For more than 75 years, the Blind Boys of Alabama have been finding the place in a song where it opens, the note that lifts a familiar melody out of recognition and into something else. On Saturday, February 13, they bring that instinct to the Paramount Theatre in Rutland, performing Songs in the Key of Life, a 50th-anniversary celebration of Stevie Wonder’s landmark album.
About the Show
The program pairs Wonder’s classic compositions — “Sir Duke,” “I Wish,” “As” — with beloved selections from the Blind Boys’ own celebrated gospel catalog. It is a natural pairing for a group that has spent its career interpreting material by artists including Prince, Tom Waits, and Eric Clapton alongside traditional gospel, doing so in the words of TIME Magazine by “always hunting for – and finding – the perfect note or harmony that lifts an old tune into the sublime.”
Six-time Grammy Award winners with Lifetime Achievement honors from both the National Endowment for the Arts and the Recording Academy, the Blind Boys have a specific history with Wonder’s music. In 2003, they won a Grammy for an album that included their cover of “Higher Ground,” a version that later appeared in FX’s Fargo. Four years later, Wonder presented Blind Boys singer Jimmy Carter with a Vision Award for Lifetime Achievement. It was recognition from the very artist whose album they now bring to Rutland as tribute. Their 2024 album Echoes of the South won the Grammy for Best Roots Gospel Album, a reminder that a group recognized as “the longest running group in American music” has not settled for legacy alone.
Venue & Logistics
The Paramount Theatre is an 838-seat historic theater in Rutland, part of the North Country circuit. The Blind Boys got their start at the Talladega Institute for the Deaf and Blind in the late 1930s and ran on Broadway in 1988 with an Obie Award-winning production of The Gospel at Colonus. A room that seats 838 is not Madison Square Garden. It is, in the best possible way, the right size for what they do. Lobby doors open at 6:00 p.m.; seating begins at 6:30 p.m.
Tickets
Tickets are priced at $32, $42, and $52 (plus tax and fees). General on-sale began Friday, September 18; members at the $125+ level received early access. Showtime is 7:00 p.m. Buy tickets