Stax/Concord Music Group to Release Limited Edition 4-CD Box Set by THE STAPLE SINGERS this November 13

DT:      SEPTEMBER 28, 2015

 

FM:      MITCH SCHNEIDER/MARCEE RONDAN/AARON FETERL (MSO PR)

 

 

STAX/CONCORD MUSIC GROUP

TO RELEASE LIMITED EDITION FOUR-CD BOX SET BY

THE STAPLE SINGERS

ON NOVEMBER 13

 

 ‘FAITH AND GRACE: A FAMILY JOURNEY 1953-1976’

MARKS THE FIRST-EVER COMPREHENSIVE, CAREER-SPANNING OVERVIEW OF THE STAPLE SINGERS,

ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT

AMERICAN MUSICAL ACTS OF THE 20^TH CENTURY

 

“My father, Pops Staples, started the group back in 1949 when he became frustrated with his present band members for showing up to rehearsal late (or not at all). He sat me and my siblings, Pervis, Cleedi and Yvonne, down on the floor and started to teach us songs. The first one we learned was “Will the Circle Be Unbroken.” I never thought that that would lead to the career that we’ve had-singing for Dr. Martin Luther King, Presidents Kennedy, Carter, Clinton and Obama, winning Grammy® Awards, being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame…and so much more. I still get surprised when I look in the audience at my shows and see all these young people, whole new generations, and they want to hear these songs and what I have to say. And it feels so good. I’m truly blessed.”

—Mavis Staples (in the forward of the box set),July, 2015

  

Stax/Concord Music Group will release the first-ever comprehensive, career-spanning overview of The Staple Singers, one of the most important American musical acts of the 20^th century. Due out November 13, this limited edition 4-CD box set–titled Faith and Grace: A Family Journey 1953-1976–also includes a very special bonus: the earliest known recording of the gospel, soul and R&B group, housed on a 7″ vinyl record, marking the first time that this track has been available in any format since the Staples‘ self-released edition of 500. The box set is available now to pre-order on Amazon in the following formats: Deluxe Box Set (4CD + 7″ vinyl) and digitally.

 

Housed in a deluxe, old-school “45-folio” package, the accompanying book features new liner notes by Mavis Staples, James Miller, Opal Louis Nations and compilation producer Joe McEwen, as well as rarely seen photos of the family band taken over the course of their career. 

 

The long-lost recordings embodied on the 7″ record, “Faith and Grace” and “These Are They,“ are the earliest known recordings of The Staple Singers and were made in a friend of Pops Staples‘ basement in Chicago in 1953. These have never before been commercially available in any format except the 500 or so copies the Staples pressed themselves on 78 RPM records. The box set also contains the live recording: “Medley: Too Close/I’m On My Way Home/I’m Coming Home/He’s Alright (Live).” This live performance from 1960 Clarksdale, Mississippi has never before been available in its entirety.

 

The music of the Staple Singers–best known for their 1970s hits “Respect Yourself,” “I’ll Take You There,” “If You’re Ready (Come Go with Me),” and “Let’s Do It Again“–is richly embedded into American history and culture.As James Miller writes in the liner notes:

 

“The Staple Singers are American originals. Like Elvis Presley in the fifties, they took the country gospel sounds of the Mississippi Delta and turned them into a brand new kind of music, a fusion of blues form and raw feeling that was sui generis. Like Bob Dylan in the sixties, they created their own kind of folk music, in part to hymn the progress of the civil rights movement in America. Like Sam Cooke, Curtis Mayfield and Aretha Franklin, they took the music of the black church and made that soulful sound matter to anybody with ears and an open mind in a series of exceptionally popular recordings that made them well-known to a wide audience. And afterwards, even after their belated moment of fame in the early 1970s, their principal members survived into a dignified old age, becoming venerated solo troubadours, performing vernacular American music that sounds as fresh today as it did a half-century ago…The consistency with which this family made rapturous music-as documented on this box set-becomes ever more impressive with the passage of time.”

