When we think of the tradition of itinerant blind black musicians, names like Blind Lemon Jefferson, Willie McTell or Blind Willie Johnson tend to come up quickly. Blind women in that tradition — harder to name. But there were several and even some that gained wider recognition.  Blind Mamie Forehand was one such performer and […]

“It makes the hair stand up on the back of my neck.  He did not articulate a single word.  He hummed it and sang it and played it with a bottle-neck that sounded like it was really a razor blade.  He was experiencing it and he communicated it extraordinarily, but it was his experience that […]

As you probably know, we’re in the midst of trying to raise money to help promote the Heavenly Sight hour-long public radio documentary and also establish a visually-impaired-friendly website.  In the course of doing research for this blog it became very clear how incredibly lacking the web is in resources about blind gospel music. Searching […]

After their years of slavery African-Americans kept with them Christianity and the hymnals that sang the religion’s praises.  It was a powerful connection in a community deprived of education, where literacy was a rare achievement.  Where few people read, word of mouth rules, especially word of mouth raised in oration or song. “For black Americans […]

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Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine covers Bob Dylan’s “Blind Willie McTell,” for Chimes of Freedom, the Amnesty International USA benefit album that is a compilation of Dylan covers that was recently released. Bob Dylan himself recorded the song in 1983, but only released it on the The Bootleg Series Volumes 1-3 (Rare & Unreleased) […]