FROM GOSPEL TO GRAMMY BLIND BOYS SEE UNIVERSAL APPEAL OF THEIR SANCTIFIED SOUND.

Byline: Sandra Barrera Music Writer

Blind Boys of Alabama co-founder Clarence Fountain was home recuperating from a bout with pneumonia last week when the Grammy nominations were announced.

The category for best traditional soul gospel album included ``Go Tell It on the Mountain,'' the group's first-ever Christmas recording. It was released in September and this week tops Billboard's gospel album charts.

``I didn't even know they nominated Christmas records in the Grammys,'' Fountain, 73, says.

The Blind Boys, who perform Saturday at Royce Hall, are a group that's no stranger to the recording industry's most prestigious night. They have already taken home gospel Grammys for 2001's ``Spirit of the Century'' and 2002's ``Higher Ground.''

Winning a third Grammy for the new album would be nice, Fountain admits. But it isn't the force driving the Blind Boys' old-timey gospel soul music, which has even resonated through the White House.

``They feel they've been called,'' says Charles Driebe, whose been managing the Blind Boys for the past three years. Before that, he acted as the group's attorney. ``They feel that they have a message they want to spread around the world, and they've spent a lifetime doing it.''

With enough spiritual fervor to make a believer out of a rock, it's no wonder the Blind Boys - Joey Williams, Ricky McKinnie, Bobby Butler, Tracy Pierce and founding members Jimmy Carter, George Scott and Fountain - have never strayed from their gospel roots.

The founders were exposed to these traditional spirituals, which were passed down to them as children, at the Talladega Institute for the Blind in 1939.

``We used to get gospel every day and listen to gospel every day, so we decided, 'Hey, let's start our own group,' '' Fountain says.

Fountain recalls the group's first big show in 1945, when the Blind Boys, who had another name at the time, sang for 50,000 people in Birmingham, Ala.

``So you see gospel has been big for a l-o-o-o-ong time,'' he says, with a laugh. ``But I think people are paying even more attention to it now.''

It's certainly been the case for the Blind Boys. Their last album drew rave reviews, including from Rolling Stone, which praised the group's remake of the Curtis Mayfield class ``People Get Ready'' as an improvement on the original.

And as Mother Jones magazine pointed out, it's ``not just for the converted.''

In fact, the group has traveled from the U.S. to Lebanon, playing for people of all spiritual convictions and walks of life.

This year, alone, the group has played 200 shows and still counting.

That's a lot of shows, but the demand is there. Fountain thinks it probably has something to do with a gospel revival.

He calls this American original ``the last of the Mohicans.''

Then again, maybe all the interest from secular audiences has to do with the group's ability to refit old tunes, such as ``Amazing Grace,'' with a new melody - in this case, riffing off the familiar ``House of the Rising Sun.''

Like that song off the ``Spirit of the Century'' release, the Blind Boys are consistently introducing their growing audience to newfangled gospel.

More recent examples can be found on ``Go Tell It on the Mountain,'' the 12-song collection of Christmas standards that includes ``Last Month of the Year,'' ``Little Drummer Boy'' and ``Silent Night,'' with a host of guests - Aaron Neville, Solomon Burke, Mavis Staples, Tom Waits, Michael Franti and others.

``These songs come from the heart,'' Fountain says. ``See, you have to be able to make people feel something that they've never felt before ... God. If you can't make them feel that, then you ain't doing something right, because what comes from the heart goes to the heart. And that's what we're all about.''

Fountain admits that he would've selected different tunes for the album, but he didn't object to them at the time.

And he's not about to now.

``Who knows,'' he says,``we might win.''

Sandra Barrera, [phone]

sandra.barrera(at)dailynews.com

BLIND BOYS OF ALABAMA

Where: Royce Hall, UCLA campus, Westwood.

When: 8 p.m. Saturday.

Tickets: $35 to $55. [phone]; www.ticketmaster.com.

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Photo:

no caption (Blind Boys of Alabama)