AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |
Back to Blog
Ray charles blind9/16/2023 ![]() ![]() We'd get out there on stage, sing harmony together and we had people crying in those places. "We got together, started recording, and boom, it just took off after that. I asked him, 'Man, do you know When Something Is Wrong With My Baby? ' And he came up and sang it with me, and our voices were blending so close, man, it was beautiful. "You know when you meet that person where it seems like you were meant to be together?'' Moore asks. And if you don't know the Blind Boys, the world's pre-eminent gospel act, when you hear their bodily instruments blend power and grace, you'll understand that, as this lead singer says: "We are a mighty group.'' Like Sam's, Ben's voice carries more clarity than grit or rasp they're singers, not shouters. You'll be struck by his deep Southern soul timbre you might hear a little bit of Sam Moore (no relation) of Sam and Dave, the other great soul duo. Like the other Blind Boys he wears black wraparound sunglasses. He's thinner than Bobby was his hair is gray, the moustache, goatee and soul patch a little whiter. He'll thump his right fist, the one holding the microphone, on his thigh, keeping time and singing baritone and tenor harmonies, then stand to take frequent solos. On Saturday, when the Blind Boys of Alabama play the Tampa Bay Blues Festival in Vinoy Park, Moore will be on the far right as you face the stage, seated in a row of four folding chairs. On the front are the initials BB, for Blind Boys. As he enters theaters and concert halls, he wears a black leather car coat with white lettering on the back that reads: Today, at 72, he's singing all over the world again, but he goes by a different name. The act's producer just thought James Purify was the greatest soul name he'd ever heard, so he told each singer who joined the Florida duo: "You're Bobby Purify.'')Īfter the act broke up Bobby worked as a solo act for roughly 10 years, recorded a Grammy-nominated gospel album - and lost his sight. (That first man's name wasn't really Bobby Purify either. Their version of I'm Your Puppet, which James Purify had earlier recorded with another man singing harmony, was a hit again, here and overseas. For roughly a decade James and Bobby Purify played the Apollo in New York and the Howard in Washington, D.C., and toured England and Europe. He had taken the name 20 years before, when he joined James Purify in one of soul music's classic acts. I was scared to get run over or that somebody's going to rob me.'' I wouldn't go further than my front porch in Pensacola. "I stayed off the road and didn't perform for almost three years. The doctor said it was glaucoma, and that I had waited too long to act on it. "When I started going blind, man, it just took my heart away. ![]()
0 Comments
Read More
Leave a Reply. |