Blind Boys of Alabama & Bob Dylan To Play White House Concert

BLIND BOYS OF ALABAMA, BOB DYLAN, JOHN LEGEND & MORE
TO PERFORM AT WHITE HOUSE FOR PRESIDENT AND MRS. OBAMA

Blind Boys of Alabama

Blind Boys of Alabama have been invited to perform at a special concert at the White House on February 10. In Performance at the White House: A Celebration of Music From the Civil Rights Movement will be held in the State Dining Room, and is timed to celebrate Black History Month.

The Blind Boys will join hosts President and Mrs. Obama as well as music superstars Bob Dylan, John Legend, Seal, Jennifer Hudson, John Mellencamp, Natalie Cole and Smokey Robinson on the bill. Morgan Freeman and Queen Latifah will emcee the entire event.

The concert will be the White House’s first music event of 2010, and is the latest in a music series started last year by Michelle Obama. It will be streamed live online at Whitehouse.gov and broadcast on PBS on February 11.

The event is a particularly poignant one for the Blind Boys. “Our group started singing together in Alabama in the late 1930s, and we lived through the dark days of segregation,” says Jimmy Carter, the band’s leader and one of its founding members. “That’s why it is a great pleasure and an even greater honor to sing on this program.”

The White House concert adds to an already remarkable year for the legendary gospel group. The band opened 2010 with a series of concerts in China, then flew to New York last week where they were joined by Lou Reed for a blistering performance on the Late Show with David Letterman. Watch the video of this first time live collaboration here.

The group will be touring the rest of the spring, including upcoming concerts in Morristown, N.J. (with the Preservation Hall Jazz Band), at UCLA’s Royce Hall (with Allen Toussaint) and at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, punctuated by their induction into the Alabama Music Hall of Fame in Montgomery, AL on March 25.

Blind Boys of Alabama Tour Dates
01/29/10 Fri Community Theatre at Mayo Center Morristown, NJ
02/19/10 Fri University of Illinois at Springfield Springfield, IL
02/20/10 Sat Sangamon Auditorium Springfield, IL
02/21/10 Sun The College of William and Mary Williamsburg, VA
02/25/10 Thu Laxson Auditorium Chico, CA
02/26/10 Fri Knitting Factory Reno, NV
03/04/10 Thu Lobero Theatre Santa Barbara, CA
03/06/10 Sat UCLA Los Angeles, CA
03/06/10 Sat Royce Hall at UCLA Los Angeles, CA
03/07/10 Sun Belly Up Tavern Solana Beach, CA
03/19/10 Fri Smoky Mountain Center for the Performing Arts Franklin, NC
03/25/10 Thu The Alabama Music Hall of Fame Tuscumbia, AL
04/23/10 Fri Skipper’s Smokehouse Tampa, FL
04/25/10 Sun New Orleans Fairgrounds New Orleans, LA