Author: Libra Boyd

Libra Nicole Boyd, PhD is a musician, award-winning author, gospel music aficionado, and the founder and editor of Gospel Music Fever™. Her commitment to journalistic integrity includes bringing you reliable gospel music content that uplifts and advances the art form. Libra is presently working on several scholarly projects about gospel music in the media as well as gospel music in social movements.

WNCU’s Carolyn Pettiford-Ryals celebrates 15 years in radio with musical – March 16

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Carolyn Pettiford-Ryals is known throughout NC’s triangle area as the “Queen of Gospel Radio” as well as one of two infectiously upbeat hosts of the “Hallelujah Praise” radio show, which airs every Sunday morning on WNCU 90.7 FM.  This year marks her 15th as an on-air personality, and she will be honored with an appreciation musical Saturday, March 16, 2013 at 5 PM.  The event will take place at the Person County Office Building Auditorium in Roxboro, NC.
 
Among the groups and soloists set to appear are The Friendly 5, The Spiritual Lights, Second Chance, New Creation, The New Joylette Singers, The Bradleys, All God’s Children, Michael Whitfield, John Thorpe & Truth, and Minister Carolyn Satterfield.
 
GMF congratulates Carolyn Pettiford-Ryals!

Cleotha Staples of the Staple Singers, dead at 78

From left: Cleotha, Mavis, Yvonne, and Roebuck “Pops” Staples.

By Bill Carpenter

Cleotha “Cleedi” Staples, a founding member of the pioneering folk-gospel group, The Staple Singers, has died at the age of 78. She had gracefully battled Alzheimer’s disease for the last decade and passed away peacefully at her Chicago home on the morning of February 21, 2013.


Staples was born April 11, 1934 in Drew, Mississippi.  She was the first-born child of Roebuck “Pops” Staples and his wife, Oceola.  The family moved to Chicago in 1936 for better job opportunities. In the Windy City, siblings Pervis, Yvonne, Mavis and Cynthia were born. Pops worked a variety of manual labor jobs during the day and Oceola worked at the Morrison Hotel at night. To entertain the children in the evening, Pops began to teach them gospel songs while he strummed along on his ten-dollar guitar. His sister Katie enjoyed the sing-alongs so much that she arranged for the family to sing at her church one Sunday morning in 1948.  The family was called out for three encores and more than $7 was raised in the offering basket.  Pops realized the family group had a future, and The Staple Singers were born.

The group began to sing on WTAQ 1360 AM radio and made its first recording with “These Are They” for Pops’ own Royal Records in 1953. They then recorded for United Records before striking gold with Vee Jay Records where they recorded “If I Could Hear My Mother Pray Again” in 1956. With Pops’ blues-influenced guitar, Cleotha’s bright high notes, Pervis’ falsetto and Mavis rich contralto, they were on their way to stardom. They became one of the biggest gospel outfits of the era and turned out best-selling gospel classics such as “On My Way To Heaven,” “Will The Circle Be Unbroken,” “Don’t Knock,” “Pray On” and their signature hit, “Uncloudy Day,” generally accepted to be the first gospel record to sell one million copies.

The family became active in the Civil Rights movement after hearing Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. preach at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, AL in 1962 while on tour, and they often performed at events at the request of Dr. King.  As they became immersed in the movement, their music broadened from gospel music to more mainstream material.  In 1963 they became the first black recording artists to cover a Bob Dylan song (“Blowin’ in the Wind”), and they also recorded songs of protest such as “For What It’s Worth,” “Freedom Highway” and “Why? (Am I Treated So Bad).”  By 1968, when Pervis had left the group for the Army and Yvonne Staples took his place, they began to record for Stax Records, home of southern soul stars such as Otis Redding, Booker T. & The MGs and Sam & Dave.

At Stax, the Staples enjoyed a run of Top Forty hits, becoming known as “God’s greatest hitmakers” with such songs as “Heavy Makes You Happy (Sha-Na-Boom Boom Yeah)” (1971), “This World” (1972), “Oh La De Da” (1973), “Touch A Hand, Make A Friend” (1974) and “City in the Sky” (1974).  The iconic million-seller “I’ll Take You There” spent a week at Number One on the Billboard pop singles chart and four weeks at that spot on the R&B singles chart. The group also earned two other million-sellers at Stax with “Respect Yourself” (1971) and “If You’re Ready (Come Go With Me)” (1973).

Although Pops and Mavis usually handled vocal leads on Staple Singers songs, Cleotha was featured with Eddie Floyd (of “Knock on Wood” fame) on “It’s Too Late” from the 1969 Stax Records duets LP Boy Meets Girl.  Her velvety soprano was powerful and dynamic on the bluesy ballad about a lost love.  She also appeared with her family’s group in Ghana in 1971 at the Soul To Soul concert, appearing along with Wilson Pickett, Ike & Tina Turner and Santana; at the historic 1972 Wattstax festival in Los Angeles and in Martin Scorsese’s landmark 1978 concert film “The Last Waltz,” in which Ms. Staples and her family sang “The Weight” with The Band.  The Soul To Soul concert and the Wattstax Festival, known as “the Black Woodstock,” have both been the subject of recent documentaries.

