Black Music Sunday is a weekly series highlighting all things Black music, with over 260 stories covering performers, genres, history, and more, each featuring its own vibrant soundtrack. I hope you’ll find some familiar tunes and perhaps an introduction to something new.
This is the fifth year I’ve celebrated Mother’s Day with music here on Black Music Sunday, and over those years, readers have also contributed their favorites in the comment section below. Some of those tunes I was very familiar with, and others were new to me. Now I’m posting some of them from multiple genres.
In reviewing past reader contributions and opinions, I found that the most mentioned tune by readers wasn’t about a mom. It was Bill Withers’ “Grandma’s Hands.” Withers joined the ancestors on March 30th, 2020, and we paid tribute to him here.
His music is usually placed in the soul/R&B category, though his Songwriters Hall of Fame bio belies that narrow description, stating:
Artists that have recorded music written by Withers cover genres such as pop, jazz, country and western, classical, rhythm and blues, gospel and hip-hop.
Here he is performing “Grandma’s Hands” live in concert for the BBC on May 11, 1974:
The soul/R&B category is rich with mom tributes. The Spinners’ “Sadie” was a mainstay at every one of their concerts.
The Spinners are among the most iconic and enduring groups in the classic soul pantheon. With a towering legacy spanning over six decades, The Spinners enjoy universal appeal owing to a classic catalog of songs that have earned their place in the Great American Songbook.
The group’s classic lineup —- Henry Fambrough, Billy Henderson, Pervis Jackson, Bobbie Smith, and Philippé Wynne — epitomized The Sound of Philadelphia. Thom Bell, the architect of the group’s sound, deployed their signature harmonic blend and compelling lead vocals, to channel the highs and lows of romance and heartbreak into a catalog of classic hits.
Here they are performing “Sadie” live in concert in 1974:
When we take a listen to more contemporary soul/R&B vocal group harmony, we head back to Philly with Boyz II Men:
The story of Boyz II Men begins in Philadelphia, where Nathan Morris and Marc Nelson started singing together in high school. They later formed a group with Wanya Morris and Shawn Stockman, and together they began performing at local talent shows and events. After being discovered by New Edition’s Michael Bivins, Boyz II Men signed their first record deal and released their debut album “Cooleyhighharmony” in 1991.
“Cooleyhighharmony” was a critical and commercial success, featuring the chart-topping hit “End of the Road.” The song stayed at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart for 13 weeks, breaking the record previously held by Elvis Presley. The album went on to sell over 10 million copies worldwide, earning Boyz II Men three Grammy Awards and establishing them as one of the most promising groups in R&B.
Known primarily as a rapper, Egbert Nathaniel Dawkins III is better known by his stage name, Aloe Blacc.
Raised by Panamanian immigrants in Southern California, Blacc grew up around the sounds of salsa, merengue, and cumbia. He initially developed his own taste by throwing himself into hip-hop before trying out his soulful voice to other ends. Across three albums, his sound evolved and grew, finding a pocket that reflects the long and beautiful history of American soul with timeless, descriptive songwriting that speaks to the broad range of human experience, from platonic love to love for humanity, from politics to aspiration. Versatile and compassionate, his songwriting is classic in a way that makes categorization irrelevant; indeed, Blacc’s lyrics have been paired with dance music and country -- always to stirring effect. Aloe Blacc isn’t defined by genre.
His lyrics are both powerful and poignant.
[Verse 1]
When I was just a little boy
When I would go out to play
And I would wonder so far from home
That I would lose my way
Then I’d call on my mama to help me
And she’d come right away
To help me get back home where I wanna be
And here’s what I’d say
[Chorus 1]
Momma hold my hand
I don’t think I can cross this road by myself
Mama hold my hand
I don’t think I can cross this road by myself
[Verse 2]
And when I was a young man
I would go astray
Didn’t want nobody to hold my hand
Wanted to make my own way
And my mama would come out to help me
But I’d push her away
Cause I just wanted to be on my own
And here’s what I’d say
[Chorus 2]
Mama leave my hand
I’ve been waiting to cross this road by myself
Cross this road by myself
[Verse 3]
Well now that I’m a grown man
I done moved away
I got a house, a 9 to 5 and my wife
Got a kid on the way
Mama told me that life’s gonna get rough
Take it day by day
But every once in a while I get scared
And I wish I could say
[Chorus 1]
Momma hold my hand
I don’t think I can cross this road by myself
Mama hold my hand
I don’t think I can cross this road by myself
[Verse 4]
Now my mama is near the end of her years
And her hair is grey
Sometimes I call her to ask her
If she would like to spend the day
Mama used to be strong but she ain’t now
And she can’t make her way
That’s why I’m always around when she needs help
And here’s what I say
[Chorus 3]
Mama hold my hand
I don’t think you can cross this road by yourself
Mama hold my hand
I don’t think you can cross this road by yourself
Canadian rapper and singer Aubrey Drake Graham, known simply as “Drake,” scored a major hit with “Look What You’ve Done” in 2011, which was a song dedicated to his mom, and to his other key nurturer—his uncle.
