press release - Daptone Records

PRESS RELEASE
Contact:
For Immediate Release
Brian Coleman / Good Road
[email protected]
DAPTONE RECORDS ANNOUNCES RELEASE OF NEW GOSPEL ALBUM, FEBRUARY 5, 2013:
COMO MAMAS GET AN UNDERSTANDING
Powerful and stirring 13-song a capella release by Mississippi trio is the follow up to 2008’s Como Now
“[2008’s Como Now] is proof that, with its success, Daptone has foregone climbing the pop ladder and remembered its roots,
understanding that there’s a higher musical power depending on them.” – Paste
“It feels like home to me, it reminds me of being a little girl singing in church – stomping my feet and clapping along to the songs.
The Como Mamas’ music is at the root of everything I do as a soul singer today.” – Sharon Jones
Continuing a journey that began eight years ago, Daptone Records is proud to announce the release of The Como
Mamas’ Get An Understanding, on February 5, 2013. The new album is the follow-up to 2008’s acclaimed Daptone
gospel compilation Como Now: The Voices of Panola County, Mississippi. The Como Mamas, who have been singing
together in church since they were children, are: Ester Mae Smith and sisters Angela Taylor and Della Daniels.
Daptone Records has a track-record of bringing immensely-talented but previously lesser-known performers like Sharon
Jones, Charles Bradley and Naomi Shelton & The Gospel Queens to a wider audience, and they have clearly come upon
another revelatory vocal force in The Como Mamas. As label founder Gabriel Roth – who executive produced the album
with label co-founder Neal Sugarman – explains, “Whether you’re talking about hip-hop, country & western, blues or
Mozart, all music tries to do the same basic thing: put feeling into sound. The Como Mamas do that just about as close to
perfect as you can.”
Como Now and this latest Como-related release were both produced by sound recordist Michael Reilly, who first visited
Como, Mississippi’s Mt. Mariah Baptist Church in 2005. Although Como Now preceded it on record store shelves, the
new Get An Understanding was actually recorded earlier, in June of 2005, live at Mt. Mariah, during Reilly’s first visit.
(OVER / MORE ON NEXT PAGE)
Producer Reilly describes the Como Mamas’ humble and history-soaked home turf in the album’s liner notes: “Mt.
Mariah Church is a humble wood structure built in the early 1900s. Surrounding the small church is a cemetery in which
several of the singers’ relatives are buried. Notably, Della and Angela’s grandfather Miles Pratcher lies there, a guitar
player, songwriter, and consummate entertainer who kept the family laughing through good and bad times. He often
played music on the porch with fiddlers and other guitar players including the great Mississippi Fred McDowell. Della and
Esther remember when famed folklorist Alan Lomax visited their house in 1959 to record some of these porch sessions. It
was on this same journey through Panola County that Lomax first learned of Otha Turner and the fife and drum music,
which he would later come to consider his greatest discovery.”
On Get An Understanding, the women expand upon the vocal journey first shared with the wider world on Como Now,
where they brought the spirit to Daptone fans with “Jesus Builds A Fence Around Me,” “Send Me I’ll Go” and the
impossible-to-ignore “Trouble In My Way” (the latter also featuring vocalist Mary Moore).
Unsurprisingly, the thirteen selections on the new album are chiefly traditional, time-tested gospel hymns, with Thomas
Dorsey’s “God Is Good To Me” and Rev. James Cleveland’s beautiful “Peace of Mind” representing relatively more
modern compositional fare. From the tender opener “Old Landmark,” to the rafter-rattling “I’m Going Home To Jesus,”
the album is stirring and intense from start to finish. Listeners will find it impossible to walk away without being moved
by the album’s raw, heartfelt emotion and power, captured simply and starkly by producer Reilly in ways not so far
removed from his idol Alan Lomax, who visited Como more than a half-century ago.
As Reilly recounts in the album liners, “Della, Ester and Angela believe whole-heartedly that these songs have the power
to help and inspire people in their everyday lives. As Della put it, ‘We just want folks to listen and get an understanding.’”
Daptone’s Gabriel Roth concludes, “With all Daptone titles, we’re trying to do the same thing: create records that make
us proud, records that are soulful and real. Get An Understanding is the essence of that. We hope that listeners will take
the time and get all the way into it, because it’s worth the journey.”
Get An Understanding will be released worldwide on Daptone Records, February 5, 2013 on CD, LP and digital
platforms.
DAPTONE RECORDS is a Brooklyn, NY-based record label and analog recording studio. Founded in 2001 by musicians
Gabriel Roth and Neal Sugarman, Daptone is the premier source for today’s best funk, soul and gospel music. With its
stable of world class musicians, its trademark penchant for analog production, and a firm foundation originally built
upon sales of 45 rpm singles, Daptone is now one of the top independent record labels in the world. Daptone artists
include: Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings, Charles Bradley, The Budos Band, Menahan Street Band, Antibalas, The
Sugarman 3, Naomi Shelton & the Gospel Queens and The Como Mamas. Related Labels: Dunham and Ever-Soul.
Michael Reilly is a New York City-based sound recordist and producer. Originally from Texas, he draws inspiration from
the mid-20th Century music of the American South. He is currently producing records for both gospel and soul groups
invoking the sound and spirit of this classic musical period.
www.daptonerecords.com
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Full-artwork CDs, digital audio via download, HiRez artist and cover artwork available.