The Staple Singers moved to Curtis Mayfield’s Curtom label in the mid-1970’s, where they scored another number one smash, “Let’s Do It Again,” in December 1975 before signing with Warner Bros. Records.
Cleotha’s last recordings were with the Staple Singers for backing sessions on Abbey Lincoln’s Devil Got Your Tongue CD (1993) and Pops Staples’ two solo albums, Peace To The Neighborhood (1992) and the GRAMMY Award-winning Father Father (1994).  After Pops died in 2000, the Staple Singers ceased to perform as a group.

Ms. Staples was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with her family in 1999 and also received a GRAMMY Lifetime Achievement Award in 2005.

Cleotha is survived by her siblings Pervis, Yvonne and Mavis, her dedicated caretakers Penny and Sushi, and a loving and wonderful extended family of nieces, nephews and treasured friends.

“We will keep on,” Mavis Staples says of her sister’s death. “Yvonne and
I will continue singing to keep our father’s legacy and our sister’s
legacy alive.  I just finished my second record with Jeff Tweedy, and it
will be dedicated to my dear Cleedi’s memory.”‘
Homegoing Arrangements
Viewing
Thursday, February 28, 2013
6 PM
Leak & Sons Funeral Home
7838 South Cottage Grove
Chicago, IL 60619
Funeral
Friday, March 1, 2013
10 AM
Trinity United Church of Christ
400 W 95th Street
Chicago, IL 60628
Interment Following Funeral
Oak Woods Cemetery
1035 E. 67th Street

Chicago, IL 60680

Film producer Regina Rene discusses the making of The Barrett Sisters’ movie

By Libra Boyd
Gospel Music Fever

Photo | Do It All Productions, LLC
 Producer Regina Rene (kneeling) with (from left) Rodessa Barrett Porter, Billie Barrett GreenBey, and the late Delois Barrett Campbell.
First introduced to the legendary gospel trio Delois Barrett Campbell and The Barrett Sisters through their unforgettable musical performances in the critically acclaimed 1980’s documentary Say Amen, Somebody, Regina Rene Davis recalls that the film quickly became one of her favorites.
 
Many years later, it would be her appreciation for the gospel veterans’ legacy duetted with Rodessa Barrett Porter’s dream–disclosed to Chicago Tribune journalist Howard Reich during a 2008 interview–that would inspire her to produce and direct the newly released documentary film The Sweet Sisters of Zion: Delois Barrett Campbell and The Barrett Sisters.  The long anticipated 114-minute documentary chronicling the sisters’ lives and careers premiered Saturday, February 16, 2013, at Chicago’s Life Center COGIC. (Read Bob Marovich’s recap and review on The Black Gospel Blog.)
 
For the multi-talented producer/videographer/editor whose resumé includes a lengthy tenure with Entertainment Tonight, the project was an intensive labor of profound love for octogenarian sisters Delois Barrett Campbell, Rodessa Barrett Porter, and Billie Barrett GreenBey, as well as the group’s most recent member, songbird Tina Brown.  Nevertheless, undaunted by personal adversities, unforeseen challenges, and the sisters’ inability to compensate her for the enormity of her undertaking, she forged ahead enthusiastically to transform a dream into a reality for the gospel greats. 
 
“I found [an] article where Mrs. Rodessa said that she wanted a document of their career and that she had all these videos that someone told her would cost $5,000 to put together,” remembers Regina. “And I said, well I can put their stuff together; that’s no big deal.”
 
The fact that it evolved into a feature length documentary, however, is a huge deal. 
 
“I thought I was simply going to be stringing together their footage because if you’ve ever visited Mrs. Campbell’s house when she was alive, she’d always want to put [the Barrett Sisters’ videos] on so people could see them singing–and the grand-kids always had to come in every 15 to 20 minutes to change the DVDs!”
 
But it wasn’t long before Regina discovered that like many artists of their era, the sisters–whose career includes over 30 overseas tours, multiple television and radio appearances, invitations to perform at every major concert hall in the United States as well as The White House, and numerous awards and commendations–had amassed considerably more fame than fortune throughout their careers and had been grossly underpaid for their work.  Meanwhile, there were savvy folks on the business side who had reaped the financial harvest of the sisters’ labor.
 
“So [I thought] maybe I could create something…see what happens and try not to let someone just sign it away again….That’s really how I approached [the idea of a feature film].  I tried to do it in such a way that nobody was gonna take it away from them.”
 
