September 25, 2017

These Radiant Gospel Songs Will Lift Your Spirits

The exuberant vocals and surging rhythms of “Jesus Rocked the Jukebox.”

Various Artists

Jesus Rocked the Jukebox: Small Group Black Gospel (1951-1965)

Craft Recordings

Reckoning PR

If you want to know how James Brown, Aretha Franklin, Otis Redding and a host of other great singers first became inspired, check out Jesus Rocked the Jukebox, a two-disc, 40-track set collecting floor-shaking, window-rattling expressions of joy and praise. The exuberant vocals and surging rhythms of such vital performers as the Pilgrim Travelers, Happyland Singers, and Detroiters will elevate the spirits of the weariest listeners, regardless of one’s belief (or lack thereof). Among the radiant highlights: the Soul Stirrers’ “Jesus Gave Me Water,” starring the astoundingly charismatic Sam Cooke before he became a pop star, and the Staple Singers’ eerie “Uncloudy Day,” featuring Mavis Staples, who’s still going strong today. This isn’t a definitive gospel collection, since the Mighty Clouds of Joy and solo faves like Sister Rosetta Tharpe are absent, but it’s a guaranteed good time.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

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