The July 11 edition of Greasy Tracks featured an in-depth feature on The Sons of the Soul Revivers, including an interview with lead singer James Morgan who discussed the group’s just-released Songs We’ll Always Sing — A Tribute to The Pilgrim Jubilees (Little Village Foundation).
Click here to listen to an archive of the show, while a playlist is here.
The venerable San Francisco Bay Area gospel quartet marked its 50th anniversary on July 4. The group was formed in 1970 by elder brother Walter Morgan, Jr. as a tribute to their father, Walter, Sr. They trace their roots back to Pastoria, Ark., and their father’s first group, the Silver Four. In the early 1950s, following a move to the Bay Area, Walter, Sr. formed the True Tones and then, in the sixties, the Soul Revivers.
Joined by his brother Sidney and some cousins, Walter Jr. founded the Sons of the Soul Revivers at the age of nine.
At the age of seven, younger brother James made his debut at a local playground where he sang lead on a song by the Swan Silvertones, “We’re Going to Have a Good Time.”
As the years passed, the Vallejo-based Sons primarily performed around the Bay Area, but amassed legions of fans. They would share the stage with the likes of the Mighty Clouds of Joy, The Canton Spirituals and The Blind Boys of Alabama.
The latest edition includes Dwayne Morgan joining his brothers Walter Jr. and James, along with bassist/vocalist DaQuantae Johnson and drummer Ronnie Smith.
“We definitely used the Pilgrim Jubilees as a blueprint for how the traditional gospel quartet sound should be,” explained James Morgan. Seven of the 11 tracks on the newest release are by either Clay Graham or Major Roberson, two of the primary songwriters and vocalists in the Pilgrim Jubilees.
“We got a chance to see those guys (Jubilees) in 1977,” said Morgan “and long story short, they blew us away. When they got on the stage, they sang. They didn’t have fancy gimmicks, they didn’t have a standout tenor singer where you can showcase his vocals, like Claude Jeters (Swan Silvertones), they were just a good, old-fashioned solid group who could really sing. And I said to myself: ‘that’s the way traditional gospel quartet should be.’”