PLEASE JOIN US IN SUPPORTING THESE WORKING MUSICIANS WHOSE ART AND SPIRIT CONTINUE TO UPLIFT AND SUSTAIN US.

This week “Working From Home” features a fan favorite: The Sons of The Soul Revivers. Walter, James, and Dwayne Morgan grew up singing together in San Francisco. Living now in Vallejo, Ca. their love for quartet singing continues with unrivaled technique and passion.

Note: The Morgan brothers live together and as such do not mask or observe social distancing.

100% OF ALL DONATIONS OR PURCHASES GO DIRECTLY TO THE ARTISTS.
(Together, Little Village Foundation & Arhoolie Foundation will match the first $500 donated)

Gospel music has a fundamental heart magic, a soulful joy in the positive things in life that summons a response from believers and nonbelievers alike. That joy is embodied in the music of the Sons of the Soul Revivers (Walter Jr., James, and Dwayne Morgan). The Sons have deep roots, reaching back to the Silver Four, their father’s first group back in Pastoria, Arkansas. Migrating to the Bay Area in the early fifties, Walter Sr. started a group called the True Tones, and then in the sixties, the Soul Revivers, which sang exclusively in the church. On July 4th, 1970, at the venerable age of nine, Walter Jr. gathered up his brother Sidney and some cousins and began his own gospel group. For lack of a better name, they called themselves the Sons of the Soul Revivers, and never quite got around to finding a better tag.

“We’re giving honor to a group that we grew up listening to, and unfortunately, a great portion of the group is deceased now,” explains Walter Jr. “And sometimes, gospel groups can get lost in the shuffle, forgotten about, and we decided—they have so many wonderful songs that should be carried to the next generation. So we talked with them and got permission, and so we recorded their hits. We want to spread a good message to a lost world so that people can feel better. Tommy Castro said the other day, he said he wasn’t super-religious, but that there was something about gospel music that moves you, even to tears sometimes, and that’s just the feeling you get. There’s something in gospel that soothes peoples’ minds.”

Just about everyone has been affected by the economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic. In the music world, no one knows when the box office will open again, and even as many of us return to work in the coming weeks and months, working musicians will continue to be cut off from the clubs, dancehalls, theaters, and festivals that sustain them. And the rest of us will be cut off, too, from something we need now more than ever. So we’re bringing the gigs to the artists, and the artists to you — straight from their living room to yours.

“Working from Home,” a co-production of the Arhoolie Foundation and Little Village Foundation, will feature intimate mini house concerts recorded live by traditional musicians around the country trying to make it through this current public health crisis doing what they do best. For every installment, we will provide links where you can give tips directly to the performers, and we will match the first $500 raised for each.