Reviewed by Steven Whitehead

The place of the Staples Singers in the pantheon of the all-time Gospel Greats is assured so although this reviewer is less than convinced by this particular release it must be read in the context of a long and illustrious career. 'Great Day' offers a useful round-up of the Staples Singers' time on the Riverside label during the early 1960s and was originally released as three separate titles: 'Hammer And Nails', 'This Land' and 'This Little Light'. All tracks are digitally re-mastered with a more than acceptable audio quality and the booklet includes liner notes by Stanley Crouch. Present and correct, in various combinations, are: Roebuck "Pops" Staple with some of his children, namely Cleotha, Mavis, Pervis and Yvonne, backed by Johnny Pate (acoustic bass), Phil Upchurch (electric bass), Gus Johnson, Joseph "Kaiser" Marshall, Al Duncan (drums); Pops and Mavis sharing the lead vocals throughout. This collection find the Staples at a time of transition as they moved out of the old-time gospel circuit (with examples such as "Gloryland" and "Swing Down, Chariot" included here) towards the Civil Rights movement, with the closing song, Bob Dylan's "Masters Of War", pointing towards the next phase in their career. If you have any other Staples Singers compilations the chances are you will have the best bits from this one and if you are new to them this is not really the best place to start (and there are plenty of other reviews on this website to point you in the right direction). However, if you are ready to expand your collection then this is a significant re-issue or, as we said above, a triple re-issue when re remember how brief vinyl albums were: 27 songs spread over 78 minutes shows one clear advantage of CD over vinyl! "Will the Lord Remember Me?" they ask on one track. We can only leave that one to the Lord to answer but lovers of gospel singing will never forget the Staples Singers.

The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those held by Cross Rhythms. Any expressed views were accurate at the time of publishing but may or may not reflect the views of the individuals concerned at a later date.

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