Staples Jr. Singers – Searching (2024) [FLAC 24bit/96kHz]

Staples Jr. Singers – Searching (2024)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 30:41 minutes | 606 MB | Genre: Soul
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Luaka Bop

It happens at times that a stone cold classic from a bygone era gets rediscovered. But how often does that rediscovery happen when the band is still around? And how often does it lead to a new album? That’s the surprising circumstance behind the Staples Jr. Singers’ long-awaited second album, Searching. You likely know the Staples Jr. Singers—the family band from Aberdeen, Mississippi—from their first and only record, 1975’s When Do We Get Paid (Luaka Bop, 2022). They made that record themselves when they were only teenagers. Finally, in a moment they’ve been waiting for most of their lives, the family is back with their sophomore album, Searching. Recorded in 2023 in West Point, Mississippi, and Nashville, Tennessee, and produced by Ahmed Gallab, aka Sinkane, the first pressing comes with a booklet of photos by Adam Wissing and notes by Anton Spice.In 2022, the esteemed New York label Luaka Bop reissued a rare 1975 document recorded in Tupelo, Mississippi called When Do We Get Paid by a family gospel group called the Staples Jr. Singers. Born and raised in nearby Aberdeen, Mississippi, the 10-sibling Brown family toured the South in the 1970s and, as a way to support themselves, pressed up a few hundred copies of When Do We Get Paid to sell out of their trunk. You probably know what happened next: In the decades since its release, collectors, stunned by the power of the recording, drove up the rarity’s price, prompting demand for a reissue. Which is to say, nearly 50 years after its release, the Staples Jr. Singers finally got paid.

The following year, empowered by the recognition and Luaka Bop’s support, the three main singers of the group, Edward, RC and Annie Brown, convened with new generations of family members to make their sophomore record. A heavy, sublimely soulful gospel album, Searching was recorded in two nights inside what release notes describe as a single-room church in West Point, Mississippi, called the Message Center. The Singers sat in a semicircle and played in the sanctuary, and the resulting resonance, both acoustically and spiritually, is obvious from the first note of the opening invocation “Living in this World Alone.” Sung by powerhouse belter Annie Brown Caldwell, it moves with the assured, if more restrained, swagger of Exile on Main St.-era Rolling Stones or Boys & Girls-era Alabama Shakes—all without once taking the Lord’s name in vain.

Featuring eight thrilling gospel songs that clock in at just over 30 minutes, Searching was produced by the New York-based Sudanese-American musician Ahmed Gallab, who records as Sinkane. For those who like their percussion loud enough to set a groove, Gallab is a great choice. Like Pops Staples’ (no relation) posthumous 2015 swan song Don’t Lose This, on Searching Gallab gives equal weight to the spirit embedded in the instrumentation and the message and delivery of the lyrics. Songs like “You Got to Believe” and “I Don’t Need Nobody But You”—both sung by Edward’s even-toned, sermon-esque voice—hit with a rhythmic bang, often tapping out a pitter-patter beat that you can hear echoing in the room. RC’s electric guitar, too, fills the room with clean, elegant lines, strums and stutter-step chords, especially on album closer “Get On Board.”

The highlight, and one of the most emotionally rich vocal deliveries you’ll hear this (or any) year, is their take on “Walk Around Heaven,” originally made famous by the Mighty Clouds of Joy. Sung by RC with his weathered—and pitch-perfect—rasp, the song ponders the sweet hereafter and a lazy, easygoing afterlife spent reuniting with departed family and hanging out. With any luck, Staples Jr. Singers will be spreading the love up there, too. – Randall Roberts

Tracklist:

1-01. Staples Jr. Singers – Living In This World Alone (03:01)
1-02. Staples Jr. Singers – Lost In a World of Sin (04:01)
1-03. Staples Jr. Singers – You Got To Believe (03:08)
1-04. Staples Jr. Singers – Walk Around Heaven (03:35)
1-05. Staples Jr. Singers – I’ve Got a Feeling (02:53)
1-06. Staples Jr. Singers – Don’t Need No Doctor (04:09)
1-07. Staples Jr. Singers – I Don’t Need Nobody But You (07:07)
1-08. Staples Jr. Singers – Get On Board (02:44)

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