Candi Staton
Candi Staton sings soul, pure, clear, soul, but she likes seeing some of the gospel numbers making the charts "because, really, soul music is born of gospel." And Candi Staton knows about gospel because she started singing when she was five, singing in the church with her six-year-old sister and two other little girls, standing on chairs so the congregation could see them. And then when she was ten, she started touring with the Jewel Gospel Trio, traveling around the country raising money for the old Jewel Academy and Seminary in Nashville, Tennessee.
Now, of course, Candi is singing soul on Fame Records, but the five years she spent with the Trio, and a half dozen releases on the old Nashboro label, taught her 6 lot about her own music, about what she likes -- "symphonies to jazz, everything, really" -- and about what she must sing -- "soul, because that's where I can find my own place, because it's such a personal expression, because through soul I can give of myself."
And Candi does give of herself, generously, through her music, but early in 1968 she was still singing gospel -- and playing piano in the choir at the Baptist church in Birmingham, Alabama. "Gospel...that's all I could do. I only knew one other song." But one night in February one of her three brothers insisted on taking her to the 27-28 Club in Birmingham, and Candi was called. on stage to sing. She performed her one soul number, "Do Right woman," and given a standing ovation by a packed house. "But I couldn't give an encore because I didn't know anything else"
After promising the owner that she would sing again the following week, Candi started buying albums and putting a small show together. "I finally learned about four songs and figured that would have to do." But when she returned to the club, she found she was going to appear with another act -- Clarence Carter, a singer on the Atlantic label. Candi stole the show, and Clarence asked her to join him, "but I was still going to nursing school in Nashville, and I just wasn't ready." It was nearly a year later, at the end of 1968, that Candi decided to go on the road with Carter and give up her nursing career. ("Someday, I'll finish. I like working with people; it's a good way to help.")
Shortly after Candi started touring with Clarence, he introduced her to his producer, Rick Hall of Fame Records. Rick auditioned her and immediately signed her on Fame, his own label, but for some time Candi continued touring regularly with Clarence. A few years later Candi and Clarence became man and wife and were married for several years.
"Clarence has been the single greatest influence on my career, helping me both musically and in business. He's taught me how to 'entertain' an audience, and that's why I really like working with him. You know, there's a big difference between singing in a church and doing a professional show in a club... you have to put a lot more across, the audience expects a lot more than just a song. They know about the song -- they've come to see what you can do with it They want to be entertained."
And Candi does entertain. She carefully suits her style and her material to her audience. Her third Fame single, "I'm Just a Prisoner," was for a young audience, and she is delighted by the response the record has gotten from high school kids. "You know, the kind of thing where they call the station and ask to have it played again, 'for Bobbie and Jackie'." She feels a club audience would be more responsive to her first Fame hit, "I'd Rather Be an Old Man's Sweetheart." "That's the kind of song they can identify with. You have to relate to your audience, create a feeling, a mood, with your music."
There have been other influences, too. Candi used to sing in churches with Aretha Franklin when they were both in their early teens, and she much admires Aretha's style. And while Candi was still singing with the Jewel Gospel Trio, she became close friends with Lou Rawls, then a young singer with the Pilgrim Travelers. The friendship and mutual respect from those early days continue.
Essentially, however, Candi accredits her success to the spirit of soul music itself. "It's real. Gospel, then soul, was basically born of slavery and the need for human beings to express themselves, to express pain and abuse and. joy, too. The more I personally experience, the better I can perform -it's because I can put more emotion, more truth into my singing. An audience, if it's with you at all, can't help but react to that emotion."
Feeling as intensely as she does about her music, Candi is naturally not always content with singing the lyrics written by someone else. Although she gets most of her material from Rick, her producer, she tries writing some things herself, usually when she is in the solitude and tranquillity of her home in Hanceville, Alabama, where she was born in 1945. "Usually I'm tired and it's three in the morning, and I'm sitting at the piano and not trying to think. That's when it comes, then I can write easy." The lyrics may come easy, but the melodies... "Oh, well, mine must seem to sound alike. I need a melody line, then I can put the words to that. Someday I'll get it all together."
Her first album, "I'm Just a Prisoner," may not feature any of Candi's own compositions, but it reflects her many moods and dimensions as a singer. And Candi identifies with her listeners as readily on records as she does in person.
Candi likes the satisfaction of being part of Fame, and she loves the atmosphere of the Muscle Shoals studios. "It's easy, informal, relaxed. We work hard, but it's always creative, there's a togetherness between all the people on the session -- Rick, the engineers, the Fame Gang, me...
It's productive, and it makes Muscle Shoals something really important." Muscle Shoals, the town that is not a town, the rivers and farms that you go through almost before you see them. "Besides, I love the South. It's always been my home, and I feel a part of it even when I'm on tour, much as I like to travel.
So Candi Staton, youngest girl in a family of six, daughter of a coal miner who died in 1958 and a mother who lives next door in Hanceville, and now an important new singer, lives in and loves the South, loves and lives her music, and loves living. Candi Staton, good people and good music on Fame Records.
Candi had disco hits on the Warner label in the late '70s and has done gospel work since 1982. Her weekly music show on the Trinity Broadcasting Network is "New Direction." Staton is one of the overlooked interpreters of Southern soul ballads in the Muscle Shoals sound. Serious listeners will appreciate her hoarsely coarse vocals on such sensual, sassy cuts as "That's How Strong My Love Is" and "I'd Rather Be an Old Man's Sweetheart (Than a Young One's Fool)." She brings equal passion to gospel recordings now that she's exited the secular industry.
Bill Carpenter
Chart Activity
Song Title Pop Position R&B Position Debut Date: I'd Rather Be an Old Man's Sweetheart4696/14/69 Never In Public124229/20/69 I'm Just A Prisoner56131/3/70 Sweet Feeling 60 55/9/70 Stand By Your Man2448/29/70 He Called Me Baby5291/2/71 Mr. And Mrs. Untrue109204/17/71 Too Hurt To Cry109204/17/71 In The Ghetto48126/24/72 Lovin' You Lovin' Me834011/18/72 Do It In The Name of Love63171/20/73 Something's Burningn/a837/14/73 Love Chainn/a3110/27/73 As Long As He Takes Care of Home51611/9/74 Here I Am Againn/a354/19/75 Six Nights and a Dayn/a867/12/75 Young Hearts Run Free2013/27/76 Run To Men/a269/18/76 A Dreamer of A Dreamn/a372/26/77 Nights On Broadway102166/4/77 Listen To The Musicn/a9011/26/77 Victimn/a176/17/78 Honest I Do Love You n/a7712/9/78 When You Wake up Tomorrown/a136/2/79 Looking For Loven/a426/7/80 Without You I Cryn/a785/30/81 Count On Men/a 8212/19/81 You Got The Loven/a8811/29/86
From: www.alamhof.org
