Reviewed by Tony Cummings

If you’re into the Staples and swoon over their Stax soul-gospel classics (the Ace compilation ‘The Best Of The Staple Singers’ is a must) this exploration of an earlier era will be a revelation. For despite the misleading Stax-era photo, this is from an altogether earlier vintage, when Pops moved his family up from Mississippi to Chicago and began recording for the legendary Vee Jay Records. It’s all here, gospel in its rawest, soulfulest, most unadorned form where Pops’ reverb-laden guitar and the occasional drummer were more than enough thanks to those spine-tingling harmonies from Mavis, Cleotha, Purvis and Pops. For my money Mavis is the ultimate soul gospel diva whose low down, gaspingly moving voice conveys a whole lifetime of emotion. Great moments here include “Uncloudy Day”, their first hit from 1956, a scintillating live version of “Too Close” and the track which Jagger and Richard “borrowed”, “This Could Be The Last Time”, but wherever you slip into this 32 song compilation you’ll find dazzling, inventive music which takes folk art up to the highest heights.