National Geographic Music (National Geographic)

In Geo Sessions, a series produced exclusively for Nat Geo Music, intimate concert performances are combined with in-depth interviews give viewers unique access to the music, passion, and inspiration of recording artists from all over the world. Episodes feature some of today's top musicians including Ben Harper, Aimee Mann, the Marley Brothers, Seu Jorge, Taj Mahal and Gogol Bordello.

This year two Geo Sessions alumnae were honored with Grammy Awards. Mickey Hart (pictured) and his Global Drum Project took home a statue for Best Contemporary World Music Album. While The Blind Boys of Alabama won their fifth Grammy for Best Traditional Gospel Album, and were also honored with a Grammy Lifetime Achievement award. Nat Geo Music is proud to make both artists' Geo Sessions available on the internet for the first time.

Geo Sessions: Blind Boys of Alabama

In this episode of Geo Sessions, The Blind Boys offer a soul-stirring set of gospel music as never heard before. Fifty years deep into the music game, the Blind Boys of Alabama certainly do not look as though they have any intention of slowing down if this episode of Geo Sessions is any indication. Lead singer Jimmy Carter was one of the groups founders when they were established as the Happyland Singers at a Alabama's Talladega Institute for the Blind in the early 1940s; a promoter in New Jersey booked the group along with another group of blind singers from Mississippi and hyped it as a duel between 'The Blind Boys of Alabama' and 'The Blind Boys of Mississippi.' The name stuck. Songs like 'Amazing Grace', which is melded onto the frame of the Son House blues classic 'House of the Rising Sun,' 'Down By The Riverside,' and 'Soldier (In The Army of the Lord)' all show that the Blind Boys know how to raise souls and bring down the house at the same time.

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Geo Sessions: Mickey Hart and Global Drum Project

Ex-Grateful Dead Drummer Mickey Hart brings his band of international percussion masters to Geo Sessions, mesmerizing viewers with intricate patterns of rhythm. With performances of songs including 'Groove' and 'Baba', the band interlaces stories about how each drummer followed a different path to becoming a musician. Mickey also discusses how humans are creatures of rhythm, living in a world of rhythm – and how the mesmerizing trance of rhythm can uplift. Finally, the band performs the song 'Wood' on two giant tree roots – one a grapevine and the other a redwood – while also performing with a variety of hammers brushes, their fingers bringing out different pitches and patterns.

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