From Biography.com:
Born Aubrey Drake Graham on October 24, 1986, in Toronto, Drake grew up with music in his blood. His father, Dennis Graham, was a drummer for the legendary rock 'n' roll star Jerry Lee Lewis. An uncle, Larry Graham, played bass for Sly and the Family Stone as well as Prince . Drake says that his mother, Sandi Graham, also hails from a "very musical" family — his grandmother babysat Aretha Franklin.
Drake comes from an eclectic and unique ethnic and religious background. His father is an African American Catholic and his mother is a white Canadian Jew. Speaking about his personal identity, Drake says: "At the end of the day, I consider myself a Black man because I'm more immersed in Black culture than any other. Being Jewish is kind of a cool twist. It makes me unique."
His lyrics confront the complexity of his relationship with his mom.
Shifting genres, New Orleans bluesman Earl King sings about the importance of a mother’s love.
Music critic Geoffrey Himes dubbed King the “Poet Laureate of New Orleans” in this story for The Bitter Southerner:
Earl Silas Johnson IV was born on Feb. 7, 1934. He wouldn’t become Earl King until 1954. He grew up in New Orleans’ Irish Channel neighborhood, an unusually integrated area. His father died when he was 18 months old, and it was only later that King learned his dad had been a blues pianist before becoming a preacher. King was raised by his mother, Ernestine Hampton Johnson, and his stepfather, Nathaniel Gaines, who made sure the youngster first learned to sing in the Antioch Baptist Church.
King first recorded “A Mother’s Love” in 1954:
Also from Louisiana was the great Clifton Chenier, known as “The King of Zydeco Music.”
Clifton Chenier, accordionist and zydeco musician widely considered the “King of Zydeco,” was born in Opelousas, Louisiana, on June 25, 1925. His father, Joseph Chenier, was a black Creole sharecropper who was an amateur accordion player. Clifton’s uncle, Maurice “Big” Chenier, was a guitarist, fiddler, and dance club owner. It was from his father that Clifton Chenier first learned the accordion, and though he grew up playing the single-row push-button diatonic accordion, it was the large piano-key chromatic model for which he would become famous.
Chenier sang a tribute to his mother in “I’m Coming Home (To See My Mother)”:
Going back in time, one of the most powerful Negro spirituals speaks to being motherless.
"Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child," first came to wide public prominence when it was performed by the Fisk Jubilee Singers in the 1870s. Audiences heard it and could not forget it. It has since been performed and recorded by countless singers and instrumentalists, from many different genres.
There are so many powerful versions of it that it’s hard to pick just one. My choice today was sung by folk singer Odetta Holmes.
Odetta was born in the ghetto of Birmingham, Alabama in 1930, at a time when it was oppressive and dangerous for an African-American family living in Jim Crow South. She experienced her first racial horrors in 1937, when after she boarded the Birmingham train to move to Los Angeles with her family, the conductor angrily yelled at her and the family, called them racial names, and forcibly pushed them to the back train cars for “Coloreds Only.”
In Los Angeles in 1944, while studying to be an opera singer, Odetta was asked to join the famed Turnabout Theater company, where she performed in many plays and musical revues for the next five years alongside Elsa Lancaster. By 1949, when opera companies in American would still not permit African American singers on their stage, Odetta joined the national road company of the Broadway musical theater show Finian's Rainbow. During the show's four-month run in San Francisco, Odetta learned to play the guitar and began singing southern plantation work songs and chain gang songs at the city's coffeehouses. By 1953, she was a headliner at prominent clubs on the West Coast, Chicago and New York and had recorded her first album Live at the Tin Angel.
In closing today, though we’ll have lots more music in the comments section, I hope you’ll explore some of my previous Mother’s Day stories:
2024: Black Music Sunday: Celebrate Mother’s Day with blues and jazz
Featured: Lead Belly, Nat King Cole, B.B. King, Sonny Stitt, Etta Jones, George Cables, and Charles Mingus
2023: Black Music Sunday: A musical tribute to many different types of moms
Featured: Dianne Reeves, Tupac, and Miriam Makeba
2022: Black Music Sunday: Celebrating our mamas, grandmas, and aunties with music
Featured: Bill Withers, Gregory Porter, Dianne Reeves, and Ben Harper
2021: A Sunday soul serenade for Mama's Day
Featured: Ray Charles, Kirk Franklin, The Spinners, The Intruders, and Earth, Wind & Fire
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Happy Mother’s Day!
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