What have you done my brother?

This great little story popped up in the latest newsletter from Daptone Records. Gabe Roth had planned to "tweak the lyrics to amputate all of the religion out of them ... It wasn't out of disrespect. Just like Wilson Pickett, Ray Charles and all the rest of the great R&B singers, we figured Naomi had to change "Jesus" to "baby" in order to sell some records ..."

Didn't quite work out that way tho...



Daptone Records Co-owner/Producer, Bosco Mann, on Naomi Shelton & the Gospel Queens and the recording of this album:

Recording this record was a challenge. When Cliff and I first conceived of it, we wanted to do an album of all message songs - meaning, we wanted to do all uplifting songs, songs about righteousness, but no literal gospel. Songs about "Love", but not calling Jesus' name. Kind of like the songs the Staples Singers and Curtis Mayfield did when they crossed over. We started rolling tape in 2006.

On Cliff's recommendation, I had gone through a lot of gospel songs that we were already doing on church gigs and tweaked the lyrics to amputate all of the religion out of them. I changed "Hem of His Garment" to "If All My Money Were Love", and "Pray On My Child" to "Walk On My Child". It wasn't out of disrespect. Just like Wilson Pickett, Ray Charles and all the rest of the great R&B singers, we figured Naomi had to change "Jesus" to "baby" in order to sell some records. There was a lot of precedent for this approach to recording a "gospel-tinged" soul record. I also wrote a handful of new tunes for these first sessions like "By My Side," "Am I Asking Too Much", "Rise Up,"and "Movin'" (the latter two never made the final cut for the record.) We were still recording on the old 16 track tape machine then.

The results were mixed. That first take of "I'll Take the Long Road" (a song I'd originally intended for a reggae group) came out beautiful. It was just one of those natural studio moments that just worked, and in the end it was one of the only things from this first session to make the wax. However, most of the rest of the session was not as fruitful, we shelved it and got into some other things for a few months.

We reconvened in 2007. We had some different back up singers, another drummer, and some new songs. I believe we kept "By My Side" from that session. Not because the backing was flawless, but because Naomi slaughtered it to the point where we couldn't ask her to cut it again. Other than that, the outcome was little better than the first sessions.

Again, we shelved the project. It was better than the first sessions, but we knew that Naomi deserved a great record. It was painful for me personally, because I knew how much she and Cliff wanted to get a record out. Cliff had seemed content to release the first sessions. I didn't want to hold them back, but Neal and I agreed that the sessions hadn't yet reached their potential.

I took a lot of time after those sessions, listening to tapes and comparing the performances to Naomi and the Queens' live show. At some point I had to acknowledge that they were just putting a little more into the songs about Jesus. These were women who were sincerely in love with Jesus and you could hear it in their songs. Not that they didn't dig in to some of the other songs that I'd written - Naomi had taken some of them to heart and was really breathing life into them - but the gospel songs would have to be just that: gospel songs. Neal and I shrugged and made peace with our place as two more Jews putting out records about Jesus.

In 2008 we brought them back into the studio with a fresh approach. Some things had changed. I called in friend and local jazz drummer Brian Floody for most of the sessions and Homer Steinweiss for the rest. The Queens' line up had changed as well, bringing Cynthia Langston in to sing the top parts, leaving Edna Johnson on the bottom, and solidifying Bobbie Gant in the middle. The studio had undergone some changes as well. By that time, we had abandoned the 16 track for an 8 track Ampex machine. This meant we didn't have enough tracks for each of the musicians and singers to have their own tracks.

My first instinct was to let the background singers just gather around one mic, which would open up a couple tracks, but just before the session, I changed my mind. We gave each singer their own mic and their own track. Some of these songs were new to them and they didn't have all of the parts and blends completely worked out. I needed them on separate tracks in order to make sure we could sit them right in the mix. Because of that, we had to economize the tracks for the rhythm section.

We put the bass amp and guitar amp facing eachother and stuck one microphone in between. It actually wasn't hard to get a balance and I could control the bass pretty well with the low end of an eq. Similarly, the piano and organ were mixed together on a single track. (There were a few tunes where I screwed up the balance between the keys. "Where'd the piano go?," Cliff would ask me. I had to group mix the backgrounds, fly them to another track, and overdub an additional piano on a handful of songs. You can hear the ghostly original piano poking through on some of the tunes.)

The other major change was giving Naomi and the Queens back the original gospel lyrics. Suddenly, tunes like "What More Can I Do" and "What Is This?" started coming to life. I think we recorded on a Thursday and Friday evening and took the weekend off. That Sunday I listened to the roughs and was much happier with what we had. It just felt that the record needed one more tune, something heavy and dark to balance all of the transcendent optimism of the record. I grabbed my guitar, strummed a couple minor chords and scribbled out "What Have You Done, My Brother".

Like the other's I'd written for Naomi, it wasn't a brilliant song by any stretch of the imagination, but it had a rhythm and a message that she could really get into. She took to it right away and we cut it in couple of takes. We decided to cut A Change Is Gonna Come on that last day two. Cliff put together the backgrounds and we overdubbed them afterwards. A combination of finally having the right line-up and the right songs (with the original lyrics) made this third session a success. After a few days of voting, fighting, and a lot of splicing, through which many songs and verses met there painful end on the cutting room floor, we chopped the tapes down to what the truly essential moments. Naomi Shelton & the Gospel Queens finally had a Daptone record.

What Have You Done, My Brother? is the only record that I've ever recorded that I could sit and listen to from the moment it was finished. Most records I can't enjoy for years. Like lots of great records, It didn't sell so well. Perhaps the irony is that after all that people actually couldn't get their heads around buying a gospel record. I have no regrets about going back to the Jesus lyrics, though.

We made a deep, natural, soulful record. I think we captured what makes Naomi the most beautiful and powerful singer around. I have yet to record another record that made me as proud."