsey’s standard “Precious Lord,” doesn’t quite measure up. It’s a beautiful tune, but one might wish the sequence of the last two had been switched around.
This album feels slightly like more of a stunt than Spirit of the Century, but that’s only because the track list reads like a “greatest hits” of gospel and soul music. Still, if this is a stunt, let all such stunts be judged by its quality. Higher Ground is an album of incredible consistency and great power. It’s like going to the best church in the universe.
