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Blind Boys of Alabama Bring Seven Decades of Gospel to Musco Center

08.29.26

Musco Center welcomes the Blind Boys of Alabama, living legends whose reputation is well earned. Rolling Stone has called them "gospel titans," and after more than 70 years together, that title still fits.

The group performs Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2026, at 7:30 p.m.

Few acts in American music can claim the honors the Blind Boys have collected: Lifetime Achievement Awards from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Recording Academy/GRAMMYs, induction into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame, and six GRAMMY Awards, most recently in 2024. What sets them apart, though, is how they've used that stature. Rather than stay within the boundaries of traditional gospel, the Blind Boys have spent decades reinterpreting songs by Eric Clapton, Prince and Tom Waits, and have shared recordings with artists as varied as Lou Reed, Peter Gabriel, Bonnie Raitt and Willie Nelson.

Their most recent album, "Echoes of the South," was recorded in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, and earned three GRAMMY nominations, winning for Best Roots Gospel Album. In March 2024, the group released "Spirit of the Century," a firsthand history of America's longest-running vocal group written with band members and longtime collaborators. That same year, the Americana Music Association gave the Blind Boys a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville during the 23rd Annual Americana Honors & Awards.

Seventy years in, the Blind Boys of Alabama show no interest in slowing down.

The show runs approximately 75 minutes with no intermission.

Planning to catch more than one Musco Center show this season? A Musco Season Package saves 15% or more, and the more shows you add, the more you save. Purchase a package here.

Tickets start at $43. For tickets and more information, visit muscocenter.org.

415 North Glassell St., Orange, CA 92866 | 714.997.6812



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Chef Turned Author Launches New Thriller Series

08.26.26

Thomas Curran is a friend of mine, and he's the kind of person who is always creative and always looking for a new challenge. He spent three decades as a chef before he decided to walk across the country. Ocean to ocean. 3,235 miles, 231 days, 12 states, all to raise money for the Pediatric Cancer Research Foundation. That story is part of why I featured him in my book, "Born in OC: The Artists, Entrepreneurs, and Visionaries of Orange County, California."

His new book, "Dime Store Hitman," comes out Aug. 31. It's the first in a planned trilogy, and the premise fits him: unexpected, and a lot of fun.

Meet Eddie "The Cowboy" DelDuco. No tuxedo. No silencer. Just a closet full of clearance-aisle weapons and a rotating stack of burner phones. He kills people the way some guy might unclog your sink: cheap, fast, and with whatever's on hand.

Then an influencer named Jessica Starling tracks down "the killer for hire" online and asks what it would cost to disappear her boyfriend. Eddie's reply: "Depends. Does disappear mean dead or relocated to Omaha?" She doesn't blink. She hires him. And just like that, Eddie becomes the accidental celebrity behind a thousand hashtags.

What follows is messy in the best way. A cryo-spa owner has a meltdown. A podcaster who's had one too many chases the story for clicks. Somewhere in the middle of it all, Thomas finds a way to make Los Angeles' obsession with being seen genuinely, darkly funny.

This is his second novel. His first, "Death, Discovery and Carne Asada," became an Amazon bestseller, so he's proven he can hold a reader's attention.

You can grab "Dime Store Hitman" in paperback ($14.99), hardcover ($24.99), or ebook ($5.99), with the audiobook landing Oct. 13. Book two is already scheduled for early 2027.

"Dime Store Hitman" is available now on Amazon and wherever books are sold, with the audiobook dropping Oct. 13. Go grab a copy.



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