Late one foggy night many years ago, a night steeped in the lore of New Orleans R&B, a '49 Studebaker barreled down a lonely road between Donaldsonville and New Orleans, hauling the Flamingoes home from a gig.

Anyone who saw the big car drifting from one side of the road to the other would have concluded that the occupants, especially the driver, were drunk. And indeed, they were.

But alcohol was not the driver's only impairment—he also happened to be blind.

The Flami...