Agony Shorthand


Thursday, February 06, 2003
STAPLE SINGERS.....if it weren't for a great compilation CD-R that DP made for me of 60s soul heroes The Staple Singers, I might never have heard this oft-cited group. I suppose I avoided them because they sounded like the sort of mainstream hippie-soul group that Joel Selvin might like -- perhaps like the horrible Sly & The Family Stone or something. Well, guess again. They have 19 tracks spread out over the Stax Volume 2 box set, and taken in its compiled entirety, it's a full-on soulgasm. Mavis Staples has got the BEST deep-soul female voice I've heard since some of Etta James' more R&B-oriented tracks, and there's even a little civil rights/got-to-get-out-of-the-ghetto talk that wears well. Hey, this is old news to you, right? It's just nice to hear something so righteous that had slipped under the radar for so long....