The two acts will treat Californians to a special show January 10-13. The Spirit Of The Century Band – featuring John Hammond, David Lindley, Charlie Musselwhite, Danny Thompson and Michael Jerome – will accompany the Blind Boys for the first half of the show. After an intermission, the vocal group then take to the stage without the band.

The Blind Boys’ current release (their 22nd), The Spirit Of The Century, was conceived in 1998, when the Boys and Hammond were on the road together during their “Highway 61” tour. The artists joined up nightly to perform “Motherless Child,” which proved to be a crowd pleaser and sparked an interest in uniting the Boys and Hammond for an album.

Thompson and Jerome (Richard Thompson’s rhythm section), multi-instrumentalist Lindley and harmonica genius Musselwhite round out the talented blues and gospel-minded artists who worked on the album with Hammond and the Boys.

The Spirit Of The Century was released this spring and evokes traditional gospel tunes of yesteryear, while songs from Tom Waits and Ben Harper help cement the album in the present. Amazon.com just named The Spirit Of The Century as No. 73 of its Top 100 CDs of 2001.

Acoustic blues scholar John Hammond joins up with the Blind Boys later on in February for a co-bill. While he won’t be joining in as part of their band, Hammond will perform a full set in support of his latest release, Wicked Grin, which features songs written by Tom Waits, who also produced the album. Wicked Grin also makes an appearance on Amazon’s Top 100 chart at No. 14.