Paul Thorn & Blind Boys of Alabama
The 2018 Levitt National Tour will feature acclaimed Southern raconteur Paul Thorn and his five-piece band as he teams up with five-time GRAMMY-winning Gospel legends, Blind Boys of Alabama, for a one-of-a-kind musical collaboration. Billed as the “Mission Temple Fireworks Revival,” the unprecedented co-headline Levitt National Tour was inspired by Thorn’s 2018 album Don’t Let The Devil Ride—a celebration of the first music Thorn ever experienced, journeying through classic gospel, soul and spirituals, and featuring contributions from Blind Boys of Alabama among other artists. Levitt audiences across the country will experience these exhilarating, soulful shows blending old-school gospel with rock, blues and country.
Paul Thorn has created an innovative and impressive career, pleasing crowds with his muscular brand of roots music – bluesy, rocking and thoroughly Southern American, while speaking universal truths. Raised in Tupelo, Miss., among the same spirits (and some of the actual people) who nurtured the young Elvis generation before, Thorn has rambled down back roads and jumped out of airplanes, worked for years in a furniture factory, battled four-time world champion boxer Roberto Duran on national television, signed with and been dropped by a major label, performed on stages with Bonnie Raitt, Mark Knopfler, Sting, and John Prine among many others, and has made some of the most emotionally restless yet fully accessible music of our time. He’s also appeared on major television shows such as Late Night with Conan O’Brien and Jimmy Kimmel Live!, been the subject of numerous National Public Radio (NPR) features and charted multiple times on the Billboard Top 100 and Americana Radio Charts.
Blind Boys of Alabama are recognized worldwide as living legends of gospel music. Celebrated by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (NARAS) with Lifetime Achievement Awards, inducted into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame, and winners of five GRAMMY Awards, they have attained the highest levels of achievement in a career that spans almost 80 years. Blind Boys are known for crossing multiple musical boundaries with their remarkable interpretations of everything from traditional gospel favorites to contemporary spiritual material by songwriters such as Eric Clapton, Prince and Tom Waits. They have appeared on recordings with many artists, including Lou Reed, Peter Gabriel, Bonnie Raitt, Willie Nelson, Aaron Neville, Susan Tedeschi, Ben Harper, Patty Griffin and Taj Mahal. Blind Boys of Alabama have appeared on The Tonight Show With Jay Leno, Late Night with David Letterman, The Grammy Awards, 60 Minutes, The Colbert Report and many other television shows.
Levitt National Tour audiences are in for an electrifying evening of gospel meets blues meets rock!
