I'll Find a Way
The Blind Boys of Alabama aren\'t shy at trying new things within their own gospel-roots framework, and collaborating with others has been part of their approach for decades. The last dozen years in the Blind Boys\' 70-plus-year career have seen them collaborate like never before, experimenting with blues, country, hip-hop, and Tom Waits. *I’ll Find a Way* is produced by Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon, and he pairs the group with tUnEyArDs’ Merrill Garbus (“I’ve Been Searching”), Sam Amidon (“I Am Not Waiting Anymore”), My Brightest Diamond’s Shara Worden (“I’ll Find a Way (To Carry It All)”), and Patty Griffin (“Jubilee”), among the guests. Vernon himself joins the group for a spiritual read of Bob Dylan’s “Every Grain of Sand,” while the Blind Boys, four octogenarians among them, sing like men a third their age on the upbeat “I Shall Not Be Moved.” Recorded over four days at Vernon’s Wisconsin studio, *I’ll Find a Way* includes traditional gospel hymns alongside well-chosen country, blues, and soul tunes.
Insouciance isn’t a gospel word, yet that’s what makes the Justin Vernon-produced I’ll Find A Way so engaging.
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Make no bones about it-Blind Boys of Alabama are an American gospel institution. Coming from these longstanding delegates of the genre, even a slapdash record of tried and true gospel songs would still have shifted its fair share of units.
During the one and only time I saw the Blind Boys of Alabama, they struck me as quite a unit.