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<p>Marc Cohn, the Grammy Award winner for Best New Artist in 1992, is probably best known for his song &#8220;Walking in Memphis&#8221; from his 1991 self-titled debut album.</p><p>When he plays it Thursday night at the F.M. Kirby Center for the Performing Arts during his performance with the legendary gospel group Blind Boys of Alabama, that song, he says, now feels complete.</p><p>&#8220;It name-checks a few gospel stars and it has a gospel choir at the end of it,&#8221; he said in a recent interview with The Times Leader. &#8220;So now I&#8217;ve come full circle.&#8221;</p><p>For the Kirby Center concert, Cohn and the Blind Boys of Alabama will be joined by five-time Grammy winner and Blues Hall of Famer Robert Cray with his Robert Cray Band plus special guest and opening act, blues vocalist Shemekia Copeland.</p><p>Tickets for Thursday&#8217;s show are $39.50 to $69.50 plus fees. For more information or tickets, call the Kirby Center Box Office at 570.826.1100.</p><p>Cohn, the now 59-year-old piano player and singer-songwriter, has been writing for and performing with the Blind Boys of Alabama off and on for the last few years.</p><p>&#8220;It came about when I did some writing for a William Bell record,&#8221; Cohn said. &#8220;He shared a manager with them, and writing for him led to writing for them.&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;For their last record, their manager did a very smart thing,&#8221; he continued. &#8220;He interviewed them and they told these compelling, poignant stories about their lives. It was like a journalistic experience for me, I found the poetry in what they were saying.&#8221;</p><p>Those songs, either written solely by Cohn or in collaboration with the album&#8217;s producer John Leventhal (who has worked with Cohn since his debut) were part of 2017&#8217;s &#8220;Almost Home&#8221; album and the Cohn-Leventhal song &#8220;Let My Mother Live&#8221; was nominated for a Grammy in the Best Americana Roots Performance category.</p><p>The Blind Boys of Alabama have roots going back to 1939 and earned five Grammys and four Dove Awards from the Gospel Music Association between 2002 and 2009. They were awarded the National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts in 1994, inducted into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame in 2003, awarded a Grammy for Lifetime Achievement in 2009, and inducted into the Alabama Music Hall of Fame in 2010. They have also been invited to sing at the White House by three US presidents.</p><p>The current lineup includes founding member Jimmy Carter, Eric &#8220;Ricky&#8221; McKinnie, Joey Williams, Ben Moore and Paul Beasley.</p><p>Cohn and the Blind Boys recently did a &#8220;Live at the Kate&#8221; special for PBS, and seven performances from the special will join three new studio recordings for the joint album &#8220;Work To Do,&#8221; which will be released on August 9.</p><p>The three studio tracks include the album&#8217;s title track written by Cohn, &#8220;Talk Balk Mic&#8221; written by Cohn</p><p>and Leventhal, and a new rendition of the Golden Gate Quartet&#8217;s &#8220;Walking To Jerusalem,&#8221; which was a live staple of the Blind Boys&#8217; repertoire early in their career.</p><p>&#8220;The first two songs are them coming into my world and the third is me coming into theirs,&#8221; Cohn said.</p><p>Cohn said it was a little different writing for the Blind Boys this time around.</p><p>&#8220;It was different because I was writing for us instead of writing for them. But when I was writing these new songs, I heard them in my head. I heard the oldest member, Jimmy Carter, and his distinctive, soulful, wise voice, and I heard the falsetto for the bridge.&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;So I heard voices in my head,&#8221; he laughed. &#8220;But I heard the kind you want to hear.&#8221;</p><p>Besides &#8221; Walking in Memphis,&#8221; the repertoire for the Kirby concert will include reworkings of Cohn&#8217;s solo material such as &#8220;Ghost Train&#8221; and &#8220;Silver Thunderbird&#8221; from his debut, &#8220;Baby King&#8221; from 1993&#8217;s &#8220;The Rainy Season,&#8221; &#8220;One Safe Place&#8221; from 1995&#8217;s &#8220;Marc Cohn Live,&#8221; and &#8220;Listening to Levon&#8221; from 2007&#8217;s &#8220;Join the Parade.&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;I had always admired gospel music, and I was moved by it,&#8221; Cohn said. &#8220;But I never thought it was something I should or could do on my own.&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;When I was working out the arrangements (of his older material), I was thinking about Paul Simon&#8217;s work with the Dixie Hummingbirds as they are still some of my favorite records. Whenever I hear those songs, it still brings a smile to my face.&#8221;</p><p>Cohn said getting the Blind Boys to sing secular music is tricky.</p><p>&#8220;They won&#8217;t do straight-up pop songs about &#8216;baby, baby,&#8217;&#8221; he said. &#8220;But my songs aren&#8217;t run of the mill pop songs about &#8216;baby, baby,&#8217; there&#8217;s one about the passing of my mother and another about being a father, so a lot of my songs fit the bill.&#8221;</p><p>Asked how he&#8217;s been affected by performing with the Blind Boys over the past few years, he said, &#8220;People who have seen several shows of my own and with them have said that they&#8217;ve never seen me look so happy on stage.&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;So as long as they keep asking me to sing with them, I will keep saying yes.&#8221;</p><style>
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<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Brad Patton</p><p>For Times Leader</p></bylineMeta></div>

Marc Cohn to perform at Kirby Center Thursday