BLESSED BEATS? HOLY FUNK? THE HEALING POWER OF ANNIE AND THE CALDWELLS … AND GOD
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- 6 min read
WE DON’T DO GOSPEL much around here, what with Australia being a fairly secular place of little public singing, with a pretty white history only now realising not every sacred moment has to come with a dull hymn or a true blue bush ballad. Bless.
And it took us to the brink of the 21st century to get a proper handle on funk, a bit longer if you lived outside Melbourne.
So you can imagine the likelihood of gospel funk being spotted hereabouts is pretty low. But when we do come across it, we can get a tad excited, as anyone who watched a room light up, and dance up, with Annie And The Caldwells last year, could attest. Or more appropriately, could testify.
The brief visit of the West Point, Mississippi family band comprised of Annie Caldwell, two daughters, a goddaughter, sons and a husband left a mark here, a mark defined by joy as much as anything else. They were pretty happy too at how their blend of ‘70s and ‘80s funky soul with timeless tales of (literal) Biblical proportions.
“I had a lot of fun,” says daughter #1 and co-lead vocalist Anjessica, her mother, concurring: “I enjoyed it all. It’s joyful, real joyful. And it’s fun seeing more places.”
Now, Miss Annie, who wasn’t moving all that smoothly on the tour, told us that she was heading back home for an operation, which seems to have gone well.
“I thank God that everything did go well,” she says now. “It was a little scary at first, but like I say, that’s what I sing about, that God will answer prayer. And he did answer my prayer.”
Lest there be any doubt about, Annie adds “I can tell you this much. I get my body healed when I talk to the Lord. There’s somebody else going through worse stuff than you and I asked God to heal the others, then he turned round and healed me too.”
So I take it we can expect tap dancing on this Australian tour?
“Oh yeah, oh yeah,” says Annie enthusiastically, as Anjessica roars in laughter beside her. “I can do it now.”
Given I can still remember how to do one step I learnt decades ago when my sisters were doing dance – tap step ball change, thank you very much – I leave open the possibility of a double act with her. But Anjessica suggests “you do better coming to do that with me”, to which Annie agrees, saying “I’m a bit too slow.”
Ladies, you haven’t seen how slow, and bad, I am. But one thing that is not debatable or a joke is that for a southern family, a southern working family, a southern working family of colour, access to good health care is not a given. I wonder if the success the family have had over the past few years, internationally as well as locally, made this operation a little more likely, a little more likely to succeed. Have their lives changed, materially, in this time? Are things a little easier?
No one is suggesting Beyoncé-level fame here, but maybe some comfort.
“I wish I was on that level,” chuckles Anjessica.
Well if they were, they wouldn’t be talking to people like me anymore. But seriously, while making money isn’t the reason they make music – they’ve been doing it for decades for, literally, the love of god – it can’t hurt to be able to pay some more of the bills, to live with more confidence in their health.
“As long as we eat, we’re all right,” smiles Anjessica, artfully deflecting. “I will say I love to eat and the big difference between the US and over there is you can tell it’s more healthier. On tour we eat one time we are full all day; at home, we might eat 12 times, and I’m trying to slim down, get my figure together for the summer.”
Having been to Korea and Japan, Ireland and UK, Europe and Australia, what have they learnt about us?
“We love you all,” says Annie, to which Anjessica adds “y’all are energy. Y’all are a boost of energy, a boost of confidence, letting go and getting us. We could be going through a million things but we’d come out there with y’all feeling fearless and react to us and we appreciated that, so, so, so much. And now we’re coming again – I didn’t know [she laughs] that you love us so much!”
What have they learned about themselves in the past few years?
“That we are actually some nice human beings,” says Anjessica, cracking herself up. “We are socialising with different people, different races, different everything, and that ain’t new to mama ‘cause she got a clothing store and is used to seeing different people but I would say for me, because I’m such a family-oriented person and talk about the family, I have one or two friends, talking with different people actually makes me feel like, ok, I’m a nice person, that’s why people want to talk to me.”
Perhaps not surprisingly, Anjessica’s view of herself is supported by the matriarch of the family band.
“She’s the type of person who if she can help you, she will. And not just with family but anybody. People know they if need a helping hand, well they can go to Anjessica.”
Back to practical matters now. Although they have been on the road a lot, they have been able to write and began work on the next album late in January when they were in New York, though so far it’s only a couple of basic tracks. Are they feeling any pressure, now that there are expectations?
“It’s joyful,” says Annie. “It’s more joyful when someone can enjoy what you do besides you and it gives you joy to see somebody like that. And it gives you strength and you’re giving them strength.”
Where is the inspiration coming from now? Is it joy still?
“What’s going on now,” says Anjessica. “There is so much stuff going on: violence, confusion. We want to give people encouragement to have faith and be fearless.”
And give us, says Annie, “peace of mind”. Can we get that from them?
“The only one who can give you that is God. And with people suiciding and killing ‘round you, even a little town like this there is so much going on, people need to know that God can give it to you.”
Ok then, so the first step in convincing us of this in a song is … “focus”, says Anjessica immediately.
“Listen, don’t overthink it, don’t overdo it, just focus. And then, once we’ve got your focus and your full attention, then you feel. If you feel it, now you see what’s going on, if you are feeling the reaction now you’re thinking, now you’re stronger, then what you gonna do next?”
“I agree,” says her mother. “It will make you move when you don’t wanna move.”
Having brought us that far in a song, maybe fearless, hopefully moving, definitely joyful, is there a further role for the Caldwells or is it in our hands from then?
“Our job will forever continue, and if they want us to continue to be a part of y’all’s life then it will forever be us and y’all, and God first,” Anjessica says. “This is our purpose now until God says hey y’all did what you had to do.”
As might be clear from their presence in this and pretty much all interviews, not to mention in their live shows where the brightly adorned women lead the prayers and the dancing, in Annie And The Caldwells the men are important but they’re in supporting roles. It’s a good thing to be reminded that men don’t have to be the centre of attention all the time.
“You’re right about that, you’re right about that,” says Annie. “A lot of people are like what you’re saying: they are thinking the attention should be on them: they don’t give God the praise, they give it to themselves. I really want God to be the centre of attention, and that means if they are taking their eyes and minds off of me too and put it on the one that made us, I feel like everything will be all right. So hallelujah for that.”
Do they have advice for the rest of us on how to keep our egos in check?
“Stay low and humble,” says Annie. “Stay low and humble and let God have the glory and everything will fall in place.”
Anjessica? “I can’t answer that question because I’ve got no ego Bernard.”
She laughs. Annie laughs. We all laugh. Praise be.
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Annie And The Caldwells play:
Port Fairy Folk Festival – March 6
Womadelaide – March 8-9
Melbourne Recital Hall – March 10
Meeniyan Town Hall – March 13