The Soul Stirrers

The Soul Stirrers were a gospel band, mainly in the 1950s had a string of hits.

The band's roots can be found in 1927 in Trinity (Texas), Senior Roy Crain along with three other teenagers founded a vocal quartet. Once, one of the listeners came to an early appearance of the band at Crain and told this, as the appearance had stirred his soul (English stirred his soul ). The band was called then The Soul Stirrers.

But only a little later, the Soul Stirrers parted again and Crain took the early '30s years to Houston, where he was in New Pleasant Green Singers joined ... with the condition that renamed this in Soul Stirrers. 1936 the band did a first recording for Alan Lomax. After some line-up changes the Soul Stirrers were next to Crain still Rebert H. Harris, James Medlock, TL Bruster and Jesse Farley and the band moved to Chicago.

In the 1940s, the popularity of the band that was constantly on tour now and the end of the decade published recordings at Aladdin Records grew. Medloch left sometime in the decade the band and was replaced by Paul Foster. In early 1950 they were signed, the Soul Stirrers by Specialty Records, where she Singles By and By, I'm Still Living on Mother 's Prayer and In That Awful Hour published one after another. But at the end of the year, Harris left the band, the lead singer was a then still unknown young singer named Sam Cooke take over.

Jesus Gave Me Water in 1951 a huge hit for the band, whose popularity with Cooke's new lead voice was still growing. Bruster got out later when replacement was Bob King, the first instrumentalist of the group. 1954 joined for a short time Julius Cheeks to the band, which, however, got out again in the same year.

In 1956 Cooke also left the band and started a successful solo career. As a substitute was Johnnie Taylor. In the following years there were several line-up changes, in which also always younger members of the band joined. For this reason, the Soul Stirrers are still active today. 1989 were included in the category " Early Influences " in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. "Jesus Gave Me Water" was included in the list Wire The Wire 's " 100 Records That Set The World On Fire (While No One Was Listening ) ".