Inez Andrews: Gospel Roots- Remembering The Caravans Lead Singer

Tony Cummings chronicles the important musical career of gospel singer INEZ ANDREWS.

In 1965 some pioneering promoters, encouraged by the groundswell of interest in the music of African Americans, began to fly in blues artists to tour European concert halls. As well as individual tours for bluesmen such as John Lee Hooker and Muddy Waters, batches of artists were assembled to play all over Europe in events such as Lippman & Rau’s American Folk Blues Festival. And it didn’t stop with secular bluesmen. In 1965 the Spiritual And Gospel Festival featuring among others Bishop Kelsey, Sister Leena Philips Jones and the Five Blind Boys Of Mississippi, toured Europe. In Baden Baden, Germany, SWR TV filmed this festival rather incongruously presenting it in an empty church in the Black Forest where the artists were asked to whip up Holy Spirit fervour before rows of empty pews. Some succeeded better than others, none more so than Inez Andrews And The Andrewettes. These righteous sisters’ stunning performance has just been issued as part of a DVD package, ‘Legends Of Spiritual & Gospel, Folk & Country’ on Tropical Music. As a reviewer in the Red Lick mail order catalogue recently enthused, “[Inez Andrews And The Andrewettes] get in the spirit immediately, warming the cool atmosphere with their fevered attack on holiness-filled songs like ‘What Love’.”

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