The Boys are Back in Town! Blind Boys of Alabama In Chicago to Play New Venue

By Robert M. Marovich

The multi-GRAMMY Award-winning Blind Boys of Alabama have appeared in Chicago multiple times in its decades-long history. However, on Sunday evening, March 30, the gospel quartet will be among the earliest artists to appear at Garcia’s Chicago.

The West Loop’s newest entertainment venue and restaurant, Garcia’s Chicago opened on March 21. The 300-capacity venue evokes the spirit of its namesake, Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead, in its mid-century chic and mellow accommodations. It’s a collaboration between the Jerry Garcia Family and Dayglo Presents, the live concert and media enterprise headed by independent music veteran Peter Shapiro.

For the Blind Boys, the passing of members Paul Beasley and Ben Moore, combined with the retirement of original member Jimmy Carter, meant making personnel changes. The March 30 program will be a chance to hear the latest iteration of the group, which includes J.W. Smith of Ohio and longtime gospel artist Sterling Glass. Glass’s resume goes back to the 1960s and 1970s with the Gospel Jewels and the Metropolitan Singers, both of Waterbury, Connecticut.

Other current members include Joey Williams, a 34-year veteran of the Blind Boys, and the Reverend Julius Love. Ricky McKinnie, who spoke by telephone with JGM earlier this week, said that it is uncertain at this point whether Love, who sang with the group at a recent gig in Alabama, will be able to make this particular engagement.

“We don’t try to replace guys,” McKinnie, the leader, narrator, and nearly 40-year veteran of the Blind Boys of Alabama pointed out. “We’ve got some good singers. We all sing some lead and then come together as a group.”

For McKinnie, a drummer, percussionist, and singer, the road to this point in his career came through the influence of his mother, Sarah McKinnie Shivers, a gospel singer in her own right who sang with the Gene Martin Singers as part of the A. A. Allen revivals—a multicultural religious experience whose musical impact is woefully forgotten today. McKinnie met Clarence Fountain of the Blind Boys when he was four years old, but singing professionally for the Lord wasn’t a forgone conclusion. “I always had a dream of singing,” Ricky said, “but I didn’t know I would be singing gospel music.” Ricky went on to join Troy Ramey and the Soul Searchers and the Gospel Keynotes before forming his own Ricky McKinnie Singers. He had the chance to play behind the Blind Boys before becoming an official member. “I’ve been around the Blind Boys a long time,” he said.

McKinnie said that at the March 30 appearance, the group plans to sing some songs from their latest album, the GRAMMY Award-winning (and JGM five-star album) Echoes of the South, as well as some of their older selections.

This May, the Blind Boys head back to Europe for the first time in three years. They will also tour Scandinavia. “The crowds there don’t get the Blind Boys all the time like we do here in America, so they are eager to hear us,” McKinnie said. He added that before COVID, the Blind Boys would do 150 shows a year, but this year the group estimates doing between 80 to 90 shows, “100 if possible.”

Although the quartet is talking about a new project, McKinnie said, “we haven’t decided on the direction we’re going. Hopefully by the end of the year, we will have recorded a new project by the Blind Boys of Alabama.”

In addition to traveling and singing with the Blind Boys, McKinnie maintains a personal mission to keep gospel quartet music alive on his weekly radio program, “Rock With Ricky,” over Atlanta station WIGO 1570 AM. He broadcasts traditional and current gospel quartet singing for two hours every Sunday morning, from eight to ten a.m. His sister, Janice McKinnie, assisted him until her passing a few weeks ago.

Despite the addition of new Blind Boys personnel, Rickey McKinnie said that the quartet’s sonic consistency has to do with their ultimate purpose for singing. “We believe in what we’re doing. We are all on one accord. We are believers. When we get up and sing, what’s from the heart reaches the heart. These guys sing from the heart.”

The March 30 show at Garcia’s Chicago starts at 7:00 p.m. Doors open at 5:30 p.m.

Photo Credit: Cole Weber