New Music 2023

Candi Staton - 1963

An acoustic coffee-house stayed soul track where Candi Staton tells what she saw Sunday, September 15, 1963 in the bloody aftermath of the 16th Street Baptist Church Bombings. That morning, four girls died, 22 were injured, riots broke out throughout the city as a result of the local Klu Klux Klan planting 19 sticks of dynamite on the steps of the church. The world was horrified at the terroristic attack on children. It galvanized the Kennedy Administration to expedite the Civil Rights legislation. Unfortunately, President Kennedy was assassinated several weeks later and President Lyndon Johnson would fulfill Kennedy's legislative goals to create equal rights and treatment for all.

This soulful soliloquy is in the vein of Curtis Mayfield's "Pusherman," The Staple Singers' "Why Am I Treated So Bad?," Marvin Gaye's "What's Going On?," or even Gil Scott-Heron's "Winter in America." Staton’s eldest sons, Marcel, and Marcus Williams, who were with her that Sunday in 1963, laid the music. Marcel played bass and Marcus (Isaac Hayes, Peabo Bryson) played drums. Myra Butler (Pop Staples, Dionne Warwick) played the keyboards, and Steve “Lfthnd” Lewis (who is known throughout the Atlanta, Georgia Jazz community for his left-handed guitar skills), added some lite strumming. Staton joined her daughter Cassandra Hightower, and Walker on the background vocals. Listeners can hear the emotion in Staton’s voice as she tells the story in the song that she recorded in a single tape. “I could only do that one time,” she says. “I was reliving it and started to cry.”

 
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