3) If you do yourself a favor and grab this disc, I guarantee you will play it year round and not only in the two weeks before 12/25.

4) When your group’s core three original members are septuagenarians, and into their eighth decade of performing, you deserve special consideration.

5) This review is not three months late, it’s over a year late – Go Tell It on the Mountain was released for Christmas 2003, but re-released in ’04 with an additional song, the outstanding “My Lord, What a Morning,” done a cappella.

Except for doo-wop, gospel is the genre where you would most expect to hear a cappella arrangements, but the only other one here was a good choice to go unadorned: Aaron Neville lends his quavering embellishments to the Blind Boys’ straightforward treatment of “Joy to the World,” leaving us an admirable jewel but nothing to rave about. “My Lord,” on the other hand, is a brilliant add-on that thrillingly showcases how rich the Blind Boys’ blend can be. Make sure you pick up only the ’04 version of the album that includes this.

Although I am a fan of Me’shell NdegeOcello, some of her work is a little difficult, and I haven’t yet synced with her stark vocals and piano on “Oh Come All Ye Faithful.” It may require more close and undistracted listening. The same holds for Michael Franti’s spoken “Little Drummer Boy.” I am warming more to the unfamiliar British chestnut “In the Bleak Midwinter,” sung capably by the Pretenders’ Chrissie Hynde, but it lacks distinction until the Boys add some shouts towards the end. Original BB Clarence Fountain makes perhaps a visually odd but vocally classic pairing with Shelby Lynne on Mel Torme-penned “The Christmas Song.”

What’s left rocks the joint, as the best gospel should. The album kicks off with the great traditional number “Last Month of the Year,” begun with just the Boys’ rich harmonies, which are fine enough, but when the band kicks in, it takes off like a runaway locomotive. The quartet of B3 meister John Medeski, blues guitarist Duke Robillard and Richard Thompson’s longtime rhythm section of Danny Thompson on double bass and ubiquitous drummer Michael Jerome are unlikely but perfect accompanists with the requisite loose old-time feel, coupled with razor precision and timing. The band makes a great choice with producer John Chelew, who’s already guided the Boys to Grammyland.

The pace doesn’t let up, and you don’t get to sit down, as the great singer/ preacher Solomon Burke literally spits out “I Pray on Christmas.” I have to find out where his church is. Then guess who guests on the title cut? First time listening, not having read the liner notes, I thought one of the Blind Boys took the lead, then I listened again and checked: Tom Waits! Waits does a fantastic, authentic job. I listened closely for the slightest miscue or off-timing – zero. Nails it.

The pace slows through the next three numbers, then Mavis Staples and BB Jimmy Carter count it down and get the crowd on their feet again with a song the Staples Singers recorded years ago, “Born in Bethlehem.” BB George Scott takes the lead on a 12-bar blues rendering of “Away in a Manger,” propelled by brilliant steel guitarist Robert Randolph, but Parliament/Funkadelic icon George Clinton sends it into left field with some funky asides thrown around that make this a nursery to remember. “Yeah, his bad crib ... no pillow ... you know what I’m talkin’ ‘bout ... cattle are lowin’ ... oh baby ... wake up baby.” It finishes off with 30 seconds of the spookiest vocalese you have ever heard (with the possible exception of some of the Performance soundtrack).

A stroke may have robbed Les McCann of some of his former vocal and piano skills, but you miss nothing as he throws heavy doses of soul into “White Christmas,” and mostly you don’t even notice what song it is because he so transforms it into a personal statement, scatting his way through the first two minutes before he even hits a familiar lyric. The album closes fittingly with the stars of the show, with the Boys doing what you’d expect them to do with a gorgeous “Silent Night,” accompanied only by double bass and brushed drums, and closing with the pure a cappella majesty of “My Lord What a Morning.”

The Blind Boys of Alabama will have a new album out this month titled “Atom Bomb,” and if their recent work weren’t enough to make that an anticipated event, dig this preview: it will include “a joyous rendition of Blind Faith's gem ‘Presence of the Lord’ with the legendary Billy Preston on Hammond B3, and a recasting of Norman Greenbaum's gospel-rock classic ‘Spirit in the Sky’ as a raw Detroit-style boogie, propelled by Los Lobos guitarist David Hidalgo and blues harp icon Charlie Musselwhite.” Oh Lord – somethin’ to live for.

A final note: check their web site (www.blindboys.com) under “Shows” and you’ll see that these guys who have to be helped on stage and perform sitting down have booked themselves through 2006. I like that attitude, though I think they could go ahead through 2026. You’ll also see they’re playing the acoustically brilliant Disney Hall in L.A. two days before Christmas 2005. Now that should be a religious experience.