You don't have to be a Christian to believe Clarence Fountain, vocalist with The Blind Boys of Alabama, when he says "gospel is good news". In fact, if you aren't a Christian, these guys just might make you feel "born again". If not to God, then to the transcendent power of music. So much so that they could even sing, early in their show at Vicar Street, a potentially hackneyed secular hymn like I Believe and bring it back to its soulful base and make it seem born again.
Even better were their truly impeccable four-part harmonies on songs like Nobody Knows The Trouble I've Seen, which reminded us that the roots of the core of this group go all the way back to the jubilee-style singing of the Golden Gate Quartet in the 1930s. Not only that. At least three members of the group have been singing together "56 years", as spokesman Clarence proudly noted at one point.
The Blind Boys of Alabama craft and structure their performances like an ever-rising, ever-perfect gospel song. Starting slow, with sometimes unfamiliar tunes, then exploding into total ecstasy with the seven-minute-long When The Holy Ghost Comes On Down.
So, have the Blind Boys of Alabama delivered the best gig of the year in Ireland for the third year running? You know they have. All of which makes it appropriate that that they ended the show with Battle Hymn Of The Republic. Glory, Glory, Hallelujah indeed.