Annie & the Caldwells’ Can’t Lose My (Soul) emerges victorious—against all odds—from the dense overgrowth of history’s enigmatic wilderness. Our journey begins in the early 1970s, when gospel’s DNA, which had already shaped funk and R&B, cross-pollinated back, inspiring a new generation of gospel singers to embrace the same unapologetic, dance-worthy grooves that fueled the Staples Singers—whose gospel-funk hybrid could make you shut up, get down, and maybe even get a little spiritually minded.
Among the Staples’s disciples was a teenage group of siblings from Aberdeen, Mississippi, who called themselves the Staples Jr. Singers. Made up of Annie, A.R.C., and Edward Brown, they built a reputation for summoning fiery devotion and an undeniable groove.
They recorded just one album, When Do We Get Paid, selling it individually after shows and sometimes from their front porch. The decades passed, but the Staples Jr. Singers never stopped singing. Once she married, Annie Brown became Annie Brown Caldwell, eventually forming Annie & the Caldwells with her husband, their children, and their goddaughter. Over decades of weekend performances in and around their hometown of West Point, Mississippi, they cultivated an electrifying live presence.
Everything changed when Greg Belson, a DJ with a special interest in collecting and compiling rare gospel, soul, funk, and disco, resurrected one of those long-ago recorded Staples Singers Jr. tracks for Luaka Bop’s 2019 compilation, The Time for Peace Is Now: Gospel Music About Us. Soon after, the label reissued the entire When Do We Get Paid.
This gets us into the heart of the triumphant present, where Annie & the Caldwells’ Luaka Bop debut, Can’t Lose My (Soul), distills this winding history into six potent tracks. It blends gospel fervor with deep grooves and showcases it with only the lightest touch of production, allowing their sound’s big, righteous beast to take center stage.
The opener, “Wrong”, bursts with exuberance. Jazzy guitar spasms in time with a confident, punchy bass thump to set the stage for the real star of the show: powerhouse vocals shifting effortlessly from a gentle caress to a weighty, controlled boom—a raspy confession about infidelity that swells with a kind of groovy repentance.
“Wrong” gets our blood pumping and spirits prepped for the following title track. “Can’t Lose My Soul” is a slinky, introspective ten-minute odyssey of devotion. Introspection then leads to the ecstatic celebration with the buoyant, red-blooded funk of “I Made It”, upping the tempo a few notches while the bass holds things down with a weighty, satisfying bounce and release.
By the time we reach the closer, “Dear Lord”, the synergy is undeniable. The bass slinks and sways, the guitar shimmers, and the rhythm section keeps everything simmering below a boil. Those hard-hitting vocals never lose vigor, sometimes buckling against the seams of the recording—showing off a physicality that cannot be faked.
Can’t Lose My (Soul) was years in the making, but that extended timeline does nothing to diminish its power. If anything, it just proves Annie & the Caldwells can create an unrepentantly soul-stirring sound capable of transcending time, place, and—on occasion—even the most unshakable atheism.