The
Soul Stirrers provided
Sam Cooke his launching pad toward stardom, so when he started SAR in 1960, he decided to return the favor by making the gospel group the first act signed to his label. Indeed, the mere availability of
the Soul Stirrers prompted
Cooke and his partners
J.W. Alexander and S.R. Crain to form SAR, an unusual and risky move for black artists at the start of the '60s, but
the Soul Stirrers inspired that kind of passion, even if Specialty Records wound up cutting the group from its roster in 1959.
Cooke rushed
the Soul Stirrers into the studio and they cut a session in 1959 with
Sam's replacement
Johnnie Taylor, but he would soon depart for his own solo career, with the group bringing in
Jimmie Outler to sing lead.
Outler wasn't as indebted to
Cooke stylistically, but the records on
Joy in My Soul: The Complete SAR Recordings -- an ABKCO/Ace release from 2015 that marks the first-ever digital release of this material (there are also four previously unreleased cuts here) -- still bear the imprint of
Cooke, who produced a good chunk of this material and wrote many tunes to boot. Much of the similarity derives from a shared sensibility. While the harmonies may be firmly planted in the church, the production on these 33 tracks often resembles the nimbler sides
Cooke recorded for RCA, a modernity that's accentuated by
the Soul Stirrers' reliance on original material from
Cooke,
Alexander, Crain,
Outler, and
Leroy Crume. All this makes
the Soul Stirrers' SAR recordings quintessentially contemporary gospel music: it's rooted in tradition but open-hearted and open-minded. Sometimes, the group might slide into sappiness ("Heaven Is My Home"), but these slight missteps are forgiven because this attitude also gave the group the slinky "God Is Standing By," the rolling "No Need to Worry," a wildly imaginative rearrangement of "Amazing Grace," and many other lively surprises that keep this feeling fresh and alive, even when the production sometimes bears all the hallmarks of its time. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine