Staples Jr. Singers "When Do We Get Paid"

The Staples Jr. Singers were part of a vanguard of soul gospel artists in the 1970s that broke from tradition to testify with the groove. They found their inspiration in the secular music they heard on the radio, and wrote songs that were nothing but stone cold soul. Like many gospel groups at the time, they were a family band: The Browns from Aberdeen, Mississippi. Annie was 11, A.R.C was 12, and Edward was 13 when they got their start, building a reputation by playing school talent shows and front yards in tow. “We were so strange and we were so young,” says Edward Brown, “and a lot of people didn’t understand that.” Every weekend, they would pile into their family van and travel across the Bible Belt, performing sometimes as many as three shows in a single day. Back then, the South was desegregated on paper but not always in practice, and the Staples Jr. Singers weren’t always sure what kind of welcome they would receive—whether a new audience would embrace them, whether local re