Stepping Up and Stepping Out – Clarence Fountain, Sam Butler and the Boys

Clarence Fountain, Sam Butler and the Boys
Stepping Up and Stepping Out
Tyscot Records (release scheduled for August 25, 2009)
www.tyscot.com

The story is well known among gospel quartet enthusiasts. Clarence Fountain has left the Blind Boys of Alabama. For the second time.

This time, however, it seems final. In a 2008 article written by Lee Hildebrand for Living Blues, five-time Grammy winner Fountain is reported to have said about the quartet he co-founded in 1939, “I wouldn’t sing with ‘em if they were the last group in the world.”

Sam Butler, who joined the Blind Boys in 1972 as singer and guitarist after fronting his family’s group, Little Junior and the Butleraires, has also stepped away from the quartet. Together, guided by the crystal-clear production of legendary soulman Solomon Burke, the two Blind Boys alumni have collaborated on a new album, Stepping Up and Stepping Out.

From the opening moments, the album takes the listener on a funky, bluesy, rootsy ride, not dissimilar to the productions of T-Bone Burnett. It’s traditional gospel steeped in spicy, fragrant mojo, what one might hear if Chicago, Memphis and New Orleans music were blended together thoroughly and topped with hot sauce.

Yes, years of being one of the hardest quartet singers on the planet has taken its toll on Fountain’s voice. When the 80 year-old is not letting loose one of his trademark vibrato shouts, he’s sowing notes in a far lower register than in his early days – so low, in fact, that the earth rattles when he sings. His deep basso is a perfect foil to Butler’s smooth-as-satin quartet-style tenor.

The songs are sacred cool. “Between Darkness and the Light of Day” has an unsettling Blind Willie Johnson eeriness. “It’s a Different World Now” is a memorable piece with crossover potential on the headshaking pace of change and the common denominator that neither modern days nor the old-time ways can live without.

The second half of the CD has a churchier feel, due largely to the enhanced presence of a warbling, chirping organ and the inclusion of sacred classics such as “Stand By Me” and “I Shall Not Be Moved.” “Me and Jesus” is a fine uptempo number that quartet fans will especially appreciate. “I Commit,” the last track on the CD, features a marvelous hard gospel duet between Fountain and Butler.

Guest artists on the project include jazz harmonica virtuoso Corky Siegel and Steely Dan’s Donald Fagen on melodica, an instrument also known as a wind piano or blow organ. Sam Butler’s icy-sharp guitar is ever present, too, adding more than a touch of blues and swamp rock to the mix.

Fagan contributes the album’s liner notes, noting that Fountain’s bass register “can scare the devil right out his skin.” I couldn’t agree more. Stepping Up and Stepping Out stomps on and swaggers all over the devil’s head, grinning confidently doing so.

Four of Five Stars