The Sweet Sisters of Zion: Delois Barrett Campbell and The Barrett Sisters is co-produced and owned by The Barrett Sisters. 
 
“At the age of 80-plus, the Barrett Sisters [finally] own something that they did–and they’ve never had that before,” beams Regina.
 
Audiences will be overjoyed that the documentary serves as a fond memorial to Delois, who passed August 2, 2011, at age 85.  Her anecdotes are uproarious at times, although characteristically candid.  Still, beyond Delois’s bright eyes and larger-than-life personality, Regina was especially intent on giving the audience an inside look at the bond that Delois and her younger sisters–each only two years apart and the last survivors of ten siblings–relished both onstage and off.
 
“The thing about the Barrett Sisters is that they’re just like this beautiful hidden jewel of talent, and once you discover them you’re like, ‘Oh wow!’  You see these little morsels of performances, like on YouTube, but then you don’t know anything about them because they don’t have that recognition like the Caravans and Shirley Caesar and James Cleveland and all of those folks from that generation that were successful…but they were very much in that loop [because they were all contemporaries].”
 
Regarding the film itself, Regina explains, “Most documentaries are very sterile and very matter-of-fact.  I really wanted this one to be like listening in on a conversation.”  The concept of the movie was to allow each sister to tell her story in her own words, but to also allow fans to experience the ongoing interplay of ladies who are as close as any siblings can be.
 
“That was the whole point: to capture their spirits, their personalities. They’re just like honey, and we’re the bees.  When they sat down together and they started that camaraderie and that give-and-take and yin-and-yang, that’s when I knew I had something special.  It’s them in their element, being themselves.”
 
Despite the sisters being their delightful selves, the making of the film was not devoid of hurdles. “The most challenging thing was trying to make sure I got clearances situated [for the performance footage].  The challenges were more technical than creative….But in terms of going to Chicago and spending time with the sisters, that was a joy!”
Photo | Herbert McFadden
At right: The audience responds to the documentary with a thunderous standing ovation.
That joy was also expressed by every family member, friend, and fan who attended the premiere.  Throughout the movie, laughter, swaying, applause, and even tears filled the edifice of Life Center COGIC as the Barrett Sisters along with professors and icons like Aretha Franklin contextualized the ladies’ indelible influence on sacred music.
 
“I actually spoke with Donnie McClurkin last week, and I told him all about [the movie], and he got super excited,” Regina says. “He just went over the moon when I showed him a picture of the Barrett Sisters. He was excited to know that someone was doing a documentary about them.” 
 
The Sweet Sisters of Zion: Delois Barrett Campbell and The Barrett Sisters can be purchased online at www.barrettsistersonline.com and is a must-have for traditional gospel music enthusiasts.
 
“Most of the documentaries that are done about gospel singers and jazz singers are done by people overseas,” Regina points out. “This is one of the few times that we are truly telling our own story in a way that doesn’t come across as rigid and sterile.”
 
“When you’re done watching this movie, if you didn’t know the Barrett Sisters you’re going to say ‘Wow.’  If you did know the Barrett Sisters, you’re going to say ‘Amen.'”
 
For more information on Regina and her company Do It All Productions, LLC, visit www.diaprods.com.
Photo | Herbert McFadden
Regina Rene (right) and group members (seated from left) Tina Brown, Rodessa Barrett Porter, and Billie Barrett GreenBey as well as Chip Johnson (standing left) and Randy Johnson are congratulated by friends at the VIP reception for the documentary premiere.

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The Hymns of the Church – Reverend Lawrence Thomison

Reverend Lawrence Thomison
Reverend Lawrence Thomison Sings The Hymns of the Church
Indie (2011)
Available at CD Baby 

By Libra Boyd
Gospel Music Fever

In case there is doubt about whether or not there’s still room for hymns in today’s churches, let Rev. Lawrence Thomison assure you in the affirmative with his fittingly titled CD Reverend Lawrence Thomison Sings The Hymns of the Church, produced by Jonathan Winstead and Chris Carr.

Backed by a 40-voice
choir with singers from the Nashville and Memphis areas, Thomison relies
heavily on his traditional gospel background to pour out each of the 11 sacred tracks
with fervor.  His charisma is as infectious on the handclapping “On the
Battlefield” (featuring Jennifer Selvy-Carr) and mostly a cappella “Let Jesus Lead You” as his worship is tangible on “Great Is
Thy Faithfulness,” over Julius Fisher’s soothing piano accompaniment.  Even a contemporized version of “Thank You Lord” has ample traditional flavor to be well received in either
style of worship.

In addition to Selvy-Carr’s appearance, other tag team efforts on this project are notable too. The always soulful Wess Morgan guests on “Yes, God Is
Real,” as does Michelle Prather on “Have A Little Talk With Jesus,” lifting every round of the bluesy, horn-laced song higher and higher as Rev. Thomison, choir, and band thrust her forward.

