Clarence Fountain has led the group since then and continues to sing to this day. Unlike other groups, the Blind Boys of Alabama haven't been afraid to experiment with their sound over the years and have toured and recorded with other performers like Ben Harper, George Clinton, Tom Waits, Chrissie Hynde, and Aaron Neville.

But through it all, they have remained true to what they believe in and deliver Gospel music as passionately as any other group under the sun. Walk With Me Dear Lord, released by the Music Avenue label, is a fine example of the range of material and the breadth of arrangements they incorporate into their performances.

"Walk With Me" leads the disc off with an almost pop feel, which I found slightly disconcerting as it didn't jibe with my pre-existing definition of Black Gospel music. But it works as a lead in to the more demonstrative numbers. Taken in context with the rest of the disc, it makes sense as well because it allows them to build to crescendos and then pull back down again into something more muted.

It would probably be just a little much to expect an audience to be able to sit through seventeen songs as stirring and passionate as "Old Time Religion", so the inclusion of songs like "Danny Boy," which might seem a little strange, is understandable. Anyway, it doesn't matter what songs they sing, these guys could make a vocalization of the phone book sound amazing.

The depth of the passion, the harmonies, the intensity, and the sheer joy they bring to each and every song can't fail to lift up your spirits. I don't care what or who you believe in, it's the belief that matters in cases like, this not the specifics of who. Devotion like that expressed by the Blind Boys Of Alabama transcends our simplistic notions of religion and divisions of faiths.

It's a representation of the universal power of belief all of us share for what it is we have faith in, and thus can't fail to move us one way or another. In much the same way beautiful devotional art — whether Muslim, Christian, Hindi, Jewish, or any other belief — can appeal to us on a primal level, this music taps into an old and sincere part of our being. It is truly ecstatic.

Walk With Me Dear Lord by The Blind Boys Of Alabama is a religious experience all on its own and is more than enough reason to believe in the existence of a higher power, no matter what you want to call it. Inspiration for music like this can't be found just lying around on the ground, so something or someone somewhere has to be whispering in their ear and giving them direction and guidance.

What other explanation is there?