#Pops Staples

[guessimdumb]

The Staple Singers - Power of Love (1968)

Recorded as the Staples were moving to secular music, there's still a strong gospel sound backing Mavis' powerful and gritty vocals. Cool guitar by Pops, as well.

[julio-viernes]

Nick Lowe en "Different Kind of Blue", plácida, reflexiva, otra favorita de "Indoor Safari". Que clase y que estilo. La interpreta aparentemente sin esfuerzo, como si fuera Pops Staples en "The Weight". Suavemente. Es otro tipo de soul, sin malabarismos ni ímprobos esfuerzos vocales, pero con verdad, que es lo que el soul se supone debe tener.

[whatamigonnawatchtoday]

True Stories

1986. Satirical Musical Comedy

By David Byrne

Starring: David Byrne, John Goodman, Spalding Gray, Annie McEnroe, Swoosie Kurtz, Pops Staples, John Ingle, Tito Larriva, Jo Harvey Allen, Chris Frantz, Tina Weymouth, Jerry Harrison

Country: United States

Language: English

[sunset-supergirl]

Happy birthday Pops Staples

[krispyweiss]

Blind Boys of Alabama at Mershon Auditorium, Columbus, Ohio, Nov. 15, 2023

The voices change, but the Blind Boys of Alabama endure. And though the group that kicked off its tour in Columbus, Ohio, was different, one thing was the same:

Sound Bites always leaves a Blind Boys concert feeling better than he did walking in.

So it went Nov. 15, when the new-look group enthralled fans who filled about one-third of Mershon Auditorium’s 2,500 seats when they weren’t dancing and clapping to the tent-revival stylings of “Send it on Down,” from 2023’s Echoes of the South.

Between the recording and release of that album, longtime members Ben Moore and Paul Beasley died and 91-year-old Jimmy Carter, the last remaining tie to the group’s 1939 origins at the Alabama Institute for the Negro Deaf and Blind, retired. That left Rickie McKinnie, who joined in the 1980s, and sighted music director/guitarist Joey Williams to lead three new singers and their three-piece (bass, drums and keys) band through an electrifying, 16-song performance that found new member J.W. being led through the audience during “Send it on Down” and Sterling Glass testifying to his rapid recovery from recent surgery during “I'm a Soldier in the Army of the Lord,” which transformed the concert into a church service’s celebration of faith.

It’s a faith so sincere, no one could deny the Blind Boys as they sang “I Can See” from 2017’s Almost Home, the band’s last studio album with late co-founder Clarence Fountain. Perhaps the singers see differently, but they clearly see something not all folks can.

The 2023 band is relatively new - and comparatively young - but they’ve already synched up vocally and sound as if they’ve been singing together for decades. And while Fountain and Carter are missed, the 71-year-old McKinnie is well-suited to be the Blind Boys’ third leader in 84 years.

Clad in snappy red suits with bow ties, the singers were led onstage with arms on shoulders and, after taking their seats at the front of the stage, quickly lit into Ruthie Foster’s “Lord, Remember Me.”

The Blind Boys ultimately spent less time seated than the audience, standing for solos and dancing to the music.

Foster’s was one of many spiritual songs by secular artists including the Impressions’ “People Get Ready,” Tom Waits’ “Down in the Hole,” Willie Nelson’s “Uncloudy Day” and Norman Greenbaum’s “Spirit in the Sky,” whose jackhammer rhythm had McKinnie standing and turning 360 degrees in sheer mystical and musical ecstasy.

Williams, who also plays with Robert Randolph and the Family Band, traded licks with the bassist, who picked up an electric resonator for “Nobody’s Fault but Mine” and took a few solo lines at the mic on Pop Staples’ “Friendship” and Stevie Wonder’s “Heaven Help us All,” both of which are culled from Echoes.

The homestretch of the 90-minute show began with the Blind Boys’ signature mashup of “Amazing Grace” set to the melody of “House of the Rising Sun.” And when they reopened Wonder’s songbook to encore with “Higher Ground,” there wasn’t a soul - or a sole person - in the place who hadn’t ascended, at least temporarily, to another plane.

Grade card: Blind Boys of Alabama at Mershon Auditorium - 11/15/23 - A

See more photos on Sound Bites’ Facebook page.

11/16/23

[amygdalae]

I'm working on a Halloween party playlist teehee

[the-punforgiven]

Alright vampires vs werewolves has been done to death, let's do things differently

(Better can be by whatever metric you think is most important)

[otrtbs]

and furthermore pilgrimrry was just misunderstood and people didn’t get the vision like i got the vision. and i could, and do, love pilgrimrry despite the public denouncement

[xejune]

orb

[booksandpaperss]

y'all weren't kidding abt death note it rlly is Like That

[thor-is-trans-and-pan-he-told-me]

brb thinking about movies and music that kazzy kaz would like

[wifiwuxians]

birthday girrlll

[krispyweiss]

Album Review: Blind Boys of Alabama - Echoes of the South

Looking at the tracklist and hearing such songs as “Work Until My Days are Done” and “The Last Time,” it almost seems as if the Blind Boys of Alabama saw what was coming as they recorded Echoes of the South.

Two longtime members of the band - Benjamin Moore Jr. and Paul Beasley, whose falsetto features prominently on “Jesus You’ve Been Good to Me” - have since died and 91-year-old Jimmy Carter, the group’s last remaining tie to its 1944 founding, retired from touring just before the album was released.

That makes Echoes of the South - with its title in Braille on the cover - something of an ending and a new beginning as the group intends to soldier on with new members.

“Here we are, the Blind Boys of Alabama,” Carter intones as his brothers in music sing wordlessly behind him on the opening “Send it on Down.”

“You know, we’ve been around a long time. But the good news is, we’re still here.”

This album finds the Blind Boys in full gospel mode, sans guest singers and musicians, celebrating their partnership with Pop Staples’ “Friendship” and ending the LP with an apropos plea in “Heaven Help Us All.”

Echoes of the South is a fine coda to this iteration of the Blind Boys of Alabama. Already on the road with new members, the band will likely release a kind of debut album in the not-too-distant future.

“The spirit of the Blind Boys isn’t about what you can’t do; it’s about what you can do,” said singer Ricky McKinnie, who will carry on with Rev. Julius Love and the new cast. “As long as we stay true to that, as long as we sing songs that touch the heart, this group will live on forever.”

Amen.

Grade card: Blind Boys of Alabama - Echoes of the South - B

10/5/23

[pooklet]

hi pooklet. did you see they have the strawberry milkshake pop tarts in stores right now?

thank you anon!! it is so sweet of y'all to keep me informed on the status of strawberry milkshake pop tarts. it makes me smile knowing someone saw them in a store and thought of me :D

[albumpostersbycj]

Big Fish Theory by Vince Staples