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Jimmy Carter (above, center) and The Blind Boys of Alabama will perform Wednesday night at Jefferson Center in Roanoke. The concert is sold out.

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Host/producer: Tad Dickens

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• WHAT: "The Blind Leading ... An Exploration of Blindness and Creativity" Discussions with blind musicians; information about blind service organizations in the Roanoke Valley.
• WITH WHOM? The Blind Boys of Alabama, Wednesday (SOLD OUT)
• OTHER SHOWS: Doc Watson and the Peter Rowan and Tony Rice Quartet (SOLD OUT), March 7; Henry Butler Trio, April 19, at Jefferson Center’s Shaftman Hall
• HOW MUCH: $22, $18, $12 for Henry Butler Trio; half-price for children and students
• INFO: jeffcenter.org/theblindleading

When Jimmy Carter was a young boy growing up in Alabama, he wondered why he couldn't see. All five of his brothers could.

He turned to the faith his family had nurtured in him from childhood. He prayed.

"I asked him, 'Lord, why me ... why did you take my sight like that?' " Carter said.

But Carter didn't need to see. He could sing. And if he could sing, he could spread the Gospel. He and his band, the Blind Boys of Alabama, have been telling the world about their Lord for six decades, via electrifying soul-gospel music.

"If he had let me see, I doubt seriously if I would be doing what I'm doing now," Carter said. "I guess that's ... what he wanted me to do -- take the Gospel and spread it out to the people, and telling the world about him. So, that's why he did not let me see. And I don't worry about it anymore. Everything works out for good."

He comes with the Blind Boys of Alabama to Jefferson Center on Wednesday night, where they'll be doing more than singing. They will also answer audience questions about blindness and music. It's part of a Jefferson Center project called "The Blind Leading ... An exploration of blindness and creativity." Future Jeff Center performers Doc Watson and Henry Butler will also be part of the program. Watson performs on March 8. Butler is here on April 8.

Jefferson Center received a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to fund "The Blind Leading." In addition to the concerts, the artists will take questions about how blindness has affected their careers, positively and negatively. Jeff Center creative director Dylan Locke said that the program asks both artists and the audience -- including members of the Roanoke area's blind community -- to consider the role of blindness in the creative process.

Interesting facts:

>> Medical research at a Boston hospital shows that blind musicians are more likely to develop perfect pitch than those who can see, according to the magazine New Scientist.

>> Jefferson Center cites research claiming that the visual cortex of the brain takes on new functions for the blind, giving them a creative advantage.

No doubt, blind musicians have thrilled audiences for centuries. In the United States alone, players such as Blind Lemon Jefferson, Blind Boy Fuller (Fulton Allen), the Rev. Gary Davis, Sonny Terry, Ray Charles, Stevie Wonder, Joe Morello and Art Tatum are acknowledged as among the best in our culture.

Sociologists and other cultural observers have noted that the proliferation of blind musicians stems from the fact that there were fewer job opportunities.

Carter said that his school, the Talladega Institute for the Negro Deaf and Blind, in Alabama, didn't teach an unusual amount of music -- just a class a day. But in that class and in men's chorus, he met two other youngsters who all could sing a lick.

In 1939, George Scott, Clarence Fountain, and Carter became the nucleus of the Happyland Jubilee Singers. About 1948, a promoter in New Jersey inspired a new name, The Five Blind Boys of Alabama, to better promote a double-bill with the Five Blind Boys of Mississippi, Carter said. Later, the "five" was trimmed.

Scott died in 2005, and Fountain left the band this year because of diabetes complications, leaving Carter as the last original member still with the band. But, he said, he is close with the most recent addition -- vocalist Ben Moore -- as well as longtime members Bishop Billy Bowers on vocals, Ricky McKinnie on drums, Joey Williams and Caleb Butler on guitars and Tracy Pierce on bass.

The band members have been to schools and other places where they have taken audience questions. But blindness is not typically the subject. Usually, people want to know how the band has stayed together for so long, he said. He has a ready answer.

"When you love what you do, that keeps you going, you know," he said. "We've been doing this for a long time. We're just like family. We love one another. We love what we do. That's all we know how to do."

Carter said that opportunities for the blind were limited when he was coming up. But blind children today have many more options. He is not aware of many young, blind musicians trying to make the same impact that past performers have.

"Technology has increased so much now," he said. "Blind people go to public schools now. They don't have to go to blind schools anymore. ... And they take up different vocations. Technology has given them more options now. They don't have to deal with music if they don't want to."

Carter says that he and his group are excited to come to Roanoke, and are looking forward to interacting with their audience. But the most important thing the band does every night is spread the Gospel, he said.

"We have a message to give," Carter said. "We get up on that stage and we tell the world about Jesus Christ, what kind of man he is. We try to bring hope to a hopeless people. We try to tell the world that Jesus lives, and he can live in your heart. That's our message.

"We've been doing it all these many years, and we haven't got tired yet. We'll continue on, until God says that's enough."