Blind Willie Johnson all-star album in the works...

GOD DON’T NEVER CHANGE:

THE SONGS OF BLIND WILLIE JOHNSON

 TRIBUTE ALBUM ONLY HAPPENS IF FANS FUND IT

Salute to legendary gospel singer-guitarist Blind Willie Johnson,

 with new recordings by Tom Waits, Sinead O’Connor,

Lucinda Williams, Luther Dickinson, Cowboys Junkies, Derek Trucks & Susan Tedeschi, Blind Boys of Alabama and Rickie Lee Jones, is a Kickstarter project in the works.

LOS ANGELES, Calif. — Johnson's music was charred with purgatorial fire — more than sixty years later, you can still

smell the smoke on it.—Francis Davis, The History of the Blues 

More than 60 years after his death, Blind Willie Johnson continues to capture listeners in a way that few singers or musicians have equaled. The list of artists he has influenced goes back to Robert Johnson and forward to the White Stripes. The most obviously indebted would include several generations of hard country gospel singers, from the Blind Boys of Alabama to the Staple Singers, and the most soulful and virtuosic slide guitarists, from Mississippi Delta bluesmen to Ry Cooder.

Raising $125,000 in 30 days for an album of new recordings celebrating the music of Blind Willie Johnson is a risk that music producer Jeffrey Gaskill finds completely worthwhile. “I think when Blind Willie Johnson sat down in the recording studio in the late ’20s he understood the importance of posterity, that he was recording something to be heard by future generations. Today, his music is on a spaceship representing mankind in outer space and yet many of his recordings are virtually unknown.” But Gaskill realizes, “It’s a labor of love that will not be supported by a record label; God Don’t Never Change will

only happen if it’s going to be funded by appreciators of good music.”

According to the Encyclopedia of American Gospel Music, “It would be impossible to list every musician influenced by Blind Willie Johnson, because it would require mentioning almost everyone who ever listened to one of his records.” In

his time, Johnson was considered a singing gospel preacher. Today, he is called a “holy bluesman,” reflecting all of the blues and rock fans and musicians who have been inspired by his work. Either way, there is no more compelling voice in early American music. His music lives on, both in the gospel world and in genres he never could have imagined, and it is

a fitting honor that his legacy be saluted and carried forward into the 21st century.

In order to raise enough money to fund the project, a group of rare and collectible items are available for sale. The

fundraiser’s crown jewels include The Blind Pilgrim Collection, a set of five, unique handcrafted cigar-box

guitars made from the wood of Johnson’s 1930s Marlin, Texas home. For sale individually, the guitars are a limited, numbered set exclusively for this effort.

The Kickstarter fund raising effort begins on October 16 and ends on November 16, 2013.

<http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/blindwilliejohnson/1782322182?token=794ece5c>

The project features several rewards for investors at several levels. One-of-a-kind collectibles, content exclusives, and premiums for backers of the album include:

· Backer-only “making-of-the-album” video updates

· Exclusive CD version of the album

· Limited-edition Blind Willie Johnson T-shirts

· Set of two 180-gram LPs in a gatefold package (includes re-mastered, original Blind Willie Johnson recordings)

· Limited, signed and numbered art prints

· Box set in a hardbound case that includes 10” vinyl 33 RPM singles for each track, with a

new recording on one side and the original Johnson recording on the flipside

· Advance digital download of the new album two weeks before release

· Hand-crafted cigar-box guitars made from the wood of Johnson’s Texas home Kickstarter campaigns operate under an “all-or-nothing” funding model so if the Blind Willie Johnson project doesn’t reach its goal at the end of the 30 days the

recording won’ happen.

The project can be followed on

https://www.facebook.com/pages/God-Dont-Never-Change-The-Songs-of-Blind-Willie-Johnson/165426243485871

Blind Boys of Alabama with Sister Rosetta Tharpe

The Blind Boys of Alabama is a five-time Grammy Award winning gospel group who first sang together in 1939. After seven decades of touring, countless prestigious appearances, and a successful discography, the Blind Boys of Alabama have created their own solid musical history. The on-stage configuration of the group currently consists of seven people:

Three blind singers – Jimmy Carter, Ben Moore, Eric "Ricky" McKinnie
Guitarist and musical director, Joey Williams
A keyboard player, a bass player, and a drummer

Since their formation over 70 years ago, The Blind Boys of Alabama's self-proclaimed goal is to spiritually uplift audiences. The gospel group has also been a source of inspiration for those with disabilities. In the words of one of the group’s blind members, Ricky Mckinnie, “Our disability doesn’t have to be a handicap. It's not about what you can't do. It's about what you do. And what we do is sing good gospel music."
The Blind Boys first sang together in the school chorus in 1939 at the Alabama Institute for the Negro Blind in Talladega, Alabama. All around nine years old at the time, the founding members were Clarence Fountain, Jimmy Carter, George Scott, Velma Bozman Traylor, Johnny Fields, Olice Thomas, and the only sighted member, J. T. Hutton. The earliest version of the group was known as The Happyland Jubilee Singers and originally performed for World War II-era soldiers at training camps in the South. The group’s first professional performance was on June 10, 1944. In 1945, the members dropped out of school and began touring the gospel circuit.

In 1948, a Newark, New Jersey promoter booked two sets of blind gospel singers – the Happy Land Jubilee Singers from Alabama and the Jackson Harmoneers from Mississippi – and advertised the program as "Battle of the Blind Boys". A friendly rivalry sprouted between the two groups and continued henceforth. The two acts soon changed their names to the Five Blind Boys of Alabama and the Five Blind Boys of Mississippi and often toured together, occasionally swapping members.

In 1948, The Blind Boys recorded their first single, "I Can See Everybody’s Mother But Mine", on the Veejay label. It was a hit and lead to a series of recordings on various record labels.
The 1950s were an important decade for black gospel music and the Blind Boys were one of the most prominent groups. Artists across various musical genres like pop and rock began to pull inspiration from black gospel music
During the 60s and 70s, soul music gained favor as a new type of secular black music. As a traditional gospel group, the fortunes of The Blind Boys of Alabama waned during these decades. Soul music was spiritual and socially engaged pop music, and its sales quickly exceeded those of its gospel forerunners. For this reason, soul music became the more financially successful route for many gospel artists. The Blind Boys of Alabama remained steadfast to their original mission and decided not to take the path to fame and fortune, but rather to remain purely gospel singers.

Even though societal trends were shifting, The Blind Boys continued to be active in the 1960s and 1970s. Over the span of these two decades, the gospel group released thirteen more albums and worked with several different record labels, including recording for the Vee-Jay label from 1963 to 1965. In the 1960s, the group's hard-driving gospel sound was imitated by people like Bobby "Blue" Bland and Marvin Gaye. In 1969, Fountain left the group for a decade to try to make it on his own, and the group re-formed with all the original members in the late '70s.

The band also joined the civil rights movement during the 1960s, performing at benefits for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr
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