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....

posted by Jay H. at 11:32 AM