As I mentioned a couple of posts down the line, my wife, my parents, and I went to the Silver Star Convention center Thursday night to watch the Blind Boys of Alabama and Mavis Staples. We arrived about thirty minutes early, just enough time for my wife to take a picture of herself before we all went in and sat in our great twelfth-row seats (thanks, June!). After chit-chatting for a little while, the lights dimmed and someone walked to the stage in a Silver Star vest and jumpsuit to tell us in his ridiculous announcer voice that we were, indeed at the Silver Star. I'm sure someone was wondering.
Woo, buddy! Now, that was a concert; that was a show. If we'd had have to have left then, I would have been fine; fortunately, we still had one show to go. After a thirty-minute intermission, Mavis Staples and her band entered the stage. She introduced herself, said she was finally glad to be back home, joked about this being the first time she'd ever been to the...(deliberate pause on her part) Convention Center, and the band began playing "Eye on the Prize," a song from her fantastic 2007 album We'll Never Turn Back. After that one, she and her band launched into "For What It's Worth," the old Buffalo Springfield song (the one with "Stop children/What's that sound/Everyone look/What's goin' down" in the chorus) that the Staple Singers once recorded. Both songs were good, sung and performed well, but something seemed to be missing. The energy that the Blind Boys brought just wasn't there. Maybe it was the slower tempo of Staples' first two songs. Dunno.
The house pepped up during Staples' third song, an uptempo funk-gospel throwdown of "Wade in the Water," and many of the crowd (all of whom--except for my wife and me--were over fifty) started singing along, started moving, started clapping and throwing their hands. After she finally had the crowd fully with her, Staples slowed it down, way down, and she had everyone's rapt attention. She performed "Waiting for My Child to Come Home," a tune written and (first) recorded in 1963 by the Miami-based gospel duo the Consolers (who were the top gospel-selling act of all time when they--Sullivan Pugh and his wife, Iola--were in their prime), a song I'd heard (at least) snippits of before, but not in, oh, about twenty years. In the Encylopedia of American Gospel Music, Sullivan Pugh stated that as the Consolers "traveled, people would ask if they had seen their children," and this inspired him to write this song. Rather than ineptly summarize the story, I'll just print the lyrics:
Staples next covered the Band's song "The Weight," which the Staple Singers famously covered in The Last Waltz. Staples let her male background vocalist take the verses, and doggone if he wasn't a ringer for Pops. Sounded just like him. She and her sister Yvonne--the other backup singer--then went to the back of the stage, sat down, drank some water, fanned themselves, and patted the sweat from their foreheads as the guitarist, bassist, and drummer worked up a ten-minute instrumental take on the old spiritual "Wayfaring Stranger." The musicians were tight and talented, but I can only take so much of jamming, and I was ready for Staples to start singing again.
The Blind Boys of Alabama were then introduced (by someone else, thankfully), and they--all bedecked in their mustard-yellow suits--proceeded single-file, one arm on the shoulder of the man in front, to the stage, led by their drummer. The three members were each placed in-between their chairs and their mikes, and then Jimmy Carter--the sole founder still actively touring with the group--introduced the group himself, rousing the audience, using good-natured humor to hawk his group's CDs (which were on sale out in the lobby, carefully guarded by my good friend Mona Moore-Stribling-No-More) and remind the crowd that the Blind Boys (who've been around for sixty-nine years) have won four grammys in a row recently, and how they'd like to win their fifth for the album they released in January of this year, the Dixieland Jazz-based Down in New Orleans.
The Blind Boys then sang "Down by the Riverside" from that album. Carter and Ben Moore stood and sang (the other vocalist--and sometime drummer--Dr. Ricky McKinnie sat for the first couple of songs), with Carter shaking his arms both to the heavens and at the audience, dancing around (well, as much as he could). The audience responded in kind, singing aloud, clapping in rhythm, some dancing in their spots, some dancing in the aisles, as their entire show seemed less like a concert and more like a highly-spirited revival. The three Blind Boys kept the energy level high throughout, singing wonderful gospel-fueled renditions of '60s pop/rock hits "Spirit in the Sky" ("Is that Norman Greenbaum?" my mother asked me when the song started. "Used to be," I told her) and Percy Mayfield & the Impressions' "People Get Ready."
