Sneak Peek at Marion Williams Documentary

Marion Williams, dubbed “one of the greatest American singers of the 20th century,” had a voice that launched a thousand others, from gospel to RnB to rock and roll. Hear an elongated “high whoo” in someone’s voice after 1950, and you can pretty much attribute it to the influnce of Marion Williams.

Searchlight Films is in the process of putting together a documentary film, Packin’ Up, on the woman who, before her death in 1994, had become a star with the Ward Singers; formed her own group, the Stars of Faith, out of members of the Ward Singers; participated in the global phenomenon Black Nativity; received a Kennedy Center honor and was named a MacArthur Fellow.

Click here and watch a snippet from the documentary-in-progress. Hear Williams render “A Charge To Keep I Have” as a line hymn and stay for her version of the spiritual “Were You There.” She’s in concert but you will think you are in church!

Photo: Shanachie Entertainment