OCTOBER 21, 2005, HARTFORD, CT – The Blind Boys of Alabama, winners of four consecutive Grammy^® awards, are coming to The Bushnell’s Mortensen Hall for one performance only, with special guest Charlie Musselwhite. The performance will be Tuesday, November 15, 2005 as part of Bank of America Showcase Series. Tickets, priced at $42.50, $32.50, and $22.50, are available by visiting The Bushnell Box Office, located at 166 Capitol Avenue in Hartford, or by calling 860-987-5900. Tickets are also available online at www.bushnell.org. Groups of 10 or more should call 860-987-5959.

The Blind Boys of Alabama have spread the spirit and energy of pure soul gospel music for over 60 years, ever since the first version of the group formed at the Alabama Institute for the Negro Blind in 1939. Today, founding members Clarence Fountain, Jimmy Carter and George Scott are joined by more recent arrivals Joey Williams, Ricky McKinnie, Bobby Butler, and Tracy Pierce on a mission to expand the audience for traditional soul-gospel singing while incorporating contemporary songs and innovative arrangements into their hallowed style.

The group toiled for more than 40 years on the traditional gospel circuit. But in 1983, their career reached a turning point with their crucial role in The Gospel at Colonus, the smash hit musical drama created by Bob Telson and Lee Breuer. This Obie Award-winning Off-Broadway and Broadway success, coupled with their appearance on two original soundtrack albums (in 1984 and 1988), brought the Blind Boys' timeless sound to an enthusiastic new audience.

The 1992 album Deep River , produced by Booker T. Jones and featuring a transcendent version of Bob Dylan's I Believe In You - earned the Blind Boys their first Grammy^® Award nomination. It was, as their executive producer and long-time booking agent Chris Goldsmith notes, "the first time the Blind Boys ventured into 'gospelizing' relevant contemporary songs that weren't traditional soul-gospel songs." In 1995, the Blind Boys released the roof-raising live album I Brought Him With Me; it was followed (in 1997) by Holding On, an experiment in funked-up contemporary gospel.

The group did not record again until 2001, when Chris Goldsmith decided to self-finance the Blind Boys album he'd been hearing in his head for years. "I saw a show with [blues singer/guitarist] John Hammond and the Blind Boys performing together that was an epiphany for me. Around the same time, John Chelew came by to talk about his ideas for a Blind Boys album."

The result was the Blind Boys' Real World label debut, Spirit of the Century— a set of hot-wired traditional gospel and carefully chosen contemporary songs that became the group's best-selling album to date and won the 2001 Grammy^® Award for Best Traditional Soul Gospel Album. One track, a version of Tom Waits' Way Down in the Hole, became the theme song for the acclaimed HBO dramatic series The Wire.

Their current tour is in support of their most recent album release, Atom Bomb, which was released in March 2005 on Real World Records.

Charlie Musselwhite was born in the hill country of Mississippi and landed in Memphis at a time when the city was coming of age right along with him. The Memphis clubs were exploding into the dynamic music scene that blended black and white influences and gave birth to rock and roll and its greatest giants. Musselwhite took these influences and ran with them. Forming his own band, he released his 1966 Vanguard debut, Stand Back! Now considered a classic recording, this album achieved immediate underground success and established him as a blues force in his own right. The album's triumph took Musselwhite out to California, and he stayed for the good times, good weather and the bounty of good paying gigs. Able for the first time to completely devote himself to music, leaving the "day jobs" far behind, he became a regular player in the San Francisco music scene.

Currently, his body of work comprises over 20 albums of his own, and he has contributed to countless others including guesting on Bonnie Raitt's Grammy^® award-winning Longing In Their Hearts; The Blind Boys of Alabama's Grammy-winning Spirit of the Century as well as their newest album, Atom Bomb; Tom Waits' Mule Variations and even playing the driving harmonica on INXS' Suicide Blonde.

Ticket and Performance Information

Blind Boys of Alabama will play one performance in The Bushnell’s Mortensen Hall Tuesday, November 15, 2005 as part of Bank of America Showcase Series. Tickets are available at The Bushnell Box Office, located at 166 Capitol Avenue in Hartford. Tickets are also available by calling 860-987-5900 or online at www.bushnell.org. Curtain time is 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $42.50, $32.50, and $22.50. Groups of 10 or more should call 860-987-5959.

About The Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts

The Bushnell is Connecticut’s premier performing arts center, hosting more than 350 events yearly, including major Broadway tours, symphony orchestras, family presentations, local arts and community events. In November 2001, The Bushnell completed a $45 million expansion project that added a second, 907-seat theater to the existing historic structure. The new, state-of-the-art performance hall allows for expanded arts, entertainment and community offerings. The Bushnell’s nationally-recognized arts-in-education program, PARTNERS (Partners in Arts and Education Revitalizing Schools), is a cross-community educational effort serving 32 schools in 14 districts throughout the Greater Hartford area. The Bushnell opened in January 1930 and is a non-profit organization. For more information, call The Bushnell (860) 987-6000, The Bushnell Box Office at (860) 987-5900 or visit our website at www.bushnell.org.

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