The Staples Jr. Singers are Edward, Annie, and R.C. Brown, three siblings from a small town in Mississippi called Aberdeen. When they were kids, they would pile into their family van and travel across the South, performing sometimes as many as three shows in a single day. They were influenced by what they saw around them, with the backlash after desegregation, Civil Rights, poverty and wrote music with messages of community and social justice. Back then, the South was desegregated on paper but not always in practice, and the Staples Jr. Singers weren’t always sure what kind of welcome they would receive—whether a new audience would embrace them, whether local restaurants would serve them. “All the songs we were singing about,” said Edward, “We were going through it.” Then in 1975, they made one record together. They called it When Do We Get Paid. They were just 14, 15, and 16 at the time. They sold the records themselves, at talent shows, at church, or just to their neighbors and on Edward Brown. West Point, Mississippi. October, 2023. the front lawn of their home.

In 2022, the album was reissued by Luaka Bop, to worldwide acclaim. The family, now four generations of musicians and counting, hopped back into a van and drove 17 hours to New York—only stopping for gas and short breaks—to play three shows in a day. They brought people to tears at at Baby’s All Right and The Lot Radio. In the evening, people packed into the offices of literary magazine The Paris Review, where famous actors begged them for selfies. Then, for the first time in their lives, they hopped on a plane and left the country – to play shows in Europe. They’ve now concluded four widely successful tours, including celebrated appearances at Le Guess Who? and WOMAD, and sold out shows in Germany, Sweden and Switzerland. In France, they toured from Paris to Lorient, visiting as many old churches as they could along the way. In Great Britain, they were lauded by Gilles Peterson and Craig Charles of BBC 6 Music. In Dublin, their childhood family photo was plastered on a giant billboard in the city. Admired by Four Tet and The Avalanches, they were invited to play on Moor Mother’s new album. They’re appearing in film documentaries in Sweden and Germany, and in America their work has been exhibited at the gallery GRAY in Chicago and New York, alongside Theaster Gates, Amiri Baraka, Carrie Mae
Weems, and others. After all their adventures overseas, they’ve started making new music together for the first time in 50 years. In 2024, they will share it with you and the world.