 

Explaining The Staple Singers’ special dynamic, notes Miller, “The group had two primary leads: Pops, a tenor, and Mavis, a skinny girl with a thundering voice. When the Staples harmonized, their blend was high and keening, with Pops singing falsetto alongside his daughter Cleotha, a soprano, and Pervis, a high tenor like his dad, making them sound more like the Carter Family than a conventional black gospel group. Equally unusual was the instrumentation; instead of performing a capella or with keyboard accompaniment, the Staples featured the electric guitar playing of Pops. That’s the first thing you hear on their classic early recordings: finger-picked arpeggios, amplified in a wash of reverb and tremolo, anchoring the bottom of the sound. (‘Pop Staples and his nervous guitar,’ quipped rivals on the gospel circuit.)”

 

The box set is aptly titled Faith and Grace: A Family Journey 1953-1976 as these qualities are hallmarks of The Staple Singers. Their music remains soul-stirring and relevant–these songs bring hope in uncertain times. As always, The Staple Singers take us there.

 

Above: Box set cover art

 

Track listing:

 

Disc 1

1.    It Rained Children

2.    I Just Can’t Keep It To Myself

3.    Each Day

4.    God’s Wonderful Love

5.    If I Could Hear My Mother Pray Again

6.    I’ve Got A New Home

7.    Uncloudy Day

8.    Come On Up In Glory

9.    I Know I Got Religion

10.  Swing Down Chariot (Let Me Ride)

11.  I Had A Dream

12.  Help Me Jesus

13.  Low Is The Way

14.  This May Be The Last Time [Alternate Take]

15.  So Soon

16.  I’m So Glad

17.  Pray On

18.  Good News

19.  Downward Road

20.  Don’t Drive Me Away

 

Disc 2

1.    Will The Circle Be Unbroken

2.    Don’t Knock

3.    Medley: Too Close/I’m On My Way Home/I’m Coming Home/He’s Alright [Live]

4.    Swing Low

5.    Calling Me

6.    Stand By Me

7.    Hammer And Nails

8.    Gloryland

9.    Hear My Call, Here

10.  Nobody Knows The Trouble I’ve Seen

11.  New-Born Soul

12.  Dying Man’s Plea

13.  Great Day

14.  There Was A Star

15.  Use What You Got

16.  Let That Liar Alone

17.  I Can’t Help From Cryin’ Sometime

18.  Blowin’ In The Wind

19.  This Land Is Your Land

20.  I Know I’ve Been Changed

2.    Masters Of War

3.    What Are They Doing (In Heaven Today)

4.    Wish I Had Answered [Live At Newport]

5.    I’ll Fly Away

6.    Tell Him What You Want [Stapleton Singers]

7.    Be Careful Of The Stones You Throw

8.    Samson & Delilah

9.    As An Eagle Stirreth Her Nest

10.  Freedom Highway

11.  Why (Am I Treated So Bad)

12.  John Brown

13.  Waiting For My Child

14.  It’s Been A Change

15.  For What It’s Worth

16.  Let’s Get Together

17.  Crying In The Chapel [Mavis Staples With The Staple Singers]

18.  Long Walk To D.C.

19.  Got To Be Some Changes

20.  Slow Train

2.    The Ghetto

3.    When Will We Be Paid

4.    God Bless The Children

5.    The Challenge

6.    Brand New Day [Theme From The Motion Picture The Landlord]

7.    Heavy Makes You Happy (Sha-Na-Boom Boom)

8.    I Like The Things About You

9.    You’re Gonna Make Me Cry 

10.  Respect Yourself

11.  I’ll Take You There

12.  This World

13.  I’m Just Another Soldier

14.  Are You Sure

15.  If You’re Ready (Come Go With Me)

16.  Touch A Hand, Make A Friend

17.  Back Road Into Town

18.  Let’s Do It Again

19.  The Weight [The Band feat. Staple Singers]

20.  Respect Yourself [Demo]