"We just felt the timing was right for this one," explains original Blind Boys member Clarence Fountain, speaking from a hotel stop on the group's current tour. "We love our record company - they've been very nice to us, treated us like we were somebody. So we didn't mind going into the studio and doing it."

Go Tell It On The Mountain offers a mix of traditional and modern Christmas tunes, with a lineup of guest stars including Tom Waits, Shelby Lynne, Chrissie Hynde, Mavis Staples, and Aaron Neville. Fountain credits the album's concept and song choices to producer John Chelew and RealWorld. "They know everybody and everybody knows them. They were able to get anybody whom they wanted."

With all these popular vocalists, not to mention top-flight musicians and arrangements that often rock, will gospel purists find the album too mainstream? "We tried to stay traditional and not get too far off the track about how the songs were supposed to go," says Clarence. "We could have had more gospel flavor if we had been singing all the tracks but mostly we just [added the backgrounds to] them." Still, the famous Blind Boys harmonies are in evidence on the album's opener "Last Month of the Year," and the final cut "Silent Night."

In regard to the oft-cited similarity of gospel to rock, Fountain observes: "Rock and roll came from gospel but gospel was here first. Everything else-blues, rock, jazz - it all springs from gospel. It's gonna be the thing you'll hear when you get to heaven."

It's been an incredible musical journey for the Blind Boys, whose five original members indeed met at a school for the blind. After years of singing on the gospel circuit, they've gained visibility (as well as four newer members). Their talent has won them Grammy awards, guest stints with other artists (such as RealWorld label-mate Peter Gabriel on his Up album), and appearances in the recent films Brother Bear and The Fighting Temptations. They've even completed their first music video, for "Last Month of The Year." And success has enabled them to "give back" by donating a percentage of the royalties from Go Tell It on the Mountain to the American Diabetes Foundation.

"All the good things have happened to us because we've got the Lord's blessing on us," says Fountain. While he hopes to continue to work, he admits that the group's three remaining core members, George Scott, Jimmy Carter, and himself, are "winding down," as they deal with problems of age and health. "The older you get the less you want to do these things. But we give it all our best and when the time comes we'll all go home and sit down and be quiet."