Staples Jr. Singers

The visceral honesty of the Staples Jr. Singers creates a funky gospel-soul that has the power to help us through dark and challenging times. The band broke from traditions and wrote songs that were "stone cold soul" when they were established in the 1970s.

"Full of emotions" - The Times

"Exuberant dancing down-the-aisle" - MOJO

From the beginning, the band broke with gospel norms and let their music swing with rhythmic drive. "When Do We Get Paid?" is an album from 1975, written and sung with such raw emotion that its reissue took music critics worldwide by storm.

"An essential part of gospel history" - The Vinyl Factory

The gospel group the Staples Jr. Singers is a sibling trio consisting of Edward, Annie, and R.C. Brown, hailing from Aberdeen, Mississippi. They began their singing career performing in talent competitions and on backyard stages near the Tombigbee River.

"The funk is genuinely bold, danceable, and almost 'dirty'..." - Dusted

The Staples Jr. Singers spent their youth traveling in a van through the Bible Belt. Sometimes they performed as many as three shows in a day. The Southern states were technically desegregated on paper, but the band couldn't always be sure if restaurants would serve them food. "When Do We Get Paid?" is the question the sibling trio asks as they know their parents struggle enough to provide them with food and shelter.

"So gripping that even the unbelievers will be hypnotized" - Falter

The band was influenced by what they saw around them, how desegregation and civil rights had impacted the African-American population and poverty. They wrote music with a message of unity and social justice! Edward has said about songwriting: "All the stories we wrote songs about... we went through it."

After the overwhelming response following their international tours, the band is now, finally, after 50 years, working on creating new music! To be continued... at Cosmopolite!