Sunday, October 01, 2006

Checker Gospel Soul!

The Soul Stirrers - Slow Train

When SAR Records closed up shop after the death of Sam Cooke, and after lead singer Jimmy Outler moved on to try his hand at an unsuccessful secular career, the Soul Stirrers moved on to Chess Records and signed up Clefs of Calvary singer James Phelps as their new lead. Phelps didn't stick around very long - by 1965 Phelps was hitting on the R&B charts with "Love Is a Five-Letter Word (Money)" and recording great soul stuff like "La De Da (I'm a Fool in Love)". I'm not sure off hand who replaced Phelps at that point, but the group soldiered on and released fine gospel records for the Checker label.

Today's selection was a cover of the William Bell-Booker T. Jones composition that had been a highlight of the Staple Singers' first Stax LP, Soul Folk In Action. "Slow Train" is a soulful meditatation, and the Stirrers provide very solid singing on the choruses while the lead gives the "People Get Ready"-styled lyrics a great reading.

2 comments:

Raggedy said...

What a beautiful song! And, without any doubt, the lyrics may be helpful to remember in certain life situations.
Sometimes all we can do is to be patient and wait for our life's train to pick up speed.

Thanks

Inge

selectormarx said...

Delicious!!!!
Thanks hermano!