Well Down Freedom Highway: The Staple Singers' 1965 Masterpiece (Pop Papers)

Well Down Freedom Highway discusses the 1965 Epic LP Freedom Highway by the Chicago-based gospel family act the Staple Singers. The Staples are best-known today for their string of hits for Stax in the ’70s. But in the early to mid 1960s, they were basically the house band for the Civil Rights movement (at the same time that they were the best-selling gospel act in the country). Recorded live at Chicago’s New Nazareth Church and dedicated to the freedom marchers in Selma, AL, Freedom Highway marks a perfect middle point between the Staples’ sepulchral yet bluesy gospel to their more straight-ahead, moralistic pop songs.