Performance

When Monday, 31 January 2011, 8 pm
Where National Concert Hall, Main Auditorium
Presented by Waltons New School of Music
Supported by RTÉ lyric fm, Sunday Independent, Dublin Conrad Hotel

The Blind Boys of Alabama

Jimmy Carter • Vocals
Bishop Billy Bowers • Vocals
Ben Moore • Vocals
Eric (Ricky) McInnie • Drums, Vocals
Joey Williams • Guitar, Vocals
Tracy Pierce • Bass
Peter Levin • Organ

‘They proclaim their reverence in close harmonies and gutsy improvisations that leap heavenward.’
– New York Times

‘The fusion of the Blind Boys’ Deep South gospel with New Orleans funk, R&B and jazz creates a superweapon of roots-music uplift…’
– Rolling Stone

The Blind Boys of Alabama

The Blind Boys of Alabama are living legends of gospel music. Winning five Grammy Awards, four Gospel Music awards and the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award since the year 2000 alone, they have attained the highest levels of achievement in a career that spans nearly 75 years and shows no signs of diminishing. The Blind Boys have earned praise for their remarkable interpretations of everything from traditional gospel favourites to contemporary spiritual material by acclaimed songwriters such as Curtis Mayfield, Eric Clapton, Prince and Tom Waits. Their live shows are roof-raising musical events that appeal to audiences of all cultures, as evidenced by an international itinerary that has taken them around the world.

Ireland has its own great tradition of gospel music, and one special aspect of this concert is that the support act, the Discovery Gospel Choir, was selected through the first nationwide Waltons World Masters Gospel Competition,  in association with RTÉ lyric fm.

First Nationwide Waltons World Masters Gospel Competition

On 16 October 2010, Waltons World Masters and RTÉ lyric fm launched the first nationwide Gospel Competition, the winning choir/group to perform in the National Concert Hall as support act for the the Blind Boys of Alabama on 31 January 2011.

The response to this competition was overwhelming, and Gospel choirs and groups from all over the country submitted entries by the November 12th deadline. Clearly, Gospel is thriving in Ireland; the standard was extraordinarily high and the choice difficult. After much deliberation, our judging panel chose three finalists, whose entries were sent on to The Blind Boys of Alabama themselves to make the final decision. The finalists were:

Ballymun Gospel Choir
Discovery Gospel Choir
Gardiner Street Gospel Choir

Announced by Liz Nolan on RTÉ lyric fm on Friday, 7 January 2011, the competition winner, Discovery Gospel Choir opened the concert on January 31st with an extraordinary 40-minute set and returned for a final encore with the Blind Boys.

‘I would like to thank Waltons for offering me the opportunity to hear so many vibrant and exciting Gospel choirs from all around the country. The recordings were delivered with great soul, passion and spirit. It is wonderful to know that there is such an array of singers in towns all around Ireland committed to making and sharing their music in the community, for the community.  Each and every choir brought something unique to their music making and I hope that competitions such as this will highlight the wealth of musical talent around the country. Thank you for sharing your music!’
– Gail Henry, Producer, RTÉ lyric fm, and member of our judging panel

Finalists

Ballymun Gospel Choir

The Ballymun Gospel Choir and band are made up of teachers, cinema workers, mothers, musicians, and everybody in between. It’s a group of people joined by location and a love of the music that can be made when enthusiasm and talent meet. The Ballymun Gospel Choir has grown in sound and number since its formation in 2004. The original six members wanted to see if they could entice a community to come together through music. It turns out they could, and, despite the bumps along the road, the Ballymun Gospel Choir community is still going strong. They don’t all sing, most of them can’t dance, but the members and followers of Ballymun Gospel Choir share a musical, emotional experience that keeps them coming to the services and concerts and working hard to make sure those services and concerts keep going. The recordings submitted were part of concerts held in St. Ann’s Church on 19 and 20 March 2010 and showcase the Ballymun mix of traditional gospel with modern soul. You can hear the music, the songs, the claps and the cheers. These tracks sum up the mission of the Ballymun Gospel Choir – give it socks, give it soul, and keep laughing through it all.

Discovery Gospel Choir

Formed in 2004, Discovery Gospel Choir is based in Cathal Brugha Street, Dublin but performs across the country, challenging its audiences to ‘discovery beauty in everyone’ and to work towards an integrated society. In promoting its ethos of integration and unity, Discovery has performed in Mountjoy Prison, for the then Northern Ireland First Minister Rev Dr Ian Paisley in Stormont, in Mosney Accommodation Centre for asylum seekers, for the MAMA Awards, at Africa Day and for Archbishop Desmond Tutu on his visit to Dublin in 2005. The choir has appeared on numerous national radio and television programmes and has led the National Anthem at international matches in Croke Park and Lansdowne Road. It has also made appearances at the Meteor Music Awards, the RCCG’s Festival of Life in the Point Theatre, Electric Picnic and the Festival of World Cultures. Discovery enjoys working with other musicians who share its ethos, and it has previously performed with Stevie Wonder, Sinéad O’Connor, Nizlopi, Foy Vance, Liam Ó Maonlaí and Celtic Woman. The choir has also worked closely with Irish fusion band, Kíla. In our new, multicultural Ireland, this group of singers and musicians from around the world has successfully maintained a dynamic internal community, a rich ethos of social justice, a deep Christian faith and an ability to entertain people from every walk of life with its popular and accessible music.

Gardiner Street Gospel Choir

Gardiner Street Gospel Choir performed its first Gospel Choir Mass on 7 May 2000, and it is still spreading the good news as far and as wide as possible. Over the last two years, the choir and band have played in various venues and for a wide range of audiences, including schools for disabled children, prisons, charity events and large scale concerts as well as the weekly mass in Gardiner Street. Every Sunday over forty people take time out of their own lives to worship, sing and rejoice as part of the choir and band, a group of truly inspirational people whose love of music and each other helps to make the Gardiner Street gospel choir mass what it is For anyone who walks in off the street, one thing will be self-evident: this is a celebration. The Choir and the music play a vital role, but everyone agrees that there is something more. The tone is set each Sunday before mass, when their ‘Gospel Gazette’ is handed out. At the Gardiner Street Gospel Choir Mass people gather to celebrate their faith, and they do so with an energy that inspires those who do not share that faith – and those who doubt – to come and join in. The keystone of the Gospel Choir Mass is contented faith in Christ. The emphasis of the mass is to gather people together and let them discuss, contemplate and rejoice and to be able to ask questions about their lives, faith and love. Without the people there would be nobody truly at home, nobody to listen and, ultimately, no welcome and no happy gathering.

A selection of photographs, taken by Órla Ryan, of the Waltons World Masters – Blind Boys of Alabama concert.