If you’ve actually seen him perform during his tenure with Dr.
Bobby Jones and the Nashville Super Choir–or even as a soloist–you’ll
wonder how Rev. Thomison managed to stand stationary at a studio mic long
enough to record “Blood Medley” without hotfooting like one whose shoes are ablaze, especially when he transitions from the Crouch
classic “The Blood Will Never Lose Its Power” to uptempo selections “Power in the Blood” and “Oh The Blood of Jesus” before the climactic “I Know It Was the
Blood.”

Four additional hymns round out this churchy offering to make it
an enlivening interpretation of the music that has ushered many a
generation through the jerks and snatches of life.  Surely, if you think of hymns like a cached webpage on a newly updated website, then Reverend Lawrence Thomison Sings The Hymns of the Church is like hitting “Refresh” on your Internet browser.

Favorites
“Have A Little Talk With Jesus” – “The Blood Medley” 

Fever Meter 
SIMMERIN’ (3 of 5 Stars)

Barrett Sisters’ documentary premieres Feb. 16 at Chicago’s Life Center COGIC

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"Thank God I'm Still Here" – Renee Spearman

“Thank God I’m Still Here”
Renee Spearman
From the CD, Whoa to Wow! (2012)
JDI Records

Bringing up the rear of Renee Spearman’s successful Whoa to Wow! CD is the funky “Thank God I’m Still Here.”

The musically multi-talented Cali native pumps out her self-penned groove of gratitude “for life, health and strength / activity of my limbs,” accompanied by a heavy bass and drum backdrop that would have provoked Godfather of Soul James Brown to get his shout and shimmy on for sure.

Produced by Michael Bereal and Professor James Roberson, “Thank God I’m Still Here” thumps with prominent live horns and a rhythmic downbeat that makes it downright irresistible to dance while giving thanks for the oft mentioned blessings that are also just as often taken for granted.

Songwriter Samuel Archer presents website, music for Black History Month


Songwriter
Samuel Archer launches new website to celebrate Black History Month and
reintroduces Redeem The Dream
Press Release from Pretty Special, Inc.
Samuel Archer (singer/songwriter) has launched a new website and
re-introduced his album Redeem The Dream. The EP project has seven songs
geared to engage conversation on social issues and to promote positivity. The
website lists activities to engage students, teachers, choirs, soloists and
community groups to help spread the positive message of Redeeming The Dream.
“Redeem the Dream” which is the title song, speaks about
Martin Luther King, Malcolm X and Mahatma Gandhi and what it will
be like if they woke up today: would they be happy with what’s going on in our
world or will they be sad and disappointed? “Issues,” another featured
song on the EP, has a strong world-beat influence, which mirrors the ethnic
genre on The Return, one of Sam’s previous albums.

Singing groups, dancers and community groups are encouraged to use the title
song for their Black History Month performances and/or events. Students can
enter into a video making competition and they have the option to use the
recorded version or create their own version of the song to use in the video.
Students are encouraged to be creative. Prizes will be given for the videos with
the most views. Sponsors with interest to contribute a prize must contact the Redeem the Dream team at [email protected]. 

 
With a full
month to celebrate African contributions (Black History Month), Redeem The
Dream will prove to be a great resource and a conversation
piece. 
 
Visit
the website: www.toredeemthedream.info for more
information.
 
To
sample songs from Redeem The Dream, and for more music from Samuel Archer,
please visit www.samuelarcher.bandcamp.com.

“Heaven” – Changed

“Heaven”
Changed (2012)
Baby Boy Records

Mississippi has bragging rights when it comes to great traditional
quartet music, and Changed of Natchez is doing its best
to maintain those rights with the single “Heaven,” produced by Castro
“Cat Cole” Coleman on his Baby Boy Records imprint.

Besides lyrics describing the sweet by and by and its stark contrast to the troubles of this world, “Heaven” is a classic gospel soul groove that nearly convinces you that
Changed met up with The Williams Brothers and then hooked up with Rance Allen’s band on
their way to Cat Cole’s lab.

Elder George Jordan remembered

Homegoing services were held in Chicago last week for singer, songwriter and musician Elder George Jordan.

Jordan was the writer of numerous now-classic gospel songs including the hymn “God Never Fails” and the choir hit “Jesus Can Work It Out.”

Read a profile on Elder Jordan by Mack C. Mason at www.gospelflava.com.

Shirley Caesar mourns passing of brother LeRoy Caesar

GMF extends its condolences to Pastor Shirley Caesar and family in the passing of her brother, LeRoy Caesar, who died January 24.  The homegoing service is being held today, January 30, at noon at Durham’s Mt. Calvary Lighthouse Church.

In addition to Pastor Caesar, he is survived by his wife Flora, ten daughters, three sons, one sister, two brothers, and a host of grandchildren and great-grandchildren.