Staple Singers

	Freedom Highway
	by The Staple Singers Sony/Columbia Audio CD Click here for more information
Recorded in the late 1960s, the strong gospel soul hymns and idealistic moral gospel folksongs on Freedom Highway represent the Staple Singers' artistic apex. Pops Staples's reverb-saturated guitar hangs alone in the air while Mavis and the other family members' voices encircle it with warm sounds and defiant words. All this music is 100 percent amazing--from Pops's poignant delivery of "Be Careful Of The Stones That You Throw" to the group's terrific, invigorating civil rights anthem "Freedom... Read more
	The Best Of The Staple Singers (Stax)
	by The Staple Singers Fantasy Audio CD Click here for more information
After making their mark in the early '60s with gospel, folk, and social-protest songs, the Staples joined the Stax label in 1968. These 16 cuts find the Staples straddling the sacred and secular worlds, offering positive-message songs that aren't explicitly religious. Backed by the rock-solid grooves of Stax's urgent soul, the Staples produce a series of buoyant, infectious numbers. With Mavis's gritty, emotionally charged lead vocals in command, they roll through horn-driven celebrations such... Read more
	Uncloudy Day [IMPORT]
	by Staple Singers Charly (UK) Audio CD Click here for more information
Uncloudy Day is a gorgeous, haunting compilation of songs recorded by the Staple Singers for the VeeJay label at the height of their classic gospel period, between 1955 and 1960. The sound quality isn't the best but the songs more than make up for that, and the alternate takes and live material are a nice bonus for the completist. "Too Close," recorded in a church in Memphis, Tennessee, is a lively demonstration of how audiences helped push the Staples towards a devotional fervor. Throughout,... Read more

	Bealtitude: Respect Yourself (Stax)
	by The Staple Singers Fantasy/Stax Audio CD Click here for more information
Amazon.com essential recording In the 1960s, the Staple Singers began to make music that spoke to a wider audience than their core gospel fans. Gospel had served as the musical backbone for the Civil Rights movement from the beginning, but Pops Staples was spurred on by the inspirational messages of Martin Luther King Jr. to address more explicitly these issues. This 1972 record, an apex of groovy, mellow soul music (thanks to Al Bell's production and the definition-of-funky Muscle Shoals rhythm section), landed the group... Read more
	Spirituals & Gospel...Mahalia Jackson
	by Mavis Staples, Lucky Peterson Pgd/Verve Audio CD Click here for more information
It's moments like these when you wish you hadn't used words like "spine-tingling," "passionate," and "gritty" in other reviews. By the time of these 1996 duo sessions, Staples's voice had gotten grainier and earthier than it was during her glory days, and is all the more expressive and heart wrenching because of it. Meanwhile, Peterson's work on Hammond B-3 and piano is nothing short of astonishing -- urgent, soulful, and pulsating -- yet it never overwhelms Staples's burning pleas. Billed as a... Read more
	Great Day
	by The Staple Singers Fantasy/Milestone Audio CD Click here for more information
Recorded in the early '60s for the Riverside label, these 27 songs mark the move toward a more folk-based sound for the Staple Singers. The bass and drums throughout anchor the group's etheral tendencies but still keep them floating heavenward. On the two-part "I'm Willin,'" Pops's liquid, echoing guitar lines and the high-pitched, clipped group backing vocals play off the simple, jazzy drumming and subtle bass playing. This formula provides both Mavis's rumbling, muscular voice and Pops's... Read more
	The Staple Swingers
	by The Staple Singers Fantasy/Stax Audio CD Click here for more information
The first Staples disc to be recorded with Stax producer Al Bell and the first made with sister Yvonne as Tyrone's replacement, 1971's The Staple Swingers is best known for producing the hit single "Heavy Makes You Happy (Sha-Na-Boom Boom)." But it's one of the group's finest overall moments--there's nary a clunker on this outing. Recorded at Muscle Shoals with horn arrangements and playing by the Bar-Kays, this disc is the flowering of the Staple Singers' mid-tempo, gospel-flavored '70s... Read more
	Father Father
	by Pops Staples Emd/Virgin Audio CD Click here for more information
Ry Cooder, who produced two tracks on Pops's landmark '92 recording, "Peace to the Neighborhood," produces two more on "Father Father." Cooder's guitar and Jim Keltner's drums lock in with Pops's guitar and voice to negotiate the smallest shadings of tone and time on "Downward Road" and "Jesus Is Going to Make Up (My Dying Bed)"; the results are hypnotic. Pops's best-known daughter, Mavis (a.k.a. "Bubbles"), coproduced two of the album's best... Read more