Shirley Caesar – Revisited (Calvin Records)

Shirley Caesar
Revisited
Calvin Records 2008

In 1967, Shirley Caesar stepped out of the Caravans lineup to release her debut solo album, I’ll Go, for Hob Records, a company founded in Detroit by salon owner Carmen Murphy and later purchased by Scepter Records. With tracks featuring the Young People’s Choir of the Institutional Church of God in Christ (the Brooklyn group rendered the first recorded version of their signature song, “Stretch Out,” on this LP), I’ll Go was an auspicious start for the Caesar-Hob partnership, which would, in ensuing years, give the world some of Caesar’s finest and most fiery recordings, including “Tear Your Kingdom Down,” “Don’t Drive Your Mama Away,” and “The Church is in Mourning.”

Mining Hob’s vaults after purchasing them, Calvin Records discovered unissued Shirley Caesar recordings from the early 1970s. Rather than simply release them as is, Calvin extracted Caesar’s vocals, scrubbed out the dust and cobwebs, and dropped them in the hands of modern producers to update the sound tastefully and appropriately. The result is Revisited, a CD packed with retro-cool psychedelia that swirls about Caesar’s customary evangelistic preaching and singing like the prodigal return of Stax-era Staple Singers, but with a sufficiently heavy bass line to entice young audiences.

The songs’ early ‘70s provenance can also be found in the language of Caesar’s sermonettes, which reflect on the end of the Vietnam War and the rise of the LSD culture. What I find most fascinating about this issue is how Pastor Caesar’s voice is just as powerful today as it was nearly forty years ago, and how the issues she sings and prays about (drugs, war, culture clashes) are still relevant.

The album’s highpoint is ironic in that it is part of a defiantly retro package but will appeal most to urban gospel enthusiasts. Timothy “sirROCDOMZ” Trudeau remixes “Soul Salvation,” a Caravans-era hit reprised time and again by Caesar. On this version, Trudeau further sharpens the edges of the First Lady’s evangelistic fervor by conjoining the vocals with DJ Promote’s free-form turntablism and a flattering rap by Max One. Ire from traditionalists aside, this technique – Calvin calls it a “cutting edge experiment” – has the potential to breathe interesting new life into other vintage gospel recordings. I have always thought that recorded sermons of top preachers, for example, hold hidden treasures for inventive samplers to mix the message with the music.

Listen for a duet with the “Queen of Gospel Quartet,” Evelyn Turrentine-Agee, on “Don’t Drive Your Mama Away.”

Two and a Half of Four Stars

Congratulations to J. Matthew Cobb of Birmingham, AL and Herman Anderson of Greenwood, MS. They both answered the bonus question correctly and received a copy of Revisited absolutely free, courtesy of Calvin Records.

The bonus question was: What does the acronym “HOB” in Hob Records stand for?

Answer: House of Beauty. House of Beauty was the name of the Detroit beauty salon owned by Hob Records founder, Carmen Caver Murphy.