Sacrifice O V WRIGHT Video Steven Bogarat

Описание: This article first appeared in Juke Blues #46 in the Spring 0f 2000, and is reprinted with the permission of the author, Ray Ellis.

PART ONE:

FROM GOSPEL TO SOUL TO GOSPEL
"When you gave O.V. Wright a song, the song belonged to him. Nobody would do it that way again. In fact, I think O.V. Wright was the greatest blues artist I've ever produced." So related Willie Mitchell in a 1987 interview discussing the people with whom he had worked and produced for Hi Records.(1) In fact, Memphis-based O.V. Wright was the quintessential gospel-based soul/blues artist whose intense, aching style was captured so perfectly by Willie on the vast majority of his recordings during a turbulent, yet woefully short career.
Overton Vertis Wright lived in the Memphis area throughout his life. Born on 19 October 1939 in the small town of Leno about 30 miles outside Memphis on the Germantown road, O.V. was brought up singing in church at the tender age of six. "My mother used to give me a quarter every time I'd get up and sing a solo," he was quoted as saying. This was at the Temple in Eads. By the age of 13, he had progressed to the Golden Leaf Missionary Church under the Reverend L.A. Hamblin from where he went on to sing lead in the Five Harmonaires, which included his older brother Edward. O.V. also sang briefly with The Spirit Of Memphis Quartet and the Highway QCs before returning to The Five Harmonaires, although it is unlikely that he recorded with any of these groups.
It was with The Sunset Travelers, who were formed in 1950 on the streets of Memphis, that O.V. subsequently joined and with whom he turned professional. On 16 May 1957, he made his debut with Sit Down And Rest A While as a test recording for the Memphis radio station WDIA. Grover Blake, baritone singer and musical director/arranger for the group, recalled meeting O.V. and introducing him to The Sunset Travelers: