Soul Talkin': Candi Staton
SWEET SOUTHERN SOUL by David Freeland New York, August, 2006: Famous as the heart-tugging voice behind 1976’s monster disco hit, “Young Hearts Run Free,” Candi Staton has a career that stretches all the way back to the 1950s, when the teenager performed and toured with the Jewell Gospel Trio. In the late 1960s Staton became a southern soul sensation, recording torrid songs like “Mr. and Mrs. Untrue” and “Sure as Sin” (classics of the “cheating” subgenre) as well as revved-up takes on the country hits “Stand By Your Man” and “He Called Me Baby.” But she didn’t really cross over to a pop audience until “Young Hearts,” a song based on her own experiences as a neglected wife, became a smash hit on radio and in dance clubs. For several years in the late 70s Staton rode the high life as a disco star, until alcoholism and personal problems - not to mention disco’s fall from mainstream appeal - pushed her back into the gospel field, where she remained exclusively for almost two decades. While still a devoted Christian, Staton now seeks a healthy balance between the church and blues forces that have inspired her life. Her new CD, His Hands, is her first secular release since 1999, and it’s a soulful, fulfilling work, replete with excellent songs like Charlie Rich’s “You Never Really Wanted Me” and her own “It’s Not Easy Letting Go.” The title track, written by indie rock performer Will Oldham, is a harrowing tale of spousal abuse that stands as the disc’s emotional high point. Herself the survivor of an early abusive marriage, Staton imbues her performance with chilling authority. Staton laughs easily and often, displaying the occasional flash of playful humor - especially when talking about her old cohort Rick Hall, the legendary producer behind her early 70s southern soul hits. Despite her past troubles she is healthy and happy, relaxed enough to discuss her ups and downs without hesitation. David Freeland: The new CD is a joy to hear. Candi Staton: I call them “life songs.” They’re songs in the key of life. You know, Stevie Wonder did that so well. He was talking about “Songs in the Key of Life,” and it never really dawned on me until now. These are things that we do every day; these are songs that we’ve lived and we’ve experienced. DF: There’s something that comes through on this album - in fact on everything you’ve done. There’s a moment in each performance when you surge forth, with a burst of emotion that we can feel. Is that something that just comes out of you, spontaneously? CS: It does. Things that you’ve lived in your life, you’ve had a hurt, you’ve had a problem. When you speak that line, or when you sing that line, the emotion comes with it, because you’ve been there. And even though you’re over it, and it doesn’t hurt anymore, you still have the experience. DF: One of the most personal songs on the CD is the title track, “His Hands.” CS: Will Oldham wrote the song. [Producer] Mark Nevers, who knows him, called him and said, “I would love for you to write Candi a song.” He right away said, “Okay,” ‘cause he had already watched the television program that I’ve been doing for so many years. He’s seen my testimony, he heard me talk about my life. He knows that I’ve been through all these things, multiple marriages and divorces, the abusive relationship that I’ve had, wrong choices I’ve made, and then he knew that I was now in the hands of God. It was sort of folky when I got it, but we sat there and we fooled around with it, and we finally put it into a minor key, where I could really feel it. I don’t do any songs I can’t feel. DF: There’s another song on here that blows me away, “You Never Really Wanted Me.” CS [laughs]: That was [label owner] Mark Ainley out of London, Honest Jons – it was his suggestion. I think that was one of his favorite songs. I worked with it a couple of days because it wasn’t really my style, but I made it my style. DF: There are also a couple of remarkable songs that you wrote yourself, like “It’s Not Easy Letting Go.” I think there’s a lot of truth in that song. CS: Yeah, it is. I wrote it behind my son. We went through a divorce, probably during the same time. I was kind of glad to get out of mine, but he was really taking it hard, ‘cause he was disappointed. His wife just up one day and walked out, and left him with two small children. His baby was two years old. And when he knew anything she had her own apartment and she had just moved out. He wasn’t expecting it, and it almost destroyed him. He had anxiety attacks and all kinds of stuff. So I was just sitting there looking at him one day, going through so much pain, and he couldn’t seem to get her out of his body, his system, she was just a part of him – ‘cause he took his vow seriously. He was trying to let go, and I just began to write that song: “It’s not easy letting go, when you love somebody so. The road is hard and it’s long and it’s slow.” DF: There’s a real country feel to it. I’m sure a lot of people have commented to you on the country element in your music. CS [laughing]: I was raised country. From Alabama, we had no choice. We heard country ‘fore we heard anything else. I love country. I think it’s so soothing, and I love it because it tells stories. All country musicians and singers, they tell a story. And I like stories, I like listening to stories. DF: Something else about this CD – although anyone who’s listened to your gospel work will hear this too – is just how your voice still sounds very much as it has in the past. How have you kept it in such great shape? CS: I think being in church, and all those 20 years I wasn’t involved in the nightclubs and the smoking. I wasn’t getting that secondhand smoke. DF: Were you a smoker? CS: A long time ago, when I first started singing, I was a smoker. I was drinking a lot, too. I almost lost my voice; God restored my voice when I started going back to church and singing gospel music, and going to sleep on time at night, not being up until all hours of the morning. That’ll blow anybody’s voice. That is just terrible on a singer. I don’t go out that much. I’m pretty much a homebody. I’m into my herbs, and I believe in taking care of my body. DF: I’m sure people have commented also that you look fantastic. Do you work out and exercise? CS: Yeah, I do. I walk a lot, and I think tomorrow I’m going over to Bally’s. I go over there and work out several times a week. I just got back from Europe yesterday, so I got to get my jetlag off of me first. Staton’s recent spate of performing overseas grew out of the unexpected 2004 release of much of her early soul material on a single disc for Honest Jons, a small label now making a name for itself with releases on Willie Hightower, Bettye Swann, and others. The CD garnered critical acclaim and gave listeners a chance to hear stunning performances - all recorded for Rick Hall at Fame Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama - for the first time in decades. DF: A lot of people were delighted when the Fame material was available on CD a couple of years ago. Were you surprised that it was finally coming out? CS: Yeah, ‘cause Rick [Hall], I don’t know what he did – he put it away, in a vase. I don’t know what he was waiting on. It took EMI and Capitol Records and Honest Jons to go in and somehow get those tracks. [Publicist] Bill Carpenter told me they were coming out, and I said, “I don’t see why, cause they didn’t sell the first time. What are they coming out again for?” [laughing] DF: One of my absolute favorites was “How Can I Put Out the Flame?” CS: Oh, I love that song – “When you keep the fire burning on.” I’m telling you, that is a great song. Oh my God, that is a great ballad. The compilation CD is coming out again, they’re gonna re-release it. You know Rick pulled it. DF: No, I didn’t realize that. CS: He pulled it off the market. It had sold over a hundred thousand copies in Europe. DF: So he’s still his old self. CS: Oh, he hasn’t changed. He’s just older! [laughs] Somehow they got it all worked out now, and it’ll come out again. They told me it will probably be released around September. They said with bells and whistles, so I’m waiting. While many soul connoisseurs think of Staton’s Fame tracks as her greatest - ranking them with contemporaneous work by Aretha Franklin and Wilson Pickett - it was her late 70s sides for Warner Brothers that brought her international renown. “Young Hearts Run Free” was the turning point in her career, and Staton felt its effects immediately. DF: How did it feel to all of a sudden have this huge pop success? CS: It was wonderful, cause you know, during the time that we were doing the soul-type songs, we didn’t go into really nice clubs. We couldn’t go into the Copacabana. There were very few places out in Vegas we could even work. It was basically the chitlin circuit. And when you do the chitlin circuit and you go round and round again, you have to do all these nasty, smoky... No dressing rooms, compact mirrors you got to bring yourself. You got to dress with the band. There’s no rider: If you want some alcohol or anything from the bar, you buy it. I had an opportunity to feel like a real star when “Young Hearts Run Free” came out. We were invited to nice clubs, Studio 54, we had our own dressing rooms with our names on it. It was amazing, the change that was there. I was like, “Wow, I don’t want this to go away. I want to keep doing this.” It’s so hard getting there [to clubs on the chitlin circuit]. You got to drive, and you got to do two shows, one show at 10 and another one almost at 2:00 in the morning. Your body is so tired, and then they don’t want to pay you anything. And then if they do pay you, sometimes you got to chase the promoter, just to get paid. The rest of the night, you’re chasing the promoter, trying to find him! If you didn’t get your deposit, you just made a trip for nothing. It’s a grueling kind of lifestyle, and unfortunately there are people still doing it. I was fortunate enough to have songs like “Stand By Your Man” that would take me out of that circuit. But it didn’t stay unless I could back it up. You had to cross over to be able to bring in the white audiences. If not, you were back in the chitlin circuit. DF: After “Young Hearts,” how long did that period last, when you were going to the really nice clubs? CS: As a matter of fact, I was still doing it when I got back in the church, back in ’82. I was still gong to discos. I had pretty much gotten out of the chitlin’ circuit, because “Young Hearts Run Free” was opening a lot of doors, and it still does. I didn’t have to take the band, I was doing basically gay clubs, great big disco clubs, and I had a 30 to 35 minute set, on tape – at that time it was reel-to-reel. We’d go in and give the deejays a tape and we would go 35, 40 minutes. That’s all they wanted, and they paid well. But in the end Staton felt she was becoming a casualty of the late-70s party scene, with alcohol and substance abuse a career-threatening problem. CS: It was a lot of drugs. I just got tired of the whole night life. It didn’t have any meaning to me anymore. DF: I remember your saying once that you were a party person. CS: Oh, I was. But, you know, it’s a cycle. I’d say there are seasons in everyone’s life. And you go through your summer and your spring. Then you get into your fall of your life, and then you get into winters of your life. And you know, if you do anything so long, anything gets boring. And I just got burned out. What really started me to thinking more about the church was Al Green’s record when it came out, Amazing Grace. I used to listen to his record, day and night. And I began to really desire to sing it. DF: And of course, gospel had been a part of your life from the very beginning. CS: All my life. That’s all I knew until 1969. DF: There’s one singer I’ve always wanted to ask you about, Dorothy Love Coates. CS [laughs]: Dorothy, I knew her well. Yeah, she was with the Harmonettes. And we traveled with them back in the Jewell Gospel Trio days, back in the early 50s. They were from Birmingham as well. I used to go to see them when I was a little bitty girl, and I used to love the way she sang. DF: What made you decide to begin singing secular music again? CS: Well, it’s just like I’ve come full circle. I was in secular music for about 20 years, and then I was in gospel for 22 years, and now I’m doing everything. As long as I’m singing the truth. Staton fans will soon have more to enjoy, as Shanachie Records is releasing a 2-disc retrospective of her gospel work, The Ultimate Gospel Collection. The set features invigorating dance numbers (the inspiring “Let Go and Let God”) as well as touching ballads like “Sin Doesn’t Live Here Anymore,” which indirectly speaks to Staton’s own battle with alcoholism. And, if all goes according to plan, another deep-soul recording - using the same creative team behind His Hands - is in the works. With a new round of appearances in the U.S. - including one at New York’s trendy Bowery Ballroom - Candi Staton is primed to carry her textured, honeyed voice to an entirely new generation of listeners. |
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