The Soul Seekers: Winning Souls to Christ…and to Quartet

Individually, world-class musicians and singers Gerald Haddon, Teddy Campbell, Warryn Campbell, Nisan Stewart, John “Jubu” Smith, Charlie Bereal, Craig Brockman and Eric Seats have racked up Grammy Awards, American Music Awards, and have been nominated for Stellar and Dove Awards.

But in 2006, as contemporary quartet the Soul Seekers, the group received a Stellar Award for Quartet of the Year. “That was the year our first record came out,” Gerald Haddon recalled during a telephone conversation with TBGB. “We weren’t planning to win; it was a total shock to us when they called our name!”

Haddon hails from Detroit and a gospel singing family. “All I know is music,” he said. “My whole family is musical. My brother [Deitrick Haddon] is a recording artist. My dad [Bishop Clarence Haddon], is a recording artist, my mom is a singer. Brothers, sisters, cousins. So growing up, there was nothing but music.”

The Soul Seekers came together on a lark. Haddon explained: “Nisan Stewart had a throwback concert in 2000 where he had different artists come and do old songs. He got us together and we did a couple of songs from the Mighty Clouds of Joy and the Canton Spirituals. Afterwards, we said, ‘Man, we should keep doing this.’ And from that point the Soul Seekers was formed.”

In addition to recording its self-titled debut album, the group also appeared on other artists’ albums, including BeBe Winans’ Cherch (2006), a guest spot gained through the influence of Warryn Campbell. Campbell is a bass player, one of the Soul Seekers’ lead vocalists, and husband of Erica Atkins of Mary Mary. “Warryn has a great relationship with BeBe Winans,” Haddon said, “and so he talked to BeBe and we made it happen.”

The group has just released its second album, Soul Seekers II, which features the single, “It’s All God,” performed with another Winans family member, Pastor Marvin.

“We were working on the album and we were looking for songs,” Haddon remembered. “And the crazy part was I gave a song to the group that I thought we could do, and we sent it to Pastor Winans, because we wanted him to be featured on it. We thought we had it. But then a close friend of ours named Harold Lilly – he’s a Grammy award-winning songwriter – sent us a song, ‘It’s All God.’ When Warryn brought it to rehearsal and said, ‘Listen to what Harold gave us,’ we all said, ‘Wow! Oh my God, this is the song!’ We sent it right over to Pastor Winans, and from that point, it was done.”

Haddon described Soul Seekers II as “more grown up for us. The first record was made of songs that we had been doing from the very conception of the group. On the second record, we took our time, sat down and tried to be more grown up. Even with our look. Remember, we had jerseys on the first record. On this record, we have on tailored suits. You know, every quartet group wears suits, but I think we have more of an up-to-date look.”

Haddon feels keenly the distinction between contemporary and traditional quartet singing. “We get the ‘You all are not really quartet,’” he said ruefully. “Not all, but a lot of quartet groups don’t take us seriously. We just want to show them that we have a love for music, for quartet music, and we want to share our gift with the world. Our belief is: let’s do what we love to do, let’s write and get songs that we love to sing, and let’s give them to the world.”

Haddon elaborates: “Like with ‘It’s All God.’ It’s not really a quartet song. We don’t like to be boxed in, so when the song was brought to us, we thought this was a crazy song that the world would understand, I don’t care if you are church, I don’t care if you are R&B, I don’t care if you are country. So don’t just make it a quartet song. If this is a song that can change the world, let’s do that. That’s what groups like the Mighty Clouds of Joy did with ‘Mighty High.’ It was quartet but it was a song that went to the world. That’s what we are trying to do: sing songs that the world is going to feed off of.”

Despite, or perhaps because of, their contemporary flair, the Soul Seekers are coining new quartet fans. Haddon said, “We hear people say, ‘I never heard quartet, I don’t like quartet!’ Then they hear our music and they say, ‘Man, I heard y’all and y’all made me like quartet!’ So by us going to different venues – we’ve done Grammy concerts and things like that – we’re able to bring people who didn’t listen to quartet over to the quartet world.”

For Haddon, the formula is simple. “We’re just trying to bring music to the world and let everybody see God through us.”

For more on the Soul Seekers, visit www.thesoulseekersmusic.com.

Copyright 2010 by Bob Marovich, The Black Gospel Blog.