Forty years of spreading the word of God through gospel continues for Clarence Fountain and The Blind Boys of Alabama at Shryock Auditorium Saturday.

Clarence Fountain, bass vocalist and front man, said Biblical passages clearly define gospel as the first progression of music.

The devil was the chief angel in heaven and sang in the choir, he said. The Lord kicked him out of heaven and that was the end of his choir days, but not the end of gospel.

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Fountain said the similarities between gospel and the blues extend from the spiritual work hollers in cotton fields that emerged into the harmonies and jubilees found in both genres.

The difference is the blues sings about my baby, my darling and my honey, he said. We sing about the Lord.

Although the blues and gospel are similar in sound, Fountain said the Blind Boys continued with gospel because the members were raised in churches.

Fountain said The Blind Boys had many barriers to overcome. The members, Judge Cott (tenor), Jimmy Carter (tenor), Eric McKinney(drummer) and Bobby Butler (baritone) met at the Talladega Institute for the Blind. They performed at school while learning vocal chords, piano, and guitar. After graduation, he said they learned to put it all together.

We were kids learning how to write tunes, he said. Our success progressed slowly.

The group has toured constantly since 1940, only gaining recognition in the past few years. The Blind Boys’ Broadway debut ,The Gospel at Colonus, earned an Obie Award. In the beginning of 1994, their first major label release, Deep River on Elektra Nonesuch, received a Grammy nomination.

You are never happy unless you win it , he said. But eating all the food was fun.

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Last September, Hillary Clinton awarded The Blind Boys the National Endowment for the Arts Heritage Fellowship for Lifetime Achievement, an artistic grant of $10,000. Fountain said it was an honor to be presented with the award and the request by the first lady to perform on the White House lawn and that it was a tribute to the lord.

Getting started is not the problem, he said. It was keeping it all together.

Fountain said he felt truly successful after the 1995 Jazz Heritage Festival, where they performed in front of 70,000 people.

It was a glorious time, he said. We felt like we had really done something.

Fountain said the live show is exciting because they motivated the audience into a hand-clapping frenzy.

When we sing to the college audience, we want them to feel something they have never felt before, he said.

Bryce Pico, a junior in social studies from Monmouth, said he saw The Blind Boys perform at The House of Blues in Los Angeles last year.

I never got into gospel, he said. But listening to the harmonies and melodies of The Blind Boys turned me on to other extensions of gospel like soul.

The Blind Boys of Alabama perform at 8 p.m. Saturday. Tickets are $12.50 and can be purchased at the Student Center Ticket Office or at the show. For more information call 618-453-ARTS.