Night School #231: Staple Brothers Spiritual Singers

Tonight on Night School, it is my pleasure to host one of the last surviving members of the Staple Brothers Spiritual Singers, Joe Staples. This man has remained a pillar in Albina's gospel community for over five decades. Along with his brothers Josh Staples and the late Chester Staples, the group came of age in Missisippi singing in church with their cousins the Staple Singers (yes, Mavis Staples & company). In the mid-1960s, Joe Staples left the cotton fields of Mississippi to seek a better life in Portland. As an aspiring musician, he was mentored by elders in The Portlandaires - an established gospel outfit that brought him into their group. He soon went from playing a one-string guitar fashioned with wire and a block of wood to a proper six-string. 

While developing his chops, Staples yearned to be reunited with family back home and establish their own group. This began a series of cross-country road trips to Mississippi as Staples moved his extended family out West. Many sacrifices were made during these exhaustive and uncertain drives which transpired over multiple years. Once established in Albina, the Staple Brothers would gain traction playing churches throughout the neighborhood and eventually the region. They are perhaps one of the most enduring gospel acts in the Pacific Northwest, recording and performing live to this day.