A legendary gospel group from Alabama has once again been celebrated. The Blind Boys of Alabama won another Grammy earlier this week for their 2023 album “Echoes of the South” in the category of Best Roots Gospel Album. Not only was the album recorded in Sheffield, but it was released on Florence record label Single Lock Records. This was the second Grammy for the label.
Reed Watson is a co-owner of Single Lock Records. He said they were thrilled to be a part of it. "I was in the room with with Ben Tanner, my partner in the label and a co-producer on the record and look, we were just sort of laughing and pinching ourselves the entire time," Watson said. “They have been doing this stuff and they’ve been singing and they’ve been on their, what they would call, their mission for almost a century. You know, in the state of Alabama we have a lot of musical icons but I dare say that that’s pretty unmatched. I mean, they were founded in 1939 in Talladega. They didn’t win a Grammy award until 2002."
“I mean, they have been nominated for sixteen Grammys in their career. Fourteen of them came in the twenty-first century. They won a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2009 and, believe it or not, their win on Sunday was their sixth win, ever.” Reed continued this line of thought. “Who do you know in your life that has devoted their entire lives to art and solely that? You know, their art is sharing their music and singing about their God. You know, I just think that’s a really, whether you’re religious or not, I just think it is a very powerful legacy.”
There are more celebrations coming for the group including a PBS specialset to air on February 9th and a memoir book due out in March.
