The Sweet Inspirations - Soul Royalty - Women's History Month

Today I'm going to celebrate a family of soul royalty.  Some of these women were related to each other by blood, some were family in music.  They were some the biggest heavy-hitters in soul music history.  The cream of the crop in vocalists. Sadly they are probably best remembered as Elvis Presley's backup singers but they were so much more.  I'm talking about the women from "The Group" which evolved into The Sweet Inspirations. 

 
The history of this group began with a gospel group called The Drinkard Singers.  From the Drinkards came  future members of the legendary backup singers "the Group" - sisters  Dionne and Dee Dee Warwick, their cousin Emily Drinkard (Aka Cissy Houston) and Judy Clay.  These ladies joined Doris Troy in backing some of the most famous soul records of all time.  Judy Clay, Doris Troy, Dionne and Dee Dee all left for solo careers and were replaced by Sylvia Shemwell (sister of Judy Clay), Myrna Smith and Estelle Brown.


Eventually Cissy Houston, Sylvia Shemwell, Myrna Smith and Estelle Brown became The Sweet Inspirations.  Their best known record was "Sweet Inspiration".  Cissy left the group for a solo career in the late 60s and the rest of the ladies went on to record some cool sides for Stax in the early 70s.   The Sweet Inspirations performed together on and off up until 2010 when Sylvia passed away.


Confused?  I put together a little chart to simplify the history.

What is truly astounding is the sheer number of incredible records released by this force of women collectively. And though they each have their own distinct voices, they also share a similar warmth  in their delivery.  


Today I want to take some time to celebrate some of my favorite records by these ladies as a group and as solo artists.


I'm going to include just one of the back-up performances by The Group because I really want to focus on the these artists as the leading ladies they really were.  

There is no denying that the contribution of these ladies was essential in making the records they backed true classics.





This is a cool live performance of Dionne Warwick in the early days, blazing the trail of soul-pop.


I hate to go for the obvious and post Doris Troy's most famous song, but I found this cute footage and couldn't resist.



Doris went on to record for the Beatles Apple label in the early 70s. This song is a scorcher and I believe it features George Harrison on guitar.



Judy Clay is one of my favorite soul singers ever! I do love a woman with a low voice. She also had a very fascinating career which included a very controversial late 60s album of interracial love song duets with Billy Vera.

I feel a little guilty because I really could write single blog entries for each of these ladies, but I wanted to emphasize their connection to each other.

Here's an early solo record by Judy which has become a northern soul classic.



She also cut a bundle of killer tracks for Stax in the late 60s after which she returned to back-up work.


This one is a gospel inspired message song from the soundtrack for the film "Uptight"



Dee Dee Warwick has been overshadowed by her sister Dionne's super stardom. It's unfortunate because she really has one of the sweetest, warmest voices in soul. The production on this record is superb.



I just stumbled on this rare clip of Dee Dee in action! What a treat for a nerd like me!

 

This cover of the Everly Brothers classic is my favorite Sweet Inspirations recording. Chokes me up everytime.




They also have some great uptempo numbers but I can't seem to find them on-line, so instead, here's another exquisite ballad.






And now solo Cissy! 
Again, many of my favorites aren't on-line but I found a couple of good ones to share with you.







And I also LOVE this post Cissy Houston Sweet Inspirations cut.



- Post by Portland's DJ Action Slacks of Sugar Town

Sugar Town / Soul kitchen - 8/2/2002

I couldn't be happier! The first Sugar Town was beautifully well-supported by the Portland Queer community! Now we're on the brink of an equally exciting second Sugar Town on August 18th!  Thanks to DJ Pukes in Vans and everyone in the Portland community who helped to make my dream come to life!

And now we start dancing towards August!  I'm so excited to be spinning with Beyonda and Hard French's Brown Amy & Carnita!  I haven't seen the Hard French kids since the crazy time at the  Hard French Winter Ball where my brief obsession with ghosts (and Celebrity Ghost Stories) was born.  With these combined queer soul dee jay forces, August Sugar Town is bound to be a BLAST!  Maybe we'll even get to hear Casey play her coveted copy of "Blowin' Up My Mind" by the Exciters (I sure hope so!)

Carnita, Action Slacks & Brown Amy
Photo by Shot in the Dark

To tide you over, as promised, I've uploaded another vintage episode of Soul Kitchen. Let me take you back to August 2002, a unique time in which we were between 9/11 and just 8 months away from the Iraq War.  So many of us counter-culturists in Olympia, WA still believed that some how we could prevent a war if we just protest hard enough.  No luck.....Still we dreamed.  I'm proud to have been among those idealists.

And now....hear DJ Shannon "Action Slacks" dork out! BTW Apologies for the sound quality. It's an old cassette, a little muffled. You'll also get to hear me clumsily try to pronounce Spanish song titles. Good times.

Part 1 is here:
01 Soul kitchen Aug 2, 2002 by Sugar Town Action Slacks

Part 2 is here:
1-01 Soul Kitchen Aug 2, 2002 pt 2 by Sugar Town Action Slacks