They sang a song folk/jam band artist Ben Harper wrote (and recorded) for them, "There Will Be a Light," and they performed their signature take of "Amazing Grace," sung to the tune of the Animals' "House of the Rising Sun." They ended their show with a fifteen-minute call-and-response version of "Free at Last," bringing the entire house to its feet...and Carter, too, as he walked out down the aisles amongst the audience (he had help, though).
Woo, buddy! Now, that was a concert; that was a show. If we'd had have to have left then, I would have been fine; fortunately, we still had one show to go. After a thirty-minute intermission, Mavis Staples and her band entered the stage. She introduced herself, said she was finally glad to be back home, joked about this being the first time she'd ever been to the...(deliberate pause on her part) Convention Center, and the band began playing "Eye on the Prize," a song from her fantastic 2007 album We'll Never Turn Back. After that one, she and her band launched into "For What It's Worth," the old Buffalo Springfield song (the one with "Stop children/What's that sound/Everyone look/What's goin' down" in the chorus) that the Staple Singers once recorded. Both songs were good, sung and performed well, but something seemed to be missing. The energy that the Blind Boys brought just wasn't there. Maybe it was the slower tempo of Staples' first two songs. Dunno. The house pepped up during Staples' third song, an uptempo funk-gospel throwdown of "Wade in the Water," and many of the crowd (all of whom--except for my wife and me--were over fifty) started singing along, started moving, started clapping and throwing their hands. After she finally had the crowd fully with her, Staples slowed it down, way down, and she had everyone's rapt attention. She performed "Waiting for My Child to Come Home," a tune written and (first) recorded in 1963 by the Miami-based gospel duo the Consolers (who were the top gospel-selling act of all time when they--Sullivan Pugh and his wife, Iola--were in their prime), a song I'd heard (at least) snippits of before, but not in, oh, about twenty years. In the Encylopedia of American Gospel Music, Sullivan Pugh stated that as the Consolers "traveled, people would ask if they had seen their children," and this inspired him to write this song. Rather than ineptly summarize the story, I'll just print the lyrics:I was talking to a lady a few days ago,
And these are the words she said.
If you see my child somewhere as you travel here and there,
Tell him I am waiting for my child to come home.
Lord my child may be somewhere in some lonely jail,
Is there someone to pay his bail?
Lord my child may be somewhere lost in sick bed,
Is there someone to rub his aching head?
I am waiting and waiting for my child to come.
I am waiting and waiting for my child to come.
If you can't come home can you please send me a letter?
A letter would mean so much to me.
If I only knew which town my child is in,
I would be there on the early morning train,
And no matter what the crime,
Lord you know this child is mine,
Lord I am waiting for my child to come home.
With only a guitar accompaniment, Staples sang the song slowly, pausing in-between verses longer than on any other versions I've (since) heard of this song. She sang it as if she were the mother asking about her child, as if she were the one in pain. She'd sing a line, and then bend down, as if she were wretching and writhing in heartbreak and misery, and the guitar player would stretch a string, mirroring the emotion. Oh, but the ache and need and desperation she conveyed. The audience surely felt it, as sniffles were audible, and I noticed many of the audience wiping their eyes. I nearly did myself.
Staples next covered the Band's song "The Weight," which the Staple Singers famously covered in The Last Waltz. Staples let her male background vocalist take the verses, and doggone if he wasn't a ringer for Pops. Sounded just like him. She and her sister Yvonne--the other backup singer--then went to the back of the stage, sat down, drank some water, fanned themselves, and patted the sweat from their foreheads as the guitarist, bassist, and drummer worked up a ten-minute instrumental take on the old spiritual "Wayfaring Stranger." The musicians were tight and talented, but I can only take so much of jamming, and I was ready for Staples to start singing again. She walked back to the mike, sang the Staple Singers' second biggest hit "Respect Yourself," and then she asked the crowd to sing to her. The band started playing "I'll Take You There," and Staples instructed the audience on when to sing. After a few rounds of this, she launched full force into her biggest hit (with her family's band), and she and the band played around with it for about ten minutes. She then walked the edge of the stage, clasped a few hands, and left. The band finished out the song, the lights came on, and people started filing out of the convention center. I wanted to go talk to the band, congratulate them on a job well done, but it was late, my family was ready to go, and I was worried about the sitter (because Georgia has been so fussy lately); so, we left.
Got home, and the sitter told us Georgia had been fine. Never fussed or cried once. Sigh of relief. Saw two great shows, the kids had been good, the kids were in bed, and it was time for me to